Perform Capacity Balancing in 10 Minutes

Goal: You check whether planned resource demand is covered by available employees with matching roles, identify shortages, and prepare employee assignment.

Prerequisites: A project with tasks is open. Roles are assigned to tasks. The resource pool contains employees with matching roles and working time data.

Step 1: Open Demand and Supply

  1. Select Start > Capacity views > Employees.

Open capacity balancing employees

  1. Check whether the required roles or employees appear in the table.

If no roles or employees are shown, first check resource demand and the resource pool.

Capacity balancing with role demand and available employees

Red values or red cells indicate uncovered demand. Green or grey areas indicate available capacity or no shortage.

Step 2: Identify Shortage and Cause

  1. Look for red or conspicuous values in role or employee rows.

  2. Check the affected time period.

  3. Show details to identify the tasks causing the demand.

Tasks in capacity balancing

  1. If several projects or subprojects are involved, use the project-related structure.

Project structure in capacity balancing

Ask:

  • Is the shortage permanent or limited to a peak period?

  • Which tasks cause the demand?

  • Is the required role available in the resource pool?

  • Are working time, vacation, or other non-working days the cause?

  • Can a task be moved without affecting the critical path?

If you want to view both the shortfall and the schedule at the same time, use the additional view with the Gantt chart.

Capacity balancing with Gantt chart

Step 3: Assign Employees after Capacity Balancing

When capacity and period fit, assign named employees.

  1. Select the suitable employee in the capacity view.

  2. Check the related tasks in the lower area.

  3. Limit the display to the matching role if needed.

  4. Assign the employee to the task and check effort and utilization.

Assign an employee from capacity balancing

For partial availability, check date and utilization carefully.

Check date and availability when assigning resources

Step 4: Evaluate the Result

  1. Refresh the capacity view.

  2. Check whether the shortage disappeared or became smaller.

  3. Check whether the finish date or critical path changed.

  4. If bottlenecks remain, choose the next action.

Situation

Action

Capacity is sufficient

Assign employees and check utilization.

Capacity is sufficient, but not in the required period

Move tasks, clarify priorities, or check working time.

Role is missing

Check resource pool, role demand, or external capacity.

Peak demand causes shortage

Distribute work or review schedule logic.

Automatic optimization should help

Use Project > Schedule > Other functions > Optimize resource utilization and manually check the result.

Result

You compared demand and supply, classified bottlenecks, and assigned employees after the capacity check.

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