Resource planning becomes much more useful when you can see not only the work your teams are already committed to, but also the work that could be coming down the pipeline. For professional services organisations, consulting businesses and other project-based teams, understanding both firm and tentative resource demand can make a significant difference to hiring, scheduling and capacity planning.
Mission Control’s Role Forecast Gantt Chart brings that information together in a familiar visual format. Instead of looking at confirmed project schedules in one place and potential resource requirements somewhere else, teams can use the Gantt Chart to build a broader picture of demand across Projects and Opportunities.
In this Feature Focus, we’ll look at what the Role Forecast Gantt Chart in Mission Control does, some of its key features, and how you can use it to improve visibility into future resource requirements.
What is the Role Forecast Gantt Chart in Mission Control?
The Mission Control Gantt Chart traditionally provides a visual representation of a Project’s Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). This includes Phases, Milestones, Actions and Checklist Items, allowing Project Managers and other stakeholders to understand how work is scheduled across the project timeline.
The Role Forecast Gantt Chart extends that capability by enabling users to switch the data displayed on the Gantt Chart from the Project WBS to Role Forecast records. Instead of seeing individual Actions and Milestones, you can see the anticipated resource requirements associated with Projects and Opportunities. This creates a visual timeline of when particular resources or roles are expected to be required.
This is particularly valuable during the resource forecasting process. Your confirmed Projects may tell you what your team is committed to delivering today, but they don’t necessarily tell you what your workload could look like several weeks or months from now. Opportunities in your sales pipeline can represent significant future resource demand, and the Role Forecast Gantt Chart helps make that potential demand visible.
On the Standalone Gantt Chart, Role Forecasts can be displayed for both Projects and Opportunities. Where a Role Forecast relates to both a Project and an Opportunity, the Project is displayed as the parent record. This enables organisations to bring different stages of their delivery pipeline together within one resource forecasting view.
The result is a more complete picture of demand. Rather than treating project scheduling and resource forecasting as completely separate activities, teams can use the Role Forecast Gantt Chart to understand how confirmed delivery commitments and potential future projects may combine to affect capacity.
Key Features of the Role Forecast Gantt Chart in Mission Control
One of the most important features of the Role Forecast Gantt Chart is the ability to choose exactly what information you want to see. Once the feature has been enabled, a source Picklist appears on the Gantt Chart that enables users to switch between different datasets.
There are four display options available: Actions, Forecasts, Both (Forecast Wins) and Both (Action Wins). The Actions option displays the traditional Project Work Breakdown Structure, including Phases, Milestones, Actions and Checklist Items. Forecasts displays the Role Forecast records instead.
The two combined options become particularly useful when looking across multiple Projects. Both (Forecast Wins) can include either Role Forecast or WBS records, but where a Project contains both, the Role Forecast records are displayed. Both (Action Wins) works in the opposite way: where both datasets exist for a Project, the WBS records are displayed.
This flexibility means that organisations don’t have to choose between an operational project schedule and a resource forecasting view for every Project. When viewing multiple Projects, some can be represented by their detailed Actions while others can be represented by their Role Forecasts. That provides a much broader picture of resource demand across projects at different stages of maturity.
Another useful feature is the ability to reschedule Role Forecasts directly from the Gantt Chart. Users can drag and drop a Role Forecast to change its date range, making it easier to adjust anticipated resource requirements as Project or Opportunity timelines change. Dependencies are not supported on Role Forecasts, so these records remain focused on forecasting resource demand rather than managing task-level scheduling relationships.
Users can also double-click an individual Role Forecast to access an Edit Modal. Depending on configuration, this can provide access to Role Forecast, Record Detail and Chatter tabs. The visibility of these tabs, as well as which tab loads by default, can be controlled using settings on the Role record.
Mission Control also provides flexibility around the information presented within the interface. Administrators can control which fields appear on the Role Forecast tab of the Edit Modal through the Role Forecast Gantt Edit Modal Field Set on the Role Forecast Object. This means organisations can configure the experience around the information their users actually need when reviewing or updating resource forecasts.
