Allows for scenario planning around capacity need based on active project backlog and selective pipeline activity.
By leveraging the up-to-date resource shapes of your active project backlog and the direct connection into your CRM, the Resourcing Forecast report opens up the ability for the targeted inclusion of pipeline opportunities and their impacts on capacity. This report is created to directly answer the questions of "what happens if we close this deal? what about that deal?"
By selecting the deals we have high confidence in, we can see where and when we can expect to run into capacity issues. If you're looking at a sustained increase in need it might open up the door to expanding team size. If what you see is a bump in need that returns to normal a few weeks later, other approaches might be more appropriate.
Leveraging the main filter capabilities of the report, we can drill down into specific departments and roles to identify exactly where the impact of closing a deal is going to land.
Parallax Tip - Views
Throughout the app you have the ability to create isolated views by hiding groups of data on the graphs. This is done by simply clicking on the title in the graph key.
Pipeline Projects Table
The Pipeline Projects section of the report is where any dynamic scenario planning is going to occur. The main interaction occurs with the "Display Forecast" column. Checking a box here includes that pipeline opportunity in the visualization at the top of the page and shows you the capacity impacts of signing that piece of work. The total capacity needed by pipeline projects is shown in magenta in the visualization (sales pipeline).
Projects can be added to the capacity visualization one at a time or through bulk selection by entering a threshold percentage in the box at the top of the table:
In this example, when 60% is input, the visualization will select all projects at 60% and above. These percentages are synced from the pipeline stages within your CRM. They are used simply as a means of filtering and do not have any bearing on the amount of hours shown. Parallax does not perform any weighting calculations. The allocation of capacity need is determined by the shape(s) associated with those deals in Parallax.
When scenario planning, it is important to confirm that the information we are modeling off of is in fact accurate. To support this, Parallax flags any projects in the pipeline that have a shape with a start date in the past. In the below example, both the Burton Snowboards and Content Strategy projects have out of date project shapes.
These opportunities can still be selected when scenario planning, but would need to be updated to give a proper projection.
Active Projects Table
The Active Projects portion of the report does not provide you with any selection ability as these are all signed pieces of work. The data here is pulled directly from the project shapes of any projects in the reference period marked "awaiting start," "in-progress," or "completed."
Any actual hours recorded during the referenced period will show as green bars in the visualization (actual hours). Any planned hours that have yet to be worked show up in blue (remaining projected hours).
Roles Report Table
Reported Metrics
- Stage: The pipeline stage the opportunity is currently located; pulled directly from the CRM
- Offerings: The number of shapes (service offerings) currently associated to the opportunity
- Close Date: The date the opportunity is projected to close; pulled directly from the CRM
- Start Date: The date work is projected to start on the opportunity; determined by the shape in Parallax
- Planned Roles: The number of individual roles allocated to the opportunity; pulled from the shape in Parallax
- Planned Hours: Allocated hours that have been added to Parallax project shapes
- Stage Probability: The probability of close associated with the pipeline stage; pulled directly from the CRM