Can a Project Be "On Track" and Still Losing Its Key Resource Every Day?

Applications Delivery Benefits Realization Work Breakdown Structures (WBS)

Syed Ashir Riaz

Community Champion

AI-Powered Social Media Strategist

A project can look "green" on the dashboard while its most important person is quietly getting pulled into other work.

Example: A developer shows "80% allocated" on paper, but he's the only one who knows a legacy system, so every team pulls him in for "just 10 minutes." Those small pulls add up daily, and the project slowly slips even though status stays green.

In my opinion, utilization % doesn't catch this. Simply asking "What are you being pulled into that's not on your plan?" usually reveals the real bottleneck faster than any report.

How do you catch this kind of hidden resource pull before it causes a delay?

Posted: Aug 4, 2026 10:06 AM

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Lissette Indhira Pimentel Sosa

Community Champion

Program Manager| HARPER SRL Santo Domingo / Distrito Nacional, Dominican Republic

So regular check-ins with key team members are often more effective than allocation reports alone. Those conversations help uncover unplanned work, context switching, and competing priorities that aren't reflected in project dashboards but can significantly impact delivery.

Posted: Aug 6, 2026 2:21 PM

Srikana Ray

Community Champion

Project Professional, PMP

If a team member is a subject matter expert (SME) or a senior resource with unique knowledge of a critical application or functionality, I account for that during capacity planning instead of allocating them at full project capacity.

I intentionally reserve a portion of their capacity for unplanned support, knowledge sharing, code reviews, and collaboration with other teams based on business priorities. This creates a realistic plan that acknowledges the hidden demand on their time rather than assuming they are fully available for project work.

By planning for these interruptions upfront, the resource is less likely to become overloaded, project commitments remain achievable, and the risk of schedule slippage due to invisible work is significantly reduced. Regular check-ins also help validate whether the reserved capacity is sufficient or needs to be adjusted as priorities change.
In case allocation is done by delivery manager, I collaborate with them to ensure the resource is allocated adequately as per the project need.

Posted: Aug 7, 2026 12:10 PM

Michael King

Community Champion

Senior IS Project Manager| Baycare Health Systems Clearwater, Fl, United States

I think a better practice than % allocated is actually hours required to complete your tasks. If someone is allocated at 80% but not delivering, this would be captured when their hours or Earned Values drops.

Posted: Aug 7, 2026 3:19 PM

Luis Branco CEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, Ldª Carcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal

An important perspective.
I would add one further observation.
Hidden resource pull is not only a visibility problem.
It can also reveal a deeper organizational dependency.
When critical knowledge is concentrated in one person and competing demands can continuously consume that person's capacity, the issue goes beyond utilization.
Asking about unplanned work is a valuable early signal, but the sustainable response is to make competing demand visible, establish clear priorities and progressively reduce critical knowledge dependencies. In that sense, protecting delivery is not simply about knowing where capacity is going.
It is about creating the organizational conditions that prevent scarce capability from becoming an invisible bottleneck.

Posted: Aug 8, 2026 4:57 AM

Verónica Elizabeth Pozo Ruiz RYLAI Access Control Quito, Pichincha, Ecuador

To address these situations, it's important not to allocate resources at their 100% capacity. A percentage should be reserved as a contingency for risks. Also, we have to constantly review the resource metrics to leverage utilization, reorganize tasks, avoid heavy workloads, and guarantee staff's best performance.

Posted: Aug 13, 2026 10:25 AM

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Can a Project Be "On Track" and Still Losing Its Key Resource Every Day?

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