Keep four layers separate
Capacity plans become misleading when confirmed work and optimistic pipeline occupy the same bar. Start with available capacity: working schedules minus public holidays, approved leave, and other unavailable time. Add named allocations for confirmed projects. Keep open demand as roles or skills until a person is actually assigned. Show pipeline as a scenario with an explicit confidence assumption.
These layers answer different questions. Availability asks what the team could deliver. Allocation asks what it is committed to. Open demand asks what still needs an owner. Pipeline asks what could happen if work is won.
| Layer | Record | Decision |
|---|---|---|
| Availability | Working pattern minus unavailable time | How much capacity exists? |
| Named allocation | Person, project, dates, hours or percentage | Who is committed? |
| Open demand | Role or skill, dates, effort | What still needs staffing? |
| Scenario | Weighted or selected pipeline demand | What changes if work is won? |
Plan in hours first; display percentages second
Percentages are convenient but can hide different schedules. Fifty percent of a five-day week is not the same capacity as fifty percent of a three-day week. Store the plan in hours against a calendar, then calculate allocation percentages for display.
Use one time boundary. If projects allocate weekly hours, leave and working patterns must also resolve to weeks before totals are compared. Monthly totals built from weekly allocations need a documented conversion, especially around partial weeks.
A free person is not always the right capacity
A utilization chart can show spare hours while a project remains impossible to staff. Demand should describe the role, skills, seniority, location or time-zone constraint, start window, and expected effort. Only then can planners distinguish a general capacity gap from a specific capability gap.
Avoid turning the skills list into an unmaintainable taxonomy. Record the few attributes that routinely change staffing decisions. If no manager uses a field during planning, remove it.
- Name the project outcome behind every demand request.
- Keep requested dates separate from the final allocation dates.
- Show split allocations when one person serves several projects.
- Record the reason when demand cannot be filled.
Use less detail as the horizon gets longer
The next two weeks can support named people and precise hours. The next six to twelve weeks usually needs named allocations plus open role demand. Beyond that, scenario ranges are more honest than a person-by-person schedule.
Review near-term exceptions weekly and the full plan monthly. The goal is to expose hiring, contractor, sequencing, and sales decisions early enough to act—not to keep a distant forecast cosmetically full.
Sources and scope
These guides explain operating practice, not legal, tax, employment, or accounting advice. The primary sources below support the regulatory or professional context referenced in this article.
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