Planning horizon
Often we make projects lasting several months. At the same time, the planning horizon for teams in Sibiriks is about five weeks. Arrangement for sprints - 3-5 sprints (depending on the experience of a particular team).
I use two monitors, Google calendar, Scrumban, a common notebook and an hour glass. The method itself is constantly being finalized, but the general principles remain the same: keep all projects in hand in handwritten form + control the movement of projects on a virtual kanban board.
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The procedure itself takes 2 hours a week. This time is enough to plan the load for about 35-50 people. It is convenient to do either early on Monday, or on Friday, in the afternoon, or on Sunday evening.
Planning is one of the most dreary tasks that I cannot delegate. I hate her. In addition, I’m lazy enough, and always try to postpone planning to the very last moment. However, I know that in return I will get clarity and control over the situation. It spurs a start. Around Sunday, hours at 6 pm.
Although all the information on projects is in electronic form - I intentionally rewrite it on paper. This gives a complete picture of the loading commands and allows you to restore a sense of control - usually it leaves me completely in two weeks (if I missed the meeting) or for one trip.
So, in the common notebook, first of all, I write down in the column employees who are engaged in production. If there are teams in the department (we have this development), then I group them by teams. If there are no teams within the department, I group them entirely by department, for example, design or copywriting.
At the top of the sheet, I write dates and write them out every five working days (in a notebook of cells, it lasts exactly 5 weeks - it coincides with the length of our planning horizon). It turns out like this:
From time to time there are guys who make the project solo or wander between the teams. This is bad, and I know about it.
If you come across holidays - hatching.
In addition to production, there is a department of customer service and sales. I write them down on the other side of the tetradic reversal. So what will be there:
Raslinovka takes about 20 minutes and allows me to concentrate on the task.
The next thing I do is launch the Google Calendar and consistently open the working calendars of the teams. The calendar contains scheduled sprints and projects for which people have already been reserved (these are current projects for which work is already underway).
I transfer this information to my tablet. Thus, I see a guaranteed download. Immediately I paint over the vacation of employees in order not to accidentally plan this time for projects.
To do this, I open on the second monitor Scrumban, in which I store project cards for all phases. The card is a project passport. I update them once a week, on Mondays, at managerial meetings (about this some time next).
I read the card, transfer the name of the project to the table to the project manager (on paper), study the project checklists (this is a list of typical actions that should be done at each phase - such as “invoice”, “take feedback”, etc.), I remember if these actions were done, if not - I put the corresponding tasks in the plan for the project managers. If for any projects I know that resources will be needed - I book them in the Google Calendar for the appropriate team. For each project or sprint indicate the indicative complexity.
If right now I can’t plan resources, for example, I don’t know 100% of the project’s status or I’m not sure which team is better, I transfer it to the special calendar “New projects”.
As a result, I form a list of current projects with project managers, create some of the tasks that will be needed in project management, more closely fill the planning horizon and Google Calendar for specific teams.
This operation is about 40 minutes.
Next, I open a deal from CRM and go through them sequentially. Some of them are transferred to project managers (I record such transactions in the first column, next to the name of the project manager). But most of them are assigned to accounts. These potential transactions I enter in the appropriate list next to the name of the account.
Analysis of applications from CRM takes about 10 minutes.
Those projects that are likely to go into work and require special attention - I mark in my notebook.
As a result, I have a planned calendar of teams, thanks to which I know the exact load on each developer, designer or manager. But there remains a certain number of "holes" in their work.
Guided by experience and intuition, I add projects from the “New Projects” calendar to empty spaces. For example, in pencil. I delete the project from the “New projects” calendar and set the task for a specific team.
It takes another 20 minutes, if there is no hard shortage of resources.
If there is one (for example, a lot of analytics are suddenly sold out) - it takes about 40 minutes. Basically, it’s about understanding how to combine the work so that there are no dissatisfied people, and the shipment goes on schedule.
If there are any “holes” in the calendars of the teams - it's time to put the internal tasks of the company there or to schedule training.
After 2 hours of analysis, an almost clear picture is obtained of the loading studio. However, there is still a place for variation and there remain “voids” in the working schedule of the teams. We fill them in together with project managers at the weekly planning meeting, on Monday. I will tell about it some time next.
I use two monitors, Google calendar, Scrumban, a common notebook and an hour glass. The method itself is constantly being finalized, but the general principles remain the same: keep all projects in hand in handwritten form + control the movement of projects on a virtual kanban board.
