Planning Project Demand in BigTime Foresight

Table of Contents

Use Cases for Managing Project Demand
Understanding Demand
Demand Location
Setting Up Demand View in Team Subtab
     Managing Column Visibility
     Setting Up Filters
Creating Demand
Editing a Demand
Demand Bulk Actions
     Bulk Creating Demand
     Bulk Editing Demand
     Deleting Demand Entries in Bulk
Understanding Off-Hours Work and Calculations
     Purpose of Off-Hours Work
     Where to Change Off-Hours Work Settings
     How the Off-Hours Work Checkbox Affects Calculations
     Examples of Off-Hours Work Usage
     When to Use Off-Hours Work
Explaining Demand Capacity
Adjusting Scheduling to Public Holidays
Understanding "No Utilization" Demand
Finding the Right Person to Meet Demand Requirements
Assigning to a Project Without Creating a Demand
Verifying if a Person's Assignment Fully Covers the Demand
Assigning Several People to One Demand
Status of a Demand (Filled by Someone on Vacation or Leaving Their Job)
Connecting Demand to an Existing Assignment
Custom Attributes in Demand
Demand Management Glossary

 

Use Cases for Managing Project Demand

Before assigning specific people to assignments, defining everyone's precise roles and responsibilities is essential. To define roles effectively, you should consider each staffer’s competencies and experience to determine which tasks they best suit. This helps you avoid chaos, establish a clear project structure, and optimize resource usage. Information about required roles makes things run more smoothly when you transfer a project from sales teams to resource managers. Planning project demands and roles ahead allow you to avoid misunderstandings, precisely assign specialists, and identify staff shortages. That’s why we provide you with a demand feature in BigTime Foresight. This feature allows you to add required roles to projects without assigning people. 

Understanding Demand

Demand works similarly to assignments, but instead of directly assigning a specific person, you define a role and fill in relevant details. This allows project managers to plan workforce needs before selecting actual employees, making resource planning more efficient.

When creating or editing a demand, the following details can be specified:

Demand Location 

Below is a clear step-by-step flow for finding and managing demand entries in BigTime Foresight.

Setting Up Demand View in Team Subtab

Managing Column Visibility

1. To customize which fields appear in the Demand Table, click the Column Visibility settings.
2. You can check or uncheck attributes such as Project Role, Seniority, Cost Rate, Required Skills, and Custom Attributes.
3. Click Save Changes to update the table view.

Setting Up Filters

One element of this view is the search bar, which allows you to filter the data you need. Read the article to learn more about how filtering in Foresight works.

Creating Demand

To add a demand to a project, go to the Projects section and click on your desired project. At the bottom, you will find the Demand section and the Add Demand button. 

Clicking this button will open a pop-up window to choose a role(s) associated with your new demand. Once you have selected a role(s), click the Create button to save your addition and continue editing Demand information.

After clicking the Create button, you’ll be redirected to the following Edit Demand screen:

In six sections, configure the key details for the role, including required experience, dates, and department. You can also assign the role to a specific task.

Next, fill in utilization details, budget allocation, and required soft and hard skills for this role.

If your Administrator has set up Custom Attributes for Demand, you’ll find them in the Details section. If any fields are marked as mandatory, you must complete them before proceeding.

If you have Administrator permissions or simply want to learn more about Custom Attributes and their purpose, please refer to the article: Custom Attributes for Administrator.

Editing a Demand

Go to the Demand section and click the Pencil button on the table's right side. You can follow these steps to edit either a brand-new demand or an old demand if its previous requirements have changed.

Demand Bulk Actions

The Bulk Create and Edit functionality in Demand allows users to add, update, and modify multiple demand records in a single action, reducing manual effort while planning your project. In this guide, you’ll learn how to efficiently create, edit, and manage demand entries in bulk.

Bulk Creating Demand

Step 1: Access the Demand Section

1. Navigate to the Project View and open the Team tab.
2. Scroll down to the Demand section.

Step 2: Create Multiple Demand Entries

1. Click the Bulk Create button.
2. Fill out the required fields, including:
   • Role: Select the project role needed (e.g., Backend Developer).
   • Quantity: Define the number of demand entries (max 100).
   • Start Date & Due Date: Set the time frame for the demand.
   • Task: Assign a relevant task (e.g., Design/Research).
3. Click Create to confirm the bulk demand creation.

Please watch the full walkthrough below: 

Bulk Editing Demand

Step 1: Select Demand Entries for Editing

1. In the Demand Table, select the checkboxes next to the demand entries you want to modify.
2. Click the Bulk Edit button to open the edit window.

Step 2: Choose Fields to Edit

1. Choose the attributes you want to modify in the Select Fields to Change window. Available fields include:
   • Seniority
   • Department
   • Certificates
   • Start & Due Dates
   • Skills
   • Cost Centers
2. Once selected, new input fields will appear to update values.

Step 3: Edit Skills (If applicable)

• When modifying Skills, you can:
  • Set: Assign a new skill.
  • Remove: Delete an existing skill.
  • Replace: Swap an existing skill with a new one.

Step 4: Confirm Changes

1. Click Edit X Demands to apply the updates.
2. Your changes will be reflected across all selected demand entries.

Please watch the full walkthrough below: 

Deleting Demand Entries in Bulk

1. Select multiple demand entries using checkboxes.
2. Click Delete Selected and confirm the action.

Understanding Off-Hours Work and Calculations

Off-hours work, also called Background Work, is an additional assignment status allowing work scheduling outside of standard utilization and overbooking calculations. It is beneficial for tasks like software maintenance, preparation, or other supplementary work that should not impact a staffer’s availability for primary assignments.

Purpose of Off-Hours Work

• Schedule work without contributing to the staffer’s utilization percentage.
• To avoid this work affecting overbooking calculations, ensure that critical assignments remain prioritized.

For instance, if a team member has regular project commitments but needs to perform maintenance tasks that are not part of their main capacity, you can assign them as Off-Hours Work.

Where to Change Off-Hours Work Settings

To configure how Off-Hours Work interacts with utilization and overbooking:

1. Click on the Three Dots next to your profile name.
2. Select My Settings.
3. Scroll to the bottom of the page to locate:
   • Scheduled Utilization Settings
   • Overbooking Settings
4. Adjust these settings to define how Off-Hours Work assignments are calculated.

How the Off-Hours Work Checkbox Affects Calculations

1. Utilization Calculation
   When the Off-Hours Work checkbox is selected for an assignment:
   • The assigned hours will not count toward the staffer’s scheduled utilization percentage.
   • This ensures that the primary workload metrics remain unaffected.
2. Overbooking Calculation
   When enabled, the checkbox prevents Off-Hours Work from being included in overbooking thresholds.
   • This allows additional tasks to be scheduled without flagging the staffer as overbooked.

Examples of Off-Hours Work Usage

1. Example One: OFF-HOURS Work Disabled
   • Result: All assigned hours are included in utilization and overbooking calculations, affecting the staffer’s availability for other tasks.
2. Example Two: OFF-HOURS Work Enabled
   • Result: Hours assigned to this status are excluded from utilization and overbooking calculations, preserving availability for other assignments.
3. Example Three: OFF-HOURS Settings Unchecked (Globally)
   • Result: Regardless of assignment-specific settings, all hours are calculated normally.
4. Example Four: OFF-HOURS Settings Checked (Globally)
   • Result: The global settings ensure that Off-Hours assignments do not influence utilization or overbooking, regardless of individual assignment settings.

When to Use Off-Hours Work

• Scheduling supplemental tasks that are not part of regular project commitments.
• Assigning low-priority tasks without disrupting capacity planning for higher-priority work.
• Tracking background activities without inflating utilization percentages or triggering overbooking alerts.

Explaining Demand Capacity

When creating a demand, you also enter time data. The default Demand Capacity is set to eight hours per day, Monday through Friday, for the entire project duration. However, this capacity is reduced to account for any holidays during the week—as long as those holidays aren’t already assigned to a cost center in Foresight. If you want to adjust scheduling to public holidays, set the capacity by Time Frame and click Adjust scheduling to public holidays section in the Utilization Section. 

