Tracking the utilization of resources is a way to ensure that you’re getting the most out of your team without running over on budget or at the sake of burning out your crew. Here we put together a guide on resource utilization tracking in Ganttic.
Providing you with the features of interest and the steps to take to integrate this process into your planning workflow. As well as some general best practices on resource utilization tracking and suggestions for when overutilization occurs.
What is Resource Utilization?
A resource’s utilization is a percentage of how much time a resource spends working on tasks, in relation to how much time they could potentially be spending on tasks. By monitoring your resources’ workload you can glean how efficiently current projects are being run and correctly plan capacity for future jobs.
The measurement also puts the focus on your resources and helps you maintain balance between supply and demand. All while ensuring that your team’s busy, but not burnt out.
For managers who rely on this metric, it’s even easier to leave this up to your resource planning tool. And in Ganttic, tracking how your Resources are being utilized is all done automatically. Here’s how to get started.
Before You Start: Turn On Resource Utilization
From the planner’s General Settings > Utilization, turn on Resource Utilization. This is a prerequisite to see any utilization information. And it is adjustable for each View, so will only be displayed in the specified Views where this is further enabled.
Overview on Views: In Ganttic, Views are the place where plans are created. Think of your planner like a whole cake - and each View would just be a piece of that cake. With every component like Resources and Tasks present, but just in a specified amount. You can add to that piece extras that make it more personal as well - different grouping and sorting options, various time periods, and different tracking options can be applied to each View. Enabling every manager to have a personalized slice of the plans. Read more about creating new Views. With different settings and POVs for each manager.
Setting Up Your Planner’s Parameters
Resource utilization is found using this formula.
Busy time / Available time = Resource utilization * 100%
So in order to begin tracking your resource usage in Ganttic, here’s the parameters involving Resources and Tasks that first need to be set up:
Busy time
Here’s what constitutes “busy” in Ganttic’s resource planner.
- Any Task that’s scheduled to a Resource’s timeline will affect its overall Busy time.
- If a Resource’s Tasks occur simultaneously and conflict with one another, it’s possible to manually adjust the utilization of the Tasks. This will indicate to the Resource that less “effort” is needed for that Task, smoothing out the scheduling conflict. Adjusting the Task’s timing and utilization will in turn affect the Resource’s Busy time calculation.
Available time
Here’s how to specify the days and times that Resources are “available” to take on work.
- Define your planner’s Working Time settings. These are the business days and hours that will be displayed across your entire planner and used for all calculations.
- Since each employee, and even non-human resources, may have their own work schedules, it is also necessary to define each Resource’s work time settings. This includes the days they can be scheduled for Tasks as well as personalized Business hours. You can even take into consideration lunch breaks and other downtime. Plus an imported list of public holidays in the country that person resides.
- Another option is to define Resources’ Time Off. This blocks off time in the planner - preventing Resources from getting workload added during its duration. Great for limiting hours when one-off events pop up or as a way to schedule sick leave and PTO.
Resource Utilization Tracking in Ganttic
Once your parameters are defined, you’ll be able to see and track resource utilization in the following instances:
- Individual Resources - Track utilization as you schedule - the percentage will be displayed next to the Resource’s name directly on the Gantt chart. Representing the percent of potential work time occupied by Tasks in the visible time period.
- Groups of Resources - Or monitor utilization for Resource Groups (teams, locations, type, etc.). This number is present next to the Group title and shows the total Group’s utilization for the visible time period.
- Resource Utilization Graphs - in addition to the percentage tracker, it’s also possible to enable Resource Utilization Graphs for individual or grouped Resources. Resource Utilization Graphs are small bar graphs that appear over scheduled Tasks right on the Resource’s timeline. These graphs take into account the Resource’s load for the duration of the scheduled Task.
- Resource reports - synthesizes your planner’s data into a readily digestible output that’s perfect for sharing.
Tracking Individual Resource Utilization Percentage
Utilization tracking is specific to each Single Project View and Custom View you create. So once it’s enabled in the planner, you can control whether it’s also visible in your View of choice.
Do this by turning it on in the View’s Visibility Settings. Just select Show utilization % from the Resource availability column.
In the View’s Gantt chart, the utilization % will be displayed next to the Resource’s name. It will take into account its work-time settings, scheduled Tasks, and the visible time period. Allowing you to keep track of Resource usage as you schedule,
Tips
- It’s possible to track resource utilization in hours as opposed to a percentage. From the View’s Visibility Settings > Resource availability, just switch the utilization counter to Busy Time.
- You can also track the inverse in hours, Available Time.
- Or create a new View with a different tracking system. That way, each manager on your team can use their own system, but since the calculations all come from the same source, it’s easy to ensure organizational consistency throughout.
Tracking Group Utilization
You can keep track of the workload and utilization for resource groups as well. For example location, department, branch, resource type, contract type, etc. Create groups via Resource Data Fields.
Then in the View, apply Resource Grouping, this will organize the Resources around your specified criteria.
When Show utilization % is applied via the Visibility Settings, next to the Group title you can see the total Group’s utilization for the visible time period. Likewise, each Resource in the Group will also have its own percentage next to it. This is measured using the weighted average of the Group - so may differ slightly from individual utilization without any Grouping.
Tips
- It’s possible to track resource utilization in hours as opposed to a percentage. From the View’s Visibility Settings, just switch the utilization counter to Busy Time.
- You can also track the inverse in hours, Available Time.
- Or create a new View with a different tracking system. That way, each manager on your team can use their own system, but since the calculations all come from the same source, it’s easy to ensure organizational consistency throughout.
Resource Utilization Graphs
In addition to seeing utilization as a number, there are other tracking options for more visual planners. Resource Utilization Graphs are small bar graphs that appear over scheduled Tasks right on the Resource’s timeline. They can act as a warning when Resources are maxing out their capacity.
The colors and intervals for the graphs can be defined via Utilization in the General Settings. Then turn them on via the View’s Visibility Settings, just apply Show resource utilization graphs.
These graphs take into account the Resource’s load for the duration of the scheduled Task.
Tips
- These can act as a quick visual cue about the Resource’s actual capacity. Since a handy thing about these graphs is the Task’s Utilization can also be adjusted. Meaning if you want to represent a part-time Task, or one which simply requires less effort from the Resource, just manually adjust the utilization of that Task.
- You can also enable Utilization Graphs for your Resource Groups. In the View’s Visibility Settings select Show resource group utilization graphs.That way on the line next to the Group’s title you’ll see a heat map taking into account the scheduled tasks for that Resource group.
- Define the colors and intervals that suit your planning style. Perhaps you only want to see when Resource utilization is hitting a certain threshold or is above a specific percentage. Or choose a color that will be most striking when you’re glancing at the planner.
- The Utilization Graphs can be adjusted so that they only showcase a utilization over 100%. This helps you quickly spot resourcing conflicts, and eliminates extra noise in the planner. Below is a video detailing these steps.
Best Practices for Using Utilization Tracking
You can use utilization tracking at any point in the planning cycle. However it’s especially important in the following instances:
Filter Resources according to load.
See if there’s some extra Resources around that can lighten the load. Filtering can be done inside any View, showing you Resources with the same skill sets and at the same location, who are also available to pick up some extra work. Add them to the Task and relieve some of the work pressure for your team.
Read on: Filtering
Overlapping Tasks
Whenever you schedule overlapping tasks for your resources, it’s best to consider the capacity utilization graph above the Taskbars. This will warn you if the Task’s utilization needs to be adjusted. Do this manually when scheduling the Task. And with it you have an easy way to show which Tasks should be prioritized. Just make the utilization % higher for the task with the most priority.
Read on: Task Timing and Utilization Settings
Project Portfolio Management
When you engage in project portfolio management it can be nearly impossible to track the individual utilizations of each Project Resource. Keeping track of utilization across the portfolio can give you the right overview without having to dive too much into the weeds of resource management. Using Project Activity Graphs it’s possible to get a heat map of the portfolio - helping you make better decisions about project capacities and deadlines.
Read on: Project Activity Graphs
Performance Reports
When preparing reports/charts for stakeholders, utilization can be a crucial metric to include as it gives a more rounded picture of performance. With resource utilization charts, you can automatically inform your boss about how hard your team’s working. It’s also useful to forecast what is to come, where new resources are needed, and where new projects can be taken on if the utilization is low.
Read on: Creating A New Report
Optimize Organizational Efficiency
When you want to optimize your workforce. If it doesn’t feel like your team is working as efficiently as they should, start monitoring their utilizations. Or on the flip side, if they seem overwhelmed and overworked, maybe the utilization is too high and should be adjusted.
Read on: Optimizing Resource Utilization
Hybrid and Remote Work
When you have a dispersed team it can be hard to know exactly what people are working on. Manually setting and following utilization can help you maintain better control over your remote workers. Giving you peace of mind that doesn’t violate anyone’s privacy.
Read on: 10 tips for Virtual Team Management.
Next Steps
In Ganttic, there’s plenty of options for tracking utilization as well as optimizing how your resources are being used for your work activities. Start making a goal for better utilization planning. And get the most out of your people and resources, make those deadlines, and hit those goals.