Capacity planning

The budget supply may not fully meet the demand for all the contents in a scenario. What-if analysis enables you to explore possible solutions for narrowing the gap.

Analyze capacity utilization

What-if analysis provides the Budget Remaining constraint indicator to analyze budget utilization.

Tip: To analyze the budget utilization, you can use the predefined Product Roadmap Planning View layout template, which includes the Budget Remaining indicator. Alternatively, you can include the Budget Remaining indicator in your customized layout template. For details, see Configure constraint indicators in a template.

To analyze the capacity utilization:

  1. Open a scenario's details page.

  2. At the top-right of the page, select Product Roadmap Planning View.

  3. The Budget Remaining table displays how much budget remains after being allocated to the contents in the scenario.

  4. To see the capacity and demand, click the down-arrow next to Budget Remaining.

Calculate budget remaining, capacity, and demand

  • Capacity of each period. Calculated by equally dividing the portfolio's approved budget for a specific year into 12 monthly periods or 4 quarterly periods. The period type is configured in the layout template settings. For details, see Period Type Setting.
  • Demand of each period. Calculated by summing the forecast costs of all contents within the corresponding time period.
  • Budget remaining = capacity of each period - demand of each period

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Reschedule contents

When you find budget remaining values are negative in some periods but positive in other periods, you can try shifting the start date of a content if you have no plan to increase budget capacity.

To shift the content start date:

Tip: To shift the content start date, the layout template must contain the Board View or Hierarchy Gantt View component type. You can use the predefined Product Roadmap Planning View or Strategic Planning Gantt View layout template, which includes the required component type. Alternatively, you can include the required component type in your customized layout template.

  1. Open a scenario's details page.

  2. At the top-right of the page, select a layout template that contains the Board View or Hierarchy Gantt View component type. For details, see Switch scenario layout templates.

    Contents whose time periods fall within the scenario time period are represented as a Gantt chart. The Gantt chart can be customized to display cost data for each period, providing a clear understanding of the budget demand for the contents at each time interval.

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

  3. To start work earlier, drag the Gantt of a content leftward. To postpone work, drag the Gantt rightward. The original time period is presented in a lighter shade.

  4. (Optional) When adjusting the schedule, a color change in the dependency icon indicates dependency violations. Hover over the icon to view details and make 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 shifting content start date reduces the capacity-demand gap, you can apply these changes to the portfolio.

To apply time period changes to portfolio:

  1. Open a scenario's details page.

  2. At the top-right of the page, click Apply.

  3. The Time Period Changes section in the Apply preview for scenario page displays the proposed time period changes.

  4. Review the proposed modifications and select the portfolio contents where you want to implement the new time periods.

  5. Click Apply at the top-right of the page.

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See also: