Resource Allocator

The Resource Allocator skill helps managers and team leads optimize how people, budget, and tools are allocated across projects and initiatives. It emphasizes realistic capacity planning, skill matching, workload balancing, and strategic resource investment to maximize team effectiveness and prevent burnout.

This skill excels at analyzing team capacity, mapping skills to project needs, identifying resource constraints and bottlenecks, balancing competing priorities, and creating sustainable allocation plans that respect team members' growth goals and work-life balance.

Resource Allocator follows modern people-first principles: sustainable pace over hero culture, skill development over pure efficiency, and transparent allocation over political negotiations.

Core Workflows

Workflow 1: Calculate Team Capacity

Steps:

1. Identify Team Members

   • List all people on team or available for allocation
   • Include roles, seniority, and areas of expertise
   • Note any upcoming PTO, holidays, or planned absences
   • Document part-time or contractor availability

2. Calculate Individual Capacity

   • Work hours per week: Typically 40 hours
   • Subtract non-project time:
     • Meetings (10-20%): 4-8 hours/week
     • Email/Slack (5-10%): 2-4 hours/week
     • Administrative (5-10%): 2-4 hours/week
     • Support rotation (varies): 0-8 hours/week
   • Effective capacity: ~60-70% of total hours
   • Example: 40 hours × 0.65 = 26 hours/week available for project work

3. Adjust for Reality Factors

   • Onboarding: New team members at 30-50% capacity for first month
   • Context switching: Multi-project allocation reduces efficiency 20-30%
   • Technical debt: Reserve 10-20% for maintenance and refactoring
   • Bugs and support: Reserve 10-30% depending on product maturity
   • Learning time: Reserve 5-10% for skill development

4. Calculate Team Capacity

   • Sum individual effective capacities
   • Account for skill distribution (not all hours are fungible)
   • Identify peak/low capacity periods (holidays, conference season)
   • Create capacity forecast for next 3-6 months

Output: Team capacity model with individual and aggregate availability.

Workflow 2: Map Skills to Projects

Steps:

1. Analyze Project Requirements

   • List required skills for each project/initiative
   • Estimate hours needed per skill area
   • Identify if skills are readily available or scarce
   • Note learning curve for new technologies

2. Create Skill Matrix

   • Rows: Team members
   • Columns: Skills (React, API design, Database, DevOps, etc.)
   • Values: Proficiency level (1=Learning, 2=Competent, 3=Expert)

3. Match Skills to Needs

   • For each project, identify best-fit team members
   • Consider:
     • Skill match: Do they have required expertise?
     • Interest: Do they want to work on this?
     • Growth: Does this stretch them appropriately?
     • Availability: Do they have capacity?

4. Identify Gaps

   • Skills needed but no one has proficiency
   • Single points of failure (only one expert)
   • Training or hiring needs
   • Possible skill development opportunities

Output: Skill-based project staffing recommendations.

Workflow 3: Create Resource Allocation Plan

Steps:

1. List All Active Projects

   • Include project name, priority, and timeline
   • Estimated total effort (person-weeks or hours)
   • Required start and end dates
   • Dependencies on other projects or teams

2. Prioritize Projects

   • Use strategic framework (OKRs, business value, etc.)
   • Force-rank if resources are constrained
   • Identify must-have vs. nice-to-have
   • Determine if any projects should be deferred or canceled

3. Allocate Resources

   • Assign team members to projects
   • Specify allocation percentage (50%, 100%, etc.)
   • Aim for:
     • 100% allocation: One project per person (ideal)
     • 50/50 split: Two projects max per person
     • Avoid < 25%: Too small to make meaningful progress

4. Balance Workload

   • Check that no one is over-allocated (>100%)
   • Ensure junior members have mentorship
   • Distribute challenging work fairly
   • Mix maintenance and greenfield work

5. Timeline Validation

   • Map allocation to project timelines
   • Identify resource contention or bottlenecks
   • Adjust timelines or scope if capacity insufficient
   • Build in buffer (20%) for unknowns

6. Create Allocation Document

   • Visual timeline showing who's working on what when
   • Matrix view: People × Projects with percentages
   • Capacity vs. demand chart
   • Assumptions and constraints documented

Output: Complete resource allocation plan with timelines and assignments.

Workflow 4: Monitor and Rebalance

Steps:

1. Weekly Check-ins
   • Are people actually working on assigned projects?
   • Any blockers or unexpected work?
   • Capacity assump

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