Project Portfolio Management: A View From The Management Trenches

11.10. CAPACITY

Your PPM tool needs to be able to account for the following regarding the capacity of the organization to deliver the projects in the portfolio:

• All key resources associated with projects and any nonstandard hours that any of the associates work.

• Company holidays (not vacations of associates).

• Block X percent of the availability of the resources across the board for nonproductive time. This time accounts for coffee breaks, water cooler conversations, and so on. Block anywhere in the range of 10–30 percent toward nonproductive time.

• From experience and historical data (if any), estimate the block of time to set aside for production maintenance activities. In the tool, block this time away for all relevant resources/roles.

• Block time away in the tool for resources for any other categories of work the project management committee might have identified.

• The remaining is the capacity available for projects.

• Track vacations, sick time, personal time, and other ad-hoc times-off as and when they occur, to more accurately predict the capacity of resources.