Capacity Analysis and Planning

What is business intelligence?

Business Intelligence (BI) is an umbrella term that refers to the software applications, infrastructure, tools, and practices that enable a business to access and analyze data generated in the normal course of business. The purpose of BI is to improve and optimize decisions and performance. The BI discipline comprised of several related activities: data mining, processing and analysis, querying and reporting. BI can be applied to many areas in the organization such as project management, finance, etc.

What are capacity analysis and planning?

Capacity analysis and planning utilizes the business intelligence practice of mining data from the company’s PMIS (Project Management Information Systems) as well as other sources such as business development and finance. This data is then optimized and stored in a data warehouse for later analysis and reporting. The aim of capacity analysis and planning is to provide the organization with data on ongoing resource utilization and future demand arising from ongoing projects and expected wins. Knowledge gained from capacity analysis and planning allows for streamlining and optimization of resource utilization allowing the organization to become more agile as well as to support management decision making with respect to resources.

What are the requirements for implementation of capacity planning practice?

Implementing the practice of capacity analysis and planning relies on data from various business units such as PMO, Finance and Business Development, we strive to mature these areas to support the data needs of the process with the goal of being able to capture and produce meaningful reports.

We highly recommend a thorough analysis of the maturity of each business unit providing input to the capacity analysis and planning process, as the quality of the input date will determine the quality and usefulness of the resulting reports.