# Resource management

> See who is committed to what, spot overload before it happens, and plan capacity honestly.

> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://helpdesk.orangescrum.com/llms.txt).

Source: https://helpdesk.orangescrum.com/guide/cloud/time/resource-management

---
> **Premium Unlimited**
>
> Resource management, availability and utilisation are Premium features. Basic
> workload management is available on Pro.

Resource management answers three questions: **who is available**, **who is
overloaded**, and **can we take this on?**

## Allocation

Assign people to projects with a percentage of their time and a date range —
"Priya, 50% on Website Redesign, March to May".

> **Allocation is a plan, not a fact**
>
> What people are allocated to and what they actually work on diverge. Compare
> allocation against logged
> [time](https://helpdesk.orangescrum.com/guide/cloud/time/time-tracking) regularly, or you are planning against
> fiction.

## Availability

Capacity minus commitments minus absence. Feeds:

- **Can we take this on?**: Real available hours in the window, not a hopeful guess.

- **Who can help?**: Who genuinely has room this week.

- **When can we start?**: The earliest date the right people are free.

- **Who is drowning?**: Over-allocation, visible before it becomes a missed deadline.

## Utilisation

Booked or logged time as a percentage of capacity. Useful, and very easy to
misuse.

> **100% utilisation is a broken system, not a good one**
>
> A team booked to 100% has no capacity to absorb anything — a sick day, an
> incident, a task that turns out harder than expected. Everything becomes late
> the moment reality intrudes. Sustainable planning sits around 70–80%.

The remaining 20–30% is not waste. It is meetings, code review, helping
colleagues, learning, and the buffer that lets a plan survive contact with the
week.

## Planning honestly

**Start from real capacity**

    Subtract holidays, public holidays, known absence, and standing meetings.
    What is left is what you can plan.

**Plan to 70–80%**

    Not 100%. The gap is what absorbs the unexpected.

**Check for over-allocation**

    Someone at 130% across three projects will miss on all three, and each
    project manager will think they were unlucky.

**Reconcile with actuals**

    Monthly, compare allocation to logged time. Adjust the plan to reality
    rather than insisting reality was wrong.

## Over-allocation

The most common and most damaging problem, because each project sees only its
own slice.

**Spot it early**

    The availability view shows total commitment across every project. This is
    the only place over-allocation is visible.

**Fix it by deciding, not by hoping**

    Something must give: move a date, reduce scope, or reassign. Splitting
    someone across four projects and hoping is the option that always fails.

**Watch context switching**

    Someone at 25% on four projects is far less productive than someone at 100%
    on one. The percentages add up; the productivity does not.

## Skills and matching

Availability is necessary but not sufficient — the available person also has to
be able to do the work. Record skills so the answer to "who is free?" is not
someone who cannot take it on.

## Reporting

Utilisation, allocation and availability roll into the
[advanced dashboards](https://helpdesk.orangescrum.com/guide/cloud/agile/reports), across projects and
[programs](https://helpdesk.orangescrum.com/guide/cloud/projects/programs).

- [Budget and cost](https://helpdesk.orangescrum.com/guide/cloud/time/budget-and-cost): What allocated time costs.

- [Time tracking](https://helpdesk.orangescrum.com/guide/cloud/time/time-tracking): The actuals to reconcile against.