Resource Management and Workload Balancing
Core concepts
Resource management moves from demand to supply. Job roles describe skill; users hold roles, schedules, and cost rates; teams group users for assignment and Agile boards; resource pools are the filterable collections used by resource management tools.
The Resource Planner works from budgeted hours by job role, user, or team (depending on the planner's settings) and compares them to available hours from schedules and time off. The Workload Balancer works from planned hours on actual assignments and lets you reassign or rebalance work visually. A utilization report shows allocated versus available hours over time.
Allocation percentages, FTE values, and user schedules drive availability. Time off entered on a user's schedule reduces available hours in both tools.
Traps
- Planned hours ≠ budgeted hours ≠ allocated hours; each tool reads a different number.
- Deactivating a user removes them from planners and workload views but history stays intact.
- Resource pools and portfolios filter what a planner shows - an empty planner is often a filter problem, not a data problem.
- Assigning by job role creates role-based demand that must later be filled by a person.
Worked example
A role needs 200 hours next month. Three users hold that role at 40 available hours each (120 total). The planner shows a 80-hour gap. The answer is not "increase FTE" by default - first check whether planned hours were overestimated or whether work can be reassigned to another role before adding capacity.