I manage a team of around 15 people and need some ideas on managing their time and allocation. The department we all moved into has tried some SharePoint ways of assigning tasks to team members but did not have any tool like Planview of sorts for resource allocation.
If we are looking to migrate to Azure cloud pretty soon, any recommendations on how resources can be allocated, forecasted and get the option at anytime to view all resource availability at any given point of time? Appreciate any quick responses from experience. This department is willing to invest in the right tool too. TIA Saving Changes...
A team that size isn't so big that their planned time couldn't be managed using an Excel spreadsheet. Otherwise, time planning capabilities in EPM/PPM tools such as Eclipse PPM would also work but might be overkill.
The bigger challenge is to ensure that there are consistent, quality practices in place for planning people's allocation so that it doesn't become a garbage in-garbage out situation.
With just 15 people I would focus on process before tool. Effective communication is probably going to serve you best.
You could create a kanban, obeya board, or something similar with any software that you can use as a whiteboard. Those kinds of tools provide visibility of work in progress. Then prototype your workflow management process and test it for a few weeks before you get too formal. There is no point in locking down your process to fit a tool until you have worked the major bugs out of the process itself.
What you need at the basic level is visibility of what people are doing, a triage process for the incoming work, and then how you weave the new work into the existing work. Whatever tool you use should help rather than constrain you.
The routine discussions of who is busy, who has more capacity or is wrapping things up and will have capacity soon is what keeps you up to speed on what everyone is doing. After all, if you are handing someone an assignment, there is still the mental process on your end of how urgent it is, and how much workload you are adding to someone's responsibilities over time. Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
Madhu,
as my esteemed colleagues say: WHY and WHAT precede HOW. Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
We are using MS Azure DevOps right now. Is not a matter of tools. In my case along the years Theory of Constraints is the key to work with any type of resources, calling them resources from an economic point of view. Saving Changes...
For a team of 15 people, Software like Monday.com or Planview may be adequate to schedule and coordinate project tasks and resources. Other alternative could be MS Project. Saving Changes...
KIRAN JRAMPMP® LSSGB Manager-Corporate Treasury| Bank of AmericaNoida, Uttar Pradesh, India
For the team 15 people, Presently we have Excel allocation in Place and sharepoint where we assign and delegate the possible work. In my Opinion excel should be able to do the job as long you have the ready format, which you can download from the available template. You can also create quarterly or weekly allocation calendar , or daily allocation based on the master allocation sheet. Saving Changes...