The same principle applies to the hover tooltips. When a user hovers over a Role Forecast on the Gantt Chart, the tooltip can provide useful contextual information without requiring them to open the record. Administrators can control the fields displayed here using the Role Forecast Gantt Chart Tooltip Fields Field Set.
Finally, the selected Gantt Chart source is persistent on a per-user basis. If someone regularly works with a particular view, Mission Control remembers that preference when they return to the Gantt Chart. It’s a relatively small usability feature, but one that can make the forecasting workflow much more convenient for people using it regularly.
How to use the Role Forecast Gantt Chart in Mission Control
Before users can access Role Forecast information through the Gantt Chart, the feature first needs to be enabled. This is done by setting the Enable Role Forecast Gantt Chart Setting to TRUE. Administrators can find this Setting on the Gantt Chart Tile within the Control Pad of the Mission Control Console.
Once enabled, users will see the source Picklist on the Gantt Chart. By default, this is set to Actions, which maintains the familiar Work Breakdown Structure view. Users can then switch to Forecasts whenever they want to concentrate specifically on resource demand represented by Role Forecast records.
For organisations working across a larger portfolio, the two combined options can become especially powerful. Selecting Both (Forecast Wins) or Both (Action Wins) allows the Gantt Chart to accommodate Projects that are at different stages. A Project already in delivery might have a detailed WBS, while a future engagement may currently exist primarily as Role Forecast records. Both can still contribute to the wider demand picture.
Choosing between Forecast Wins and Action Wins depends on which dataset you want to take precedence when both are available. If Role Forecasts provide the preferred view of demand, Forecast Wins allows those records to represent the Project. If the detailed delivery schedule provides the more useful picture, Action Wins allows the WBS to take precedence.
Once Role Forecasts are visible, users can review when resource demand is expected to occur and how long that requirement is expected to last. If circumstances change, they can drag and drop Role Forecasts to reschedule their date ranges. This makes the Gantt Chart useful not simply as a reporting tool, but as an interactive forecasting environment.
Double-clicking a Role Forecast provides access to the Edit Modal, allowing users to review or update additional information without moving away from the Gantt Chart. Depending on how Mission Control has been configured, users can also access the associated Record Detail and Chatter information from the same modal.
Administrators can further tailor this experience through Salesforce Field Sets. To configure the fields shown on the Role Forecast tab, navigate to Setup > Object Manager > Role Forecast > Field Sets and configure the Role Forecast Gantt Edit Modal Field Set. The Role Forecast Gantt Chart Tooltip Fields Field Set can similarly be used to determine what users see when hovering over a forecast.
Perhaps the most valuable way to use the feature, however, is at portfolio level. By displaying multiple Projects and Opportunities together, organisations can start looking beyond today’s delivery workload and understand what future demand could mean for their available capacity.
Conclusion: Bring Firm and Tentative Resource Demand Together
Resource planning becomes difficult when confirmed work and potential work are considered in isolation. Looking only at active Projects can give you a clear picture of today’s commitments, but it can leave a major gap when you’re trying to decide what your organisation will need next month, next quarter or further into the future.
The Role Forecast Gantt Chart in Mission Control helps close that gap by providing a visual way to consider firm and tentative resource demand alongside each other. Confirmed Projects can contribute their existing Work Breakdown Structures, while Projects and Opportunities can contribute Role Forecasts representing anticipated future requirements.
That broader visibility can support better conversations between project delivery, resource management, operations and sales teams. If several large Opportunities are expected to require similar skills during the same period, for example, teams can identify that potential capacity pressure before every deal becomes a confirmed Project. Equally, if demand appears likely to fall, managers have more time to decide how available capacity could be used.
By combining resource forecasting with the familiar Gantt Chart experience, Mission Control gives organisations a practical way to connect what they’re delivering today with what they may need to deliver tomorrow. The result is better visibility across the project pipeline, more informed capacity planning and a stronger foundation for making resource decisions before demand becomes a problem.
Mission Control is a comprehensive Salesforce Project Management software application. Make sure you check out our other Project Management Best Practices.
