The Capacity Quadrant

  ProjectsAtWork  

Organizations need a clear picture of resource availability to confidently take on new projects and react to sudden market opportunities. Otherwise, valuable resources are wasted or misused. While there’s no silver bullet for capacity planning and resource management, there are four distinct dynamics that improve success.

Organizations often cite resource management as their most overwhelming challenge. Despite the best-laid plans, they just can’t get a handle on getting the right people available at the right time. The key questions they typically ask are:

• How do we staff all this work we’ve just approved, and what else will it impact?
• With things changing so frequently and our daily firefights daily, how can we commit resources with any level of confidence?
• How do we shift gears when priorities do change?
• What happens when projects run late, tying up our most vital resources?
• Can we really deliver on our product roadmap?

Because of this, organizations sometimes resist taking on new projects for fear of the ability to deliver. Thus they become less aggressive — and less competitive — in the marketplace. Or worse, they do the opposite and, with blinders on, take on unlimited demand, managing as if they have infinite capacity. As an analogy, consider how you treat your checkbook. If you don’t know what&…

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