👩‍💻 Resource management in Confluence with Gantt Chart Planner macro

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Hi everyone!  👋 

Previously, I've shared how you can plan project in Confluence with roadmap visualization. Today, I'll be diving deeper into another project management aspect: resource management.

Once you’ve laid the groundwork with the game plan, the next important step is to ensure that the right people are assigned to the right tasks within their capacity.

Resource planning is a non-negotiable cornerstone for success. You want to start your team off on the right foot with clear expectations of the effort required. That’s why it’s important to keep your project scope, timeline, and resource plan all in one place.

The Gantt Chart Planner macro is not just for visualizing tasks but also a great tool for managing resources. Continue reading to learn more.

Assess the project needs and assign resources

First, gather the project team and ensure that individuals with the right skill sets are matched with specific tasks.

You can assign tasks to Confluence users from the dropdown:

Or, if you prefer, it’s also possible to assign tasks to respective business units or collaborators who are not Confluence users. Open the resource view, and you’ll see an option to create custom resources:

Then, your teams can discuss and select the most suited individuals for the tasks based on expertise or availability. And that leads us to the next step: resource capacity planning.

Estimate capacity and allocate resources accordingly

This is the step where you’ll define the available working hours and capacity of each team member during the project duration. Planning this upfront also helps you estimate the expected completion timeline.

📆 Configure the calendar to reflect your team’s schedule

By default, the working days are set to 8 hours daily, from Monday to Friday. You can configure the calendar to reflect your business needs better.

Access the Calendar setting from the config menu. Consider factors such as vacations, holidays, and other commitments that might affect their availability.

👥  Adjust work unit (workload) based on available resources

"Units" refer to the percentage of work time allocated to a specific task. This value signifies the maximum workload your teams can handle without being overburdened.

Let’s say the research team is working on two separate projects. So their availability would be 50% for each one. They should have a maximum of 20 hours allocation weekly or 4 hours daily.

Based on this information, the app will automatically calculate the total duration of the tasks assigned to them and compare that with their acceptable workload.

Notice the resource bar will turn red if it exceeds the allocated working hours:

On the Gantt chart, you can see the “Effort” column. This value represents the hours needed to complete the task with the given resources using the formula:

Effort = Duration * Work unit

In the sample scenario, you can see the research team, at 50% capacity, will spend a maximum of 20 hours working on the Advocate task (5 days * 4 hours).

But there’s a conflicting Competitive research task scheduled at the same period, which requires them to spend up to 68 hours of work in total:

If there are no dependencies or constraints, you can reschedule the tasks to ensure the team has enough bandwidth to work on them.

Let's say you need to deliver on the exact deadline, here's how you can manually plan the resources around the delivery timeline:

Changes to the workload will instantly reflect on the resource view - from red to green bar.

Effort value is dependent on the assigned work units, so the more resources you can dedicate to the task, the more likely you’ll meet the expected completion duration.

You can take advantage of the powerful auto-scheduling feature, it’s much easier to set realistic deadlines for your project. For more details, see how to calculate duration and assignment units using effort. 

Monitor and balance the work effort

When it comes to resources, it's always better to get the necessary details upfront. So you can minimize the effort to keep the plan updated. Spotting bottlenecks? Facing team burn-out? Or adjusting deadlines? With the power of Gantt chart, you can maintain your project updates as well as plan resources in real-time, ensuring the balance across project scope, schedule, and resources.

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👉 Get your free trial from the Marketplace: Gantt Chart Planner for Confluence 

Stay tuned for more resources on project management in Confluence!