Resource planning
How are you on time? Plan your projects with foresight. To do this, you must always keep an eye on how busy your employees are and what tasks are coming up next.
What is needed for resource planning?
You need the following for resource planning:
- Definition of work packages with planned effort and deadlines for processes, Tickets and subtasks directly in the project plan.
- Assignment of work packages to employees.
- Consideration of public holidays, holidays and absences for employee utilisation.
- Estimation of remaining effort per work package - for a precise Project time tracking.
- Definition of the project availability of each employee.
- Evaluate overview of pending tasks per employee.
- Evaluate employee utilisation in a project.
- Evaluate employee utilisation in the company to determine free capacities.
Why is resource planning so important?
Resource planning is crucial to ensure that employees are deployed efficiently and projects can be completed successfully. It allows you to optimise the use of available resources, including staff and time, and avoid bottlenecks. With good resource planning, you can increase productivity, reduce costs and improve employee satisfaction by avoiding overloads. Effective resource planning also helps to ensure that deadlines are met and the quality of work is maintained. With ZEP, also from the point of view of current Data security.
- Which employee
- From when to when
- To what extent
- Should work on a task or ticket.
The workload resulting from a work package is constantly adjusted:
- Each time a time booking is made on the work package or the process or ticket on which it is based
- Entering a residual effort estimate
- Creation of a holiday
- Approval of a leave or registration of an absence
- Adjustment of the planned effort or the duration of the work package
- Daily by reducing the time available until the end of the work package
Each adjustment also automatically has an effect on the employee's project and overall workload as well as on the displayed work package status.
- Definition of work packages with planned effort and deadlines for tasks, tickets and subtasks directly in the project plan
- Assigning work packages to employees
- Display of the target/actual workload per work package as well as the current employee workload
- Consideration of public holidays, holidays and absences for employee utilisation
- Residual effort estimate per work package
- Definition of the project availability of each employee
- Evaluate overview of pending tasks per employee
- Evaluate staff workload in a project
- Evaluate employee utilisation in the company to determine free capacities
The workload of an employee by a work package is shown in colour as follows:
- Non-critical (green): The employee's hours available during the remaining term of the work package are sufficient to perform the outstanding scope of the work package.
- Critical (yellow): The employee's hours available during the remaining term of the work package are not sufficient to perform the scope still open in the work package. The employee has a workload >100 % due to the work package, here an intervention by the project manager is required.
- Escalated (red): The duration of the work package has been exceeded, but the work package has not been reported finished. Therefore, an adjustment of the planned effort or a postponement of the work package is necessary.
- Done (grey): A finished reported work package (i.e. remaining effort 0 h) is displayed in grey. No measures are necessary.
If the employee has completed the processing of a work package, he can report the work package finished. If the employee realises that he or she will need longer to complete the work than originally planned, he or she can enter the estimated remaining workload (in hours). If several remaining workload estimates are made during the processing of a work package, they are logged and displayed.
For an employee to be able to record times on a project, they must be assigned to the project as a project employee. With simple resource planning, the availability of the employee for the project can be defined as a percentage (in addition to other parameters). This availability can also vary over time. The project availability indicates what percentage of an employee's working time is available for a project.
An employee's workload is calculated on the basis of the work packages assigned to him or her in relation to the employee's actual available working time.
The available working time is calculated from the employee's regular working hours, taking into account public holidays and weekends as well as absences and holidays.
Example: A work package has a scope of 20 h in 5 days. The employee has an availability of 5 * 8 h = 40 h in these 5 days. To complete the work package in the scheduled time, the employee must work 50 % of his available working time on the work package, the work package brings a utilisation of 50 %.
The project utilisation describes the utilisation of an employee from a project perspective. When determining the workload, the project availability of the employee is taken into account.
The total utilisation is the cross-project utilisation of an employee by all work packages assigned to him.
Example: An employee is assigned a work package that utilises 25 %, i.e. 2 h on a working day with 8 h regular working time. If he is assigned to the project at 50 %, he is available to the project for a total of 4 h/day. From the project's point of view, the work package has a workload of 50 % (project workload), but from the overall point of view only 25 % (overall workload).
Staff scheduling
Plan and document who works when and to what extent for which project
The percentage allocation of an employee to a project (project availability) can be further refined via the employee resource planning. The scope of collaboration can be specified in the time and resource plan to the day in hours or even with times. Work packages use this information.
An employee sees the existing project and resource planning in their calendar, can book times to it and can optionally be authorised to carry out or edit their own scheduling.
Evaluations and graphics at employee or project level show whether and from when an employee or the company is working to capacity or has free capacity.
Mapping the real project assignment
With scheduling, project assignments and days on site can be planned granularly and all documents in the Document management can be stored. Work packages and utilisation curves take these schedules into account and thus show the availability and utilisation of employees in detail.
Assignment of work packages
By creating work packages and assigning them to employees, concrete tasks can be assigned to an employee. In the overview of work packages or directly in the time recording screen, the employee sees the work packages assigned to him and can book time to them. The work packages serve as "favourites".
Optimise project utilisation
By consistently using work packages in a single project, tasks can be assigned to project staff, whereby both the overall availability of all project staff and the workload of individual employees can be optimised. The workload graphs make it possible to organise cross-project resource planning in such a way that your employees neither have too little to do nor are overloaded.
Overall utilisation of the company
Through the use of work packages in all projects as well as the appropriate definition of project availabilities, the workload of the employees is mapped throughout the entire company, and at the same time free capacities or overload can be recognised and counteracted.
FAQ
Can I use ZEP to plan the utilisation of my employees for projects?
Yes, resource planning in ZEP enables the precise planning of employee workloads for projects. By managing work packages, dynamically adjusting the workload and colour-coding the status (green, yellow, red), you always have an overview of efficient planning.
How do work packages work in ZEP and what information do they provide?
For your project planning, the work packages in ZEP are used to define employees, time periods and scope for tasks or tickets. They offer target/actual effort overviews, status displays and allow you to take public holidays, holidays and absences into account to ensure precise capacity utilisation.
Can I display the workload of an employee in colour using work packages?
Yes, the workload of an employee is displayed in colour: Green indicates a non-critical workload, yellow signals critical workload (>100%), red indicates escalation. Grey indicates completed work packages with no need for further action.
Can I use ZEP to view the remaining effort estimate and completion notification for work packages?
Yes, your employees can report the completion of a work package or enter the remaining workload estimate if it takes longer. This information is logged and provides insights into the work process.
How does ZEP support me with resource planning and staff scheduling?
Scheduling enables the percentage allocation of an employee to a project, while workforce scheduling enables granular planning and documentation of project assignments. Evaluations and graphics provide insights into capacity utilisation at employee or project level and help to optimise the overall capacity utilisation of your company.
FAQ What does ZEP resource planning cost?
The resource planning module is available for the ZEP Compact and ZEP Professional programmes. The price depends on the number of users per month. In our Price calculator you can clearly display your individual monthly premium.