Adjusting Scheduling to Public Holidays

When creating an assignment and configuring your staffer's utilization on a project based on the Time Frame, you will notice two additional options in the form of checkboxes. Each option expands when selected, allowing you to decide how the utilization hours should be calculated regarding time off and public holidays.

Default Behavior Without Adjustments
If no options (checkboxes) are selected, the tool will assign the exact number of hours entered in the demand assignment, including public holidays.

Adjusting Utilization Settings

• Selecting the main checkbox enables the system to consider public holidays when scheduling.
• Additional checkboxes allow you to decide whether the system should reduce the total hours assigned or redistribute the hours across working days.

This configuration ensures flexible and precise scheduling tailored to specific requirements regarding time off and public holidays.

Reduce Utilization By Public Holidays - This option excludes public holidays when calculating an employee’s utilization. For example, suppose a team member is assigned 40 hours a week, and a public holiday falls on a Monday. In that case, selecting this option will reduce the weekly utilization for that period to 32 hours. The daily utilization for the remaining working days, however, remains unchanged.

Schedule Utilization Outside Public Holidays – This option redistributes the scheduled hours for the month, ensuring no work is assigned on public holidays while maintaining the total hours in the assignment. For example, if you assign 168 hours in a month with one public holiday, the system will redistribute the 8 hours from that day across the remaining workdays, keeping the total monthly hours at 168.

How does it work in practice?
The number of hours you entered will remain unchanged in the assignment settings at the bottom. However, in the financial summary of the assignment at the top, you will see that the planned number of hours is reduced accordingly. Check the values under Scheduled - Work to see the adjusted hours.

Understanding "No Utilization" Demand

The "No Utilization" setting allows you to assign an employee to a project without allocating any planned work hours. This approach can be useful in various scenarios where flexibility or specific cost/revenue separation is needed. Below are practical examples of when to use this setting:

1. Side Projects or Non-Billable Bench Assignments
   If you want an employee to log time on a side project or a non-billable bench project, "No Utilization" is an ideal option. For instance, if the employee will only work on the project when they are on the bench, you can assign them to the project without planning specific hours. The client should add a dedicated bench project for this purpose, allowing accurate time tracking.
   
   
2. Uncertainty About Overtime
   When unsure whether overtime will occur on a project, you can create an assignment with "No Utilization." This allows the employee to log their time as it happens, without pre-planning hours. The logged time will be calculated based on the details provided in the budget section.
   
   
3. Time & Materials Projects with Out-of-Charge Work
   In cases where the client pays for specific tasks, such as development, but not for others, like bug fixes, "No Utilization" can help separate costs and revenue. For example:
   
   
   • Create one assignment for the billable development work.
   • Create a second assignment with "No Utilization" for the non-billable bug fixes.
     This ensures that only the costs, not the revenue, are accounted for on the "No Utilization" assignment, enabling clear cost and revenue tracking for the project.

This flexibility ensures accurate resource management and financial planning, even in complex project scenarios.

Finding the Right Person to Meet Demand Requirements

To find the right person for a given demand, ensure you have completed its requirements correctly. You can create an assignment for a person in two ways: immediately after creating the demand or by clicking the Assign Staffer button.

When looking for the right employee, you can use additional filters that allow you to make an even more accurate choice:

• Availability
• Certificate
• Default Role
• Education
• "Has pending time off"
• Person skill
• Seniority
• Staff Member

Assigning to a Project Without Creating a Demand

You don't need to create a demand if you know who you want to assign to the project. To skip this step, open the project and click the Search for Team Members button under the Team tab.

If you are unsure whether a given person will work on a project, there is an alternative: soft booking. To “soft book” someone on a project in Foresight, you can add an assignment with a Draft or Reserved status. If a given person cannot cover the draft or reserved assignment, you will see a notification about that person's Overbooking.

