Capacity planning

When the budget or resources do not fully meet demand for all items in a scenario, what-if analysis helps identify solutions to narrow the gap.

In this topic:

Analyze capacity utilization

What-if analysis provides the Budget Remaining and Resource Remaining constraint indicators to assess resource and budget utilization respectively.

To analyze capacity utilization:

1. Open a scenario's details page.

2. Select a layout template with the Budget Remaining or Resource Remaining constraint indicator.

3. Review the Budget Remaining and Resource Remaining tables to see how much budget and resources remain after being allocated to moved-in items.

4. To view a detailed breakdown of capacity and demand for budgets and resources, click the down arrow next to Budget Remaining or Resource Remaining.

Remaining, capacity, and demand calculations

The following table describes how capacity, demand, and remaining of each time period is calculated.

Constraint	Details
Budget	Capacity. Available for 25.1 and later If time period type is fiscal year, displays the total approved budget for the year. If the time period type is month or quarter, equally divides the annual approved budget into 12 or 4 periods, respectively. The period type is configured in the layout template settings. For details, see Period Type Setting. Demand. Sums the forecast costs of all moved-in items within the corresponding time period. Budget remaining = Capacity - Demand.
Resources	Capacity. Manually entered. Next to Resource Remaining, click the down arrow to expand the Capacity row and input values for each period. Demand. Sums forecast effort from staffing profiles of all moved-in items for each corresponding time period. Resource = Capacity - Demand.

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Reschedule items

If some periods show negative budget or resource remaining values but some periods show positive values, you can try shifting the start dates of some items instead of increasing the capacity.

To shift start date:

1. Open a scenario's details page.

2. Select a layout template with Board View or Hierarchy Gantt View.

   

   Items whose time periods falling within the scenario time period are displayed as Gantt charts. The Gantts can display either resource or cost data for each period, providing a clear view of the resource or budget demand for each time period. For details, see Configure widgets.

   Curved lines on the left of the Gantt indicate that items start earlier than the scenario's start period; while curved lines on the left indicate that items finish later than the scenario's end period.

3. To start an item earlier, drag the Gantt chart leftward. To postpone it to a later time, drag the Gantt chart rightward. The original time period is displayed in a lighter shade.

   If a program contains contents, rescheduling the program's start date would adjust the start dates of all its contents accordingly. Similarly, rescheduling the start dates of all its content will adjust the program's start date.

4. (Optional) When rescheduling, a color change in the dependency icon indicates a dependency violation. Hover over the icon to view the details and make the necessary adjustments. For details, see View dependencies.

5. Click Save to save the changes made to the scenario.

6. If you want to discard time period changes made to the scenario, click Restore.

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Apply time period changes to portfolio

If rescheduling reduces the capacity-demand gap, you can apply these changes to the portfolio.

To apply schedule changes to portfolio:

1. Open a scenario's details page.

2. Click Apply at the top of the page.

3. Review the proposed time period changes in the Time Period Changes area.

4. Select the portfolio contents for which you want to apply the new time periods.

5. Click Apply.

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See also:

• Strategic planning