')
The procedure itself takes 2 hours a week. This time is enough to plan the load for about 35-50 people. It is convenient to do either early on Monday, or on Friday, in the afternoon, or on Sunday evening.
Step 1. Concentration on planning. Razlinovka
Planning is one of the most dreary tasks that I cannot delegate. I hate her. In addition, I’m lazy enough, and always try to postpone planning to the very last moment. However, I know that in return I will get clarity and control over the situation. It spurs a start. Around Sunday, hours at 6 pm.
Although all the information on projects is in electronic form - I intentionally rewrite it on paper. This gives a complete picture of the loading commands and allows you to restore a sense of control - usually it leaves me completely in two weeks (if I missed the meeting) or for one trip.
So, in the common notebook, first of all, I write down in the column employees who are engaged in production. If there are teams in the department (we have this development), then I group them by teams. If there are no teams within the department, I group them entirely by department, for example, design or copywriting.
At the top of the sheet, I write dates and write them out every five working days (in a notebook of cells, it lasts exactly 5 weeks - it coincides with the length of our planning horizon). It turns out like this:
From time to time there are guys who make the project solo or wander between the teams. This is bad, and I know about it.
If you come across holidays - hatching.
In addition to production, there is a department of customer service and sales. I write them down on the other side of the tetradic reversal. So what will be there:
- The names of project managers, each with two columns - in one project at work, in the other future projects, but for which you already need to plan resources.
- Under the list of project managers, my account managers are recorded (they are responsible for the initial work with the client, finding out the requirements for the project and collecting other “input data”). Next to them, I will keep a list of deals that they oversee this week.
Raslinovka takes about 20 minutes and allows me to concentrate on the task.Step 2. Planning for what is guaranteed to happen
The next thing I do is launch the Google Calendar and consistently open the working calendars of the teams. The calendar contains scheduled sprints and projects for which people have already been reserved (these are current projects for which work is already underway).
I transfer this information to my tablet. Thus, I see a guaranteed download. Immediately I paint over the vacation of employees in order not to accidentally plan this time for projects.
Step 3. Making a list of projects
To do this, I open on the second monitor Scrumban, in which I store project cards for all phases. The card is a project passport. I update them once a week, on Mondays, at managerial meetings (about this some time next).
I read the card, transfer the name of the project to the table to the project manager (on paper), study the project checklists (this is a list of typical actions that should be done at each phase - such as “invoice”, “take feedback”, etc.), I remember if these actions were done, if not - I put the corresponding tasks in the plan for the project managers. If for any projects I know that resources will be needed - I book them in the Google Calendar for the appropriate team. For each project or sprint indicate the indicative complexity.
If right now I can’t plan resources, for example, I don’t know 100% of the project’s status or I’m not sure which team is better, I transfer it to the special calendar “New projects”.
As a result, I form a list of current projects with project managers, create some of the tasks that will be needed in project management, more closely fill the planning horizon and Google Calendar for specific teams.
This operation is about 40 minutes.Step 4. Processing transactions from CRM
Next, I open a deal from CRM and go through them sequentially. Some of them are transferred to project managers (I record such transactions in the first column, next to the name of the project manager). But most of them are assigned to accounts. These potential transactions I enter in the appropriate list next to the name of the account.
Analysis of applications from CRM takes about 10 minutes.Those projects that are likely to go into work and require special attention - I mark in my notebook.
Step 5. Planning “holes”
As a result, I have a planned calendar of teams, thanks to which I know the exact load on each developer, designer or manager. But there remains a certain number of "holes" in their work.
Guided by experience and intuition, I add projects from the “New Projects” calendar to empty spaces. For example, in pencil. I delete the project from the “New projects” calendar and set the task for a specific team.
It takes another 20 minutes, if there is no hard shortage of resources.If there is one (for example, a lot of analytics are suddenly sold out) - it takes about 40 minutes. Basically, it’s about understanding how to combine the work so that there are no dissatisfied people, and the shipment goes on schedule.
Step 6. Internal tasks
If there are any “holes” in the calendars of the teams - it's time to put the internal tasks of the company there or to schedule training.
Result
After 2 hours of analysis, an almost clear picture is obtained of the loading studio. However, there is still a place for variation and there remain “voids” in the working schedule of the teams. We fill them in together with project managers at the weekly planning meeting, on Monday. I will tell about it some time next.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/191564/
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