If you’ve ever tried scheduling a project only to realize half your “available” team is already knee-deep in other work, you’re not alone. One of the biggest headaches for PMO leaders today is managing resource capacity and utilization—especially across a growing portfolio of projects.
It’s a bit like planning a family vacation, only to discover your spouse is booked for work, your teenager has finals, and your youngest just got invited to a birthday party… on the same weekend. Chaos, right?
Let’s bring some calm to that chaos.
Why Resource Capacity Management is So Hard (and So Critical)
Here’s the reality: You can have the best project plans in the world, but if you don’t have the right people available at the right time, everything grinds to a halt.
Most PMOs struggle not because they lack talent—but because they lack visibility. They can’t see who’s working on what, what skills they truly have, or whether they’re being overbooked (or worse, underutilized).
And the downstream effects? Burnout, project delays, scope compromises, and those dreaded “fire drills” that leave your team scrambling.
The good news? You can absolutely fix this. But it takes a shift in how you approach resourcing—from reactive firefighting to proactive planning.
Start with a Reality Check: What’s Really Going On?
Before jumping into solutions, take a beat and ask: How well do we really understand our resource picture?
You might discover that:
- Resource data is buried in spreadsheets or tribal knowledge.
- Team members are being double-booked or asked to split time inefficiently.
- You’re relying too much on gut feel instead of actual capacity data.
One client we worked with had a “weekend warrior” developer who appeared 100% available in their system—because no one had logged his time on two shadow IT projects. Surprise!
Step 1: Build (or Clean Up) Your Resource Inventory
To forecast capacity, you first need to know who you have and what they can do.
Start by creating a centralized resource inventory:
- Names and roles
- Skills and certifications
- Work location and time zone
- Contract type (FTE, contractor, shared service, etc.)
- Availability (actual working hours)
Make this a living document. Better yet, integrate it into your project management tool.
And don’t just focus on titles—map actual skills. You may have ten “business analysts,” but only three who really understand agile story writing or healthcare compliance.
Step 2: Connect Projects to People—Before They Start
It’s tempting to say yes to every initiative. But without real capacity data, you’re setting your teams up to fail.
A better way: introduce demand planning gates.
Before greenlighting a new project, ask:
- What types of roles does this project need?
- Do we have the right skillsets available in the right time frame?
- What impact will this have on other in-flight projects?
Having this checkpoint doesn’t slow you down—it speeds you up by avoiding rework and mid-project panic.
Bonus: It also helps leaders understand that capacity isn’t infinite, even if the project list keeps growing.
Step 3: Adopt a Visual Resource Planning Tool (Ditch the Spreadsheets)
You don’t need to be a Fortune 500 company to benefit from real-time resource planning. Tools like monday.com, ClickUp, Smartsheet, or Planview offer resource management capabilities that let you:
- View team allocation in real-time (by person, team, or role)
- See resource conflicts before they become problems
- Compare demand vs. capacity across time
- Adjust allocations dynamically when priorities shift
The key here is centralization and visibility. When everyone works from the same system of record, resourcing becomes less about guesswork and more about informed decisions.
Step 4: Monitor Utilization—But Don’t Weaponize It
Here’s a truth we all know but don’t always say: Utilization can be a double-edged sword.
Yes, it’s important to measure how effectively people are spending their time. But don’t turn it into a performance stick. Instead, use it as a health check to:
- Spot burnout risk (e.g., over 100% booked week after week)
- Identify underused talent you could redeploy
- Validate whether certain roles are chronically overloaded
Aim for healthy utilization levels—typically around 70–80% for most project teams—to allow room for overhead, training, and the inevitable fire drills.
Step 5: Encourage Skill Growth & Mobility
Great capacity planning isn’t just about fitting puzzle pieces—it’s about effectively tackling more complex puzzles.
As you get better visibility into who’s doing what, you can also start mapping future needs to current potential.
Maybe your UX designer wants to cross-train in product strategy. Or your junior PM is ready to take on more complex delivery. Building this kind of career mobility into your resourcing process not only improves team engagement—it gives you more agility in future staffing.
What Success Looks Like
When you get resource capacity planning right, here’s what you’ll start to see:
- Fewer fire drills and less burnout
- More accurate project timelines
- Better decisions on what not to start
- Happier, more engaged teams
- Leadership that trusts the PMO’s data
One of our clients—a midsize professional services firm—reduced project delivery delays by 40% just by introducing a basic resource planning model and linking it to their intake process. The result? More predictable outcomes and a huge boost in PMO credibility.
Final Thoughts: Progress Over Perfection
Getting resource planning and utilization under control isn’t about finding the perfect formula. It’s about building a consistent, transparent process that your organization can grow into.
Start small. Clean up your resource data. Try a planning tool. Introduce forecasting checkpoints. And be ready to adjust as you go.
You’re not just solving a resourcing problem—you’re building a foundation for a healthier, more agile portfolio.
Want help setting this up for your PMO?
At Kolme Group, we specialize in helping organizations just like yours bring clarity, strategy, and structure to project delivery. Reach out to us at ppmanswers@kolmegroup.com—we’re happy to chat, no pressure.
Because when your people are aligned with your priorities, great things happen.