Before you begin working on a project, one of the most important questions you have to answer is: do you have the resources needed? Resource forecasting allows you to answer that question.
Resources are anything you require to deliver a successful project. This includes your team, the tools they need, office space, materials, software, equipment, money, and more.
Resource forecasting involves estimating the resources you need to deliver your project successfully. It allows you and your team to see if you have the resources they need to complete the assigned tasks in a project.
Mission Control has an in-built Resource Forecasting feature to help its users forecast their resource needs better.
Let’s see what Mission Control’s Resource Forecasting feature offers and how to make the best out of it.
What is the Resource Forecasting Feature in Mission Control?
The Resource Forecasting feature allows Mission Control customers to combine soft-booked resource requests with committed projects and holidays. It provides insight into when project managers need to onboard additional resources to handle an increased workload. The feature, in other words, gives the users a single source of truth into the actual and anticipated resource demands on the business.
Resource Forecasting feature gives project managers complete visibility of their resource needs and capacity. Before we added this feature, all insight into resource capacity was driven by the actual committed work agreed upon with a client. But now, Resource Forecasting allows customers to soft book their resources against potential work coming down the pipeline. This gives project managers deeper insight into their future forecasting demands.
Resource Forecasting comprises three main features:
- Role Forecasting: This feature allows you to soft-book resources at an Opportunity and/or Project level.
- Role Availability: With this feature, you can track how many days per week, hours per day, and billable target % values each resource will be available for during specific periods of time.
- Hours Distributor: A feature that enables you to manually control how billable and non-billable hours are distributed between the working days of an Action or Holiday.
Role Forecasting is a significant feature in Resource Forecasting. Under this feature are three core Custom Objects.
- Role Forecast: This Object stores essential information about a role, including their skills, work start and end date, billable and non-billable hours, and associated billable and cost rates.
- Role Allocation: In this Object, you’ll find the breakdown of the hours from the parent Role Forecast record, identifying how many billable and non-billable hours you have allocated to a role for each day. Role Allocations will be distributed evenly across each working day, but you can manually adjust as required. You can relate your Role Allocation records to Role Forecasts, Actions, or Holidays.
- Role Actual: This Object stores the hours from the Time Log and Holiday Objects. It shows the actual hours a resource spends on the project, enabling the project manager to compare scheduled vs. actual utilization.
How to make the most of the Resource Forecasting Feature
Get a clear idea of the resources you need for your project
The most significant way to utilize the Resource Forecasting feature is to find out the resources you need to complete the project successfully. The feature will also show any holes you might have to fill.
Filter resources by role
The Resource Forecasting feature allows you to filter your resources by role. When you do so, you’ll get a list of all the people that match the particular role you’ve defined. This makes it easy to find the relevant resources within your organization from a pool of resources.
Filter resources by skills
In addition to filtering resources by role, Resource Forecasting allows you to filter resources by skills. This makes it easier to zero in on the required talent to accomplish your goals.
Set how many hours resources should work
You can set the specific number of hours you want your resources to work and the days of the week they should work. This is especially useful when working with part-time or freelance resources.
Set billable and non-billable hours
Use the Resource Forecasting feature to set billable and non-billable hours. This will help you understand your resource utilization rate and determine whether resources are genuinely efficient and productive. Understanding your resource utilization rate also enables you to evaluate the profitability of your business.
Balance supply and demand
Use Resource Forecasting to get a proper estimate of the resources you need and then make sure that your available resources match the workload you require. This helps you avoid overbooking your resources or overspending on unnecessary resources.
Increase your resource planning efficiency
Proper resource forecasting will make your resource planning more flexible, and you can pivot as demand changes. In return, you’ll have efficient projects, leading to greater profits.
Determine a resource’s ROI
The Resource Forecasting feature allows you to compare each resource’s utilization of their billable and non-billable hours. This gives you insight into how much you spent on a resource and how much the resource brought the company so you can evaluate the return on investment.
Conclusion
Resources—especially human resources—play a crucial role in achieving successful project delivery. Human resources are expensive, so organizations cannot afford to rely on guesstimates when allocating resources to their projects. So, to stay profitable, accurate resource estimation is a prerequisite. That’s why it’s crucial for all Mission Control users to utilize our efficient Resource Forecasting feature.
Contact us today to learn more about Mission Control’s Resource Forecasting feature and how it can help you plan your resources better.
