Resource Management and Utilization
Capacity, demand, and utilization
Resource management matches supply (people and their calendars) against demand (assignments and bookings). Understand resource attributes: role, skill, cost rate, calendar, target utilization, and availability. Understand demand as role-based or named, and how the fulfillment process converts generic demand into named bookings. Know the standard utilization formula: billable hours divided by available (capacity) hours, and how target versus actual utilization drives staffing decisions.
Reading the resourcing picture
Candidates should be able to interpret a utilization or capacity view: over-allocation above 100%, bench time below target, and the effect of non-billable work (internal, training, PTO) on available capacity. Understand that utilization denominators differ - some use total working hours, others exclude PTO or holidays - and that the choice changes the number materially. Understand forecasting: pipeline demand not yet booked still shapes hiring decisions.
Traps
Common distractors: using total hours instead of available hours in the denominator; treating soft bookings as consumed capacity; assuming a resource at 100% booked is 100% billable (internal work counts as booked but not billable); and ignoring calendar effects when comparing utilization across regions. Also watch for questions implying that utilization alone measures performance - realization and margin matter too.
Worked example
A consultant has 2,080 working hours a year, minus 120 PTO and 80 holidays, leaving 1,880 available. If she logs 1,504 billable hours, utilization is 1,504 ÷ 1,880 = 80%. If the target is 75%, she is above target even though 20% of her time was non-billable.