How do you staff a project in Project Operations?

Required tools

• Work plan with roles — The plan must have roles set up before you can staff it.
• Maintained resource calendar — Vacation, part-time work, and other projects must be registered; otherwise, the capacity figures will be unrealistic.

From role to person

1. 1.See which roles the plan requires

   The work plan tells you what you need: which roles, how many hours, and during which periods. This is the project's resource requirement and the basis for all staffing.

2. 2.Reserve capacity before naming

   If the project has been sold but has not yet started, reserve capacity for the role rather than locking in a named individual. This lets the resource owner see that there is a need without tying up a specific colleague several months in advance.

3. 3.Assign named resources as the start date approaches

   Once the project is underway, the roles are replaced by people. Check their skills against the requirements, but also make sure that each person has not already been assigned to two other projects during the same period.

Keep staffing realistic

1. 4.Don't assume 100 percent billable time

   No one delivers 37.5 billable hours a week. Internal meetings, training, sales support, and administration take up a significant share. If you plan as though all working hours are billable, the project will be behind schedule from day one—even though no one has done anything wrong.

2. 5.Check for overbooking across the board

   The most common staffing mistake is that each project manager has a sound plan, while an individual consultant is allocated at 140 percent. You can only see this in the overall resource overview, not in your own project—so check it before confirming.