Verifying if a Person's Assignment Fully Covers the Demand

There may be a situation where a project’s demand will not be filled to 100 percent. If this happens, Foresight will show you this information. You’ll see it in the Demand Calendar tab on the project’s profile. It is presented in a graph with bars filling the demand coverage. The graphic below shows that the Bookkeeper demand has been filled (purple bar), while the rest of the role still requires people to be assigned.

Assigning Several People to One Demand

Bulk scheduling is an option that allows you to assign multiple people to a demand all at once. After clicking the Search for Team Members button, click the Bulk Scheduling button to select several people for one assignment. 

Status of a Demand (Filled by Someone on Vacation or Leaving Their Job)

Let’s say we’re planning work for our staffer, Inaaya Warren. The contract we’ve made with a client states that we must meet the demand of 500 total hours of project work.

When planning an Inaaya for a full 500 hours of work, it is essential to remember that this is the maximum number of hours she can work. However, there is a risk that fulfilling this demand may be disrupted due to vacations or departures.

For example, suppose Inaaya Warren takes a 14-day vacation (resulting in her unavailability for that period and an 80-hour shortfall). In that case, we must take appropriate steps to continue meeting our commitments to the client. In such a situation, we’d need to quickly adjust the work schedule to make up for those 80 hours at a different time or with the assistance of other employees.

You can check changes in demand coverage in real time using the Demand Calendar section.

To fill a demand with another employee, search for that employee by following the same steps for creating a new demand.

It's important to emphasize that monitoring the current state of demand concerning employee availability is key for managing situations like the one described. This allows you to react to any changes or threats to contract fulfillment while maintaining consistency and quality of service.

Connecting Demand to an Existing Assignment

The article below explains how to connect a demand to an existing or multiple assignments: FAQ: How To Connect Demand To An Existing Assignment.

When a Demand is linked to an Assignment, an additional "Demand Info" section with an arrow icon will appear in the Assignment Form. Clicking this arrow will expand the section, displaying key details from the linked Demand, including:

• Role
• Scheduled time
• Demand time
• Cost rate
• Bill rate
• Start date
• End date
• Associated skills
• Details note

This integration ensures that managers have all relevant Demand data directly within the Assignment Form, making workforce planning more efficient.

Custom Attributes in Demand

In the Details tab of the Demand form, you will find Custom Attributes. These are additional fields configured by your organization's Administrator to capture important project-specific data. Depending on company requirements, these fields can be mandatory or optional.

The availability and type of Custom Attributes are defined at the organization level, meaning they are consistent across all projects. If you are unsure how to fill out a specific field or why certain attributes appear, please contact an Administrator in your organization who manages BigTime Foresight settings for guidance.

Note: If you have Administrator permissions in BigTime Foresight and want to configure Custom Attributes for your organization, refer to the following instruction guide to learn more.

Demand Management Glossary

Demand – A project resource need that defines a role without assigning a specific person.

Assignment – The process of assigning a specific person to fulfill a demand.

Demand Location – The section in a project where demand entries are managed.

Demand Capacity – The percentage of a full-time workload allocated to a demand.

Off-Hours Work – Work scheduled outside of standard utilization and overbooking calculations.

No Utilization – A demand that does not allocate planned work hours but allows time tracking.

Utilization Settings – Configuration for how demand hours are distributed across workdays.

Bulk Create Demand – A feature that allows adding multiple demand entries at once.

Bulk Edit Demand – A tool to modify multiple demand entries in a single action.

Demand Info (in Assignment Form) – A section displaying linked demand details within an assignment.

Column Visibility – A setting that lets users choose which demand attributes appear in the table.

Filters – Search options to refine demand data based on attributes like role, seniority, or skills.

Custom Attributes – Administrator-defined fields that add extra data to demand entries.

Cost Centers – Financial categories used to track demand-related expenses.

Public Holiday Adjustments – A setting that modifies scheduling based on public holidays.

Soft Booking – A tentative assignment that reserves a person for a demand without confirmation.

Overbooking – A situation where a person is assigned more work than their available capacity.

Demand Coverage – The percentage of a demand that has been filled with assignments.