In short
Resource capacity planning compares the work each person is committed to with the hours they have, week by week. Put an owner and an allocation on every task, derive weekly load from task dates, review it against clear thresholds, and move work or people before an over-allocated week turns into a missed date.
Capacity planning in one sentence
Compare the work each person has committed to with the time they have, one week at a time, and fix the gaps before they become late tasks. Everything else is detail.
Start from the plan, not a separate spreadsheet
The most common failure is keeping allocations in one file and the work in another. They drift within a week. Instead, put the allocation on the task: an owner and the share of their week the task needs.
From there, weekly load is arithmetic: every task a person owns contributes its percentage for each week it runs. In Intlexl, task owners carry a percentage and the resource manager reads owners and dates straight from the sheets you point it at.
Read load by week, not by month
Monthly averages hide the weeks that hurt. On the demo workspace, Tomas Bauer is booked at 130% for the weeks of 5, 12 and 19 October, because Go-live readiness (90%) overlaps Network fabric design (40%). He drops to 40% at the end of the month.
Asked who was over-allocated in October, Intlexl AI pointed out that his average for the month is 98%, which is why a monthly view would call him fine. The three weeks in the middle are still overbooked.
Set thresholds that mean something
Three bands are enough for most PMOs, and they are the ones Intlexl's heatmap uses:
- Up to 75%: room for more work or for the unexpected.
- 76% to 100%: fully booked. Fine for a week, tiring for a quarter.
- Over 100%: over-allocated. Something will slip unless the plan changes.
Fix over-allocation early
There are three levers, and the order matters. First, share the work: someone already on the task with spare time can take part of the allocation. In the demo, Nils Andersen is already on Network fabric design with about 60% free, so moving 30% of Tomas's share puts Tomas at 100% and Nils at 70%.
Second, move work that is not on the critical path to a quieter week. Third, and only then, move a date. Check what depends on the task first, so a fix for one person does not become a slip for the project.
Make it a weekly habit
Look at the next six to twelve weeks every week, not the next quarter once a month. A heatmap by person and week makes the review a two-minute scan, and questions such as who is over-allocated next month and who has room can go straight to the assistant.
Checklist
- Every task has an owner with a percentage allocation.
- Weekly load is calculated from the plan, not typed into a separate file.
- The team agrees what under, full and over mean.
- Over-allocated weeks are reviewed at least six weeks ahead.
- Fixes try sharing work first, then moving non-critical work, then dates.
- Dependencies are checked before any date moves.
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