Give the team a plan it can work from
Resource capacity planning connects the work you expect with the people and time available to do it. The useful result is a clearer weekly conversation: which requests can we accept, who will handle them and what needs to move?
Start with the hours available for that work. Leave, meetings and existing commitments already use part of the week. Count them once, then keep the remaining hours separate for each role. A reviewer’s free afternoon cannot cover preparation work unless that person has the skills and permission to do it.
This focus on availability and skills also appears in Deltek’s capacity planning guide. Your own records and team’s judgement should determine the numbers. An assumed two-hour task is a planning input, not a promise that every task takes two hours.
Make room for the work before promising a date
Synthetic example, not a client result: a service team plans 36 requests for one week. Each is assumed to need two hours of preparation and half an hour of review. That means 72 preparation hours and 18 review hours.
After allowing for meetings, other commitments and absence, two people have 60 preparation hours between them. The reviewer has 24 hours. Preparation is short by 12 hours, even though review has six hours left. Combining the roles suggests a six-hour shortage, but preparation actually needs twelve.
The manager now has something specific to agree: arrange 12 net hours of qualified preparation help, or move six requests to a later period with confirmed space. Any onboarding time comes out of the extra help available. A single busy week is not enough evidence for a permanent hire.
With that agreement, staff can work from a clearer allocation and customers can receive dates backed by a checked plan. The weekly totals still need a daily scheduling check: preparation must finish in time for review. Unexpected work or longer tasks can change what fits.
Keep next week’s commitments grounded in the work
Use the editable capacity worksheet and worked scenario to try different request counts or absence hours. The figures are synthetic assumptions, not observed history or a forecast. Missing or impossible inputs need correction before using the result.
Review actual work and time with the team each week. If the same role repeatedly lacks hours, compare longer-term support with a tested change to the work itself. Do not assume a process change saves time before measuring it.
Datimore can help build a shared planning view around these records. Our project delivery case shows related resource visibility, not proof of a staffing formula. Bring one period’s workload, available hours and role restrictions. The aim is a plan people can explain, adjust and use when making commitments.