The ideal allocation of resources, even in the largest portfolios: This is the great benefit that our own algorithm Watermodel® brings to project managers. In detail, Watermodel® has a special capability on its feature list: It manages to realistically take into account the share of day-to-day business in the project teams.
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Full-time equival-… what?
The day-to-day business (or the base load) of the individual employees is almost something like the ultimate opponent of project planning: It cannot be explained away, it is actually always a nuisance, and to make matters worse, it is difficult to estimate realistically. In order to provide PMOs and project managers with a more or less tradable calculation for the share of the base load in the time available for projects, the full-time equivalent (FTE) was invented. We will not dwell on its calculation and possible uses; an example illustrates the formula: If two half-time employees have to cope with a basic load of 25%, they together have an FTE of 0.75, with which they can be planned or used in the project. And this is where the problems start for project managers, because ...
Who uses exactly 25% (or 50 or 13.87% ...) of his time for the daily business? And what if the basic load changes? This alone makes it clear: the full-time equivalent may work as a mathematical approximation, but it does not adequately reflect reality. For this, the FTE is ...
- too static
- too arbitrary
- too far removed from the day-to-day project work.
Numbers, please!
Can Do and its Watermodel® put an end to the inelegant FTE and make it possible to specify basic loads or times for day-to-day business not only as percentages, but also as concrete numbers (days, hours per month). The special feature here is that Can Do does not treat this information as a rigid constant, but simulates the work distribution of people within the limits of their work packages and independently of a period. The basic load can thus be distributed unevenly, as is the case in reality.
Conclusion: Day-to-day business? Does not bother!
Base load, the great unknown that makes planning difficult? That was once - thanks to Can Do and Watermodel®. Day-to-day business is realistically and practically taken into account in resource planning and resource allocation and can be adapted in an agile manner at any time.
In a separate knowledge article, I explain in more detail how day-to-day business is planned and tracked in the project management software Can Do and go into more detail about the calculation of the full-time equivalent. My team and I would be happy to answer all your questions about hybrid project management, resource management, our PM software Can Do and Watermodel®.
Just get in touch!
