Resources and Capacities

This section explains how Rillsoft Project separates resource demand from resource supply and checks whether enough working capacity is available before named employees are assigned to tasks.

The central idea is:

  • Resource demand comes from the project plan: tasks, period, effort, and required professional qualifications.

  • Resource supply comes from the resource pool: employees, professional qualifications, working times, calendars, and non-working days.

  • Capacity balancing compares demand and supply and makes bottlenecks visible before employees are assigned.

Human resource capacity balancing

When to Use This Section

Use this workflow when:

  • several employees could perform similar work

  • professional qualifications matter more than individual names

  • working times, vacation, illness, or other non-working days must be considered

  • several projects or subprojects compete for the same capacity

  • bottlenecks should be identified before resource assignment becomes binding

For small projects with only a few employees, direct employee assignment may be sufficient. That workflow belongs to Resource Assignment.

Basic Principle: Separate Demand and Supply

Rillsoft Project provides functions for entering resources, creating roles, maintaining employees, assigning resources, and using resource and capacity views. In this task-oriented help, those functions are combined into one workflow.

Planning workflow from schedule to role demand, capacity balancing, and employee assignment

The workflow has four steps:

  1. Plan resource demand

    Assign professional qualifications to tasks. This describes what type of work the project needs.

  2. Check resource supply

    Check the resource pool to see which employees have those qualifications and when they are available.

    Employee roles and qualifications in the resource pool

  3. Consider working times and non-working days

    Check calendars, working-time models, shift calendars, vacation, illness, and other absences. These values determine how much capacity is actually available.

  4. Perform capacity balancing

    Compare resource demand with resource supply. This shows whether capacity is sufficient or bottlenecks arise.

Roles as Professional Qualifications

Rillsoft Project uses roles for qualification-based planning. In this help, roles are therefore explained as professional qualifications.

Examples:

  • Design engineer

  • Project manager

  • Welder

  • Assembler

  • Foreman

  • Journeyman

Roles can be organized in groups and maintained with qualification levels, costs, and notes. For resource planning, the important point is that a task first needs a professional qualification, not necessarily a specific employee.

Resource Pool as the Source of Supply

The resource pool is the professional basis for resource supply. It contains, among other things:

  • calendars

  • roles or professional qualifications

  • teams

  • employees

  • material

  • machine types

  • machinery

Note

Direct team assignment to tasks is available only in the Standard edition of Rillsoft Project. In the Light, Professional, and Enterprise editions, a task receives its team assignment indirectly through assigned employees and their team membership in the resource pool.

For personnel capacity planning, these values are especially important:

  • professional qualifications of employees

  • working times and calendars

  • shift calendars

  • non-working days

  • team memberships

  • productivity

  • start and leaving date

Capacity Balancing as a Decision Point

Capacity balancing does not first answer which employee should be assigned. It answers the more important question:

Is the available resource supply sufficient for the planned resource demand?

Only after this question has been clarified should named resource assignment be performed for larger or capacity-critical projects.

Structure Resource Views

If you need to analyze bottlenecks or available capacity in more detail, structure resource and capacity views by several characteristics. This shows not only that an employee is overloaded or a professional qualification is undercovered, but also in which project, role, or team the load occurs.

Typical structures are:

  • Employee

  • Role or professional qualification

  • Team

  • Project

  • Employee by project

  • Role by employee

  • Project by role and employee

Structured views are especially useful when several projects compete for the same employees or when role demand is planned first and assigned to named employees later.

Result of This Section

After resource and capacity planning, you know:

  • which professional qualifications the project needs

  • in which period the demand arises

  • which employees in the resource pool have those qualifications

  • which working times and non-working days limit availability

  • whether bottlenecks arise

  • whether the schedule, resource pool, or later employee assignment must be adjusted

Next Steps

If capacity balancing shows sufficient capacity, switch to resource assignment and assign suitable employees.

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