Workload planning: count in hours, against each person's capacity
A workload plan in percentages is reassuring, but it hides overloads. Counting in hours, person by person and week by week, shows where to make trade-offs, and by how much.
Week 4641 h for a 35 h capacity
Other projects Line relocation overload
His weeks
In many teams, the workload plan is read in percentages: "Martin is at 110% in November." The figure raises an alarm, but it says neither when, nor on what, nor by how much the load should be reduced.
Count in hours, week by week
A working week is measured in hours. If Martin's capacity is 35 hours and his tasks require 41 in week 46, the gap is 6 hours. That is a quantity you can move, hand over or negotiate. A monthly percentage smooths out the peaks: 110% over a month can hide a 41-hour week followed by a 26-hour one.
Separate this project from other work
A project manager often sees only the load of their own project. Yet Martin also works elsewhere. A useful workload plan shows both: the share of this project and the share of other work, against the same capacity. It is the only way to understand why someone who looks "free" on your project is not.
Make trade-offs on a precise quantity
Once the gap is known in hours, the trade-off becomes concrete: move 6 hours of reassembly to week 48, where Martin is at only 26 hours, or hand those 6 hours to someone else on the team. The discussion is about a decision, no longer an impression.
What it takes
- a realistic capacity for each person, absences included;
- tasks estimated in hours, even roughly;
- a view that adds up all of each person's projects, not just yours.
That is what Henry's workload view does: each member's total workload, split between this project and other work, against their capacity, week by week.