Capacity Planning in Portfolio with dynamic Teams

[Alex Osana]

Hi! 
I manage the portfolio of a small team of 10 developers, roughly divided into 3 teams based on the technologies they specialize in (Assume A, B, C).  I am trying to work with Advanced Roadmaps to achieve a decent capacity planning (and even auto-scheduling) but I have a small problem: In every project the team is dynamic.

For instance, there can be a team with 3 people, 1 from each team (A,B,C). Other times, a project take a couple of people only from team A, and other times from A and B (you get the idea, there are all possible combinations).

As a result, separating them into teams based on specializations does not work. I thought of making a team out of each person, but it won't allow me to put two teams for a task (as far as I see).

Any suggestions on how to manage Capacity planning in such scenarios?
Much appreciated!

[Ste Wright]

Hi @Alex Osana 

I guess it depends on whether...

• Individual team members work on Projects or...
• Teams work on Projects

I feel based on the description above it's the former - which could make things difficult for you as your current "teams" aren't really teams, if they can be spliced in many different ways depending on the Project.

I think it's important to either...

• Assign work to a Team - i.e it's not one specific individual, it's that a Team is involved in Projects A, B, C, etc. That way you're not user-dependent, and Advanced Roadmaps can calculate based on a Team's overall capacity
• Create Teams based on the Projects themselves - and manage them as independent teams

Personally, I think the former works better as it will plan capacity across the Teams based on their involvement, compared to the Team's overall workload. I also think it better recognises Team changes - eg. annual leave, sick leave, resignations, etc.

Ste

[Alex Osana]

Thanks for the quick response Ste!

A lot of useful information, I will try to test your ideas, although I think It migh not give me the solution I actually need. The solution to have a new team per project sounds probaby closer to what we need. The only issue here is that a person can be in more that 1 teams and thus capacity planning may not really take this under consideration.

In any case I will try and see if any of the above works. Thanks! 

[Nataliya Vasyliv_Reliex_]

Hi @Alex Osana 
If you consider using another plugins you may try a resource planning plugin ActivityTimeline. Plugin has a Functional (Dynamic) team functionality where people is formed automatically based on either its position or skillset.

You can trial and check if this works for you. Hope it helps.

[Alex Osana]

Thanks a lot Nataliya. I was suprised to see we have it already activated, so I will give it a shot! Thanks!

[Nataliya Vasyliv_Reliex_]

@Alex Osana You're welcome! If you have any additional requirements please feel free to ask me. Glad to help!