10 best capacity planning tools. One of the most critical project planning processes for project directors is capacity planning, which entails aligning a team’s capacity with an anticipated project demand. The availability of resources that are available to a project team and the resource requirements of the project must be properly balanced during capacity planning.
Leaders must assess their team’s capacity and resources to meet project demands, and if not, they must acquire the necessary resources. Capacity planning eliminates the supposition involved in determining deadlines and allocating resources. When a business is scaling, this kind of planning is extremely important to ensure that you can expand without your staff being burned out.
Best 10 Capacity Planning Tools for 2023
In this article, you can know about Best 10 Capacity Planning Tools for 2023 here are the details below;
Capacity planning helps achieve company goals by ensuring that a team completes the project on time and on budget. Resource capacity planning tools assist expedite a lot of the arduous procedures necessary in capacity planning. See our picks for the top ten best capacity planning tools for 2023 by reading on.
Why use a capacity planning tool?
Creating timesheets is only one component of capacity planning.
Project managers must first understand the particular demands of the project before transforming those needs into resources and capacity.
This can include the amount of hours of labour required or special tools the team will need to use.
The next step is establishing their team’s capacity versus the project’s timeline.
If the project manager finds a gap between available resources and project demand, they must then align capacity with demand.
If capacity exceeds demand, the project manager may accelerate completion or scale back the workforce.
If the project’s demands are frequently more than the team’s capacity, the project manager may decide to modify priorities or enlarge the team.
A capacity management system makes this process clear and painless by automating tasks like resource use and optimization.
Capacity planning tools help automate scheduling and track team performance to provide project managers a more accurate picture of their team’s bandwidth.
They can also automatically produce reports and reviews that notify stakeholders about current capacity.
Employ a scheduling tool like Clockwise in addition to capacity planning tools.
When it comes to controlling everyone’s time, Clockwise gives managers clear visibility into how many hours each team member spends in Focus Time vs meetings.
What to look for in resource capacity planning tools
The use of resource capacity planning tools is essential for accurate and efficient planning, but not all tools are created equal.
When choosing capacity planning tools, look for integration, automation, real-time data, and flexibility.
1. Integration with existing software
The purpose of capacity planning software is to make a project manager’s job simpler, not harder.
Look for tools that integrate seamlessly with the project management and human resources management tools your team already uses.
2. Automation is crucial.
Most steps of the process are automated by the best capacity planning tools.
Without automation, capacity planners spend too much time setting up Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.
But, the best capacity planning tools go beyond straightforward task automation and employ AI to automatically adjust capacity as conditions, such as supply chain interruptions, change.
AI is also able to forecast capacity for new projects.
3. Reports and analytics in real-time
For resource capacity planning tools, real-time reporting and analytics are critical.
Project managers may swiftly assess resource availability and acquire a bird’s-eye view of capacity with real-time data.
This enables managers to adjust timetables and resource allocation during the project.
4. flexibility and scaling
Because each company has different capacity planning needs, the best capacity planning tools offer flexibility and adaptation.
Look for capacity planning tools that offer options that can grow with your company.
2023’s Top Ten Best Capacity Planning Tools
Based on the aforementioned factors, these are our top 10 suggestions for the best capacity planning tools for 2022.
Kantanta
Kantanta, originally Mavenlink, is a complete project management application.
Resource management and optimization are elements of this technology.
One of its key features is that it can access data from all of your systems, and it offers great demand forecasting and planning skills.
Features: Integrations, processes, business intelligence, and resource scheduling and optimization
Pros: Full feature software and extensive integrations
Pro: Expensive
Pricing: Upon request
The best candidates are large corporations that depend on legacy systems that capacity planning tools must interface with.
Toggl
Toggl is an all-in-one project management programme that offers three dashboards for a project: project management, team planning, and task management.
This makes keeping track of jobs and the workload of your team straightforward.
Project management, project scheduling, and an HR solution in one
Pros: This is one of the best capacity planning tools accessible for project managers and team members.
Cons: People-centric capacity planning that ignores non-HR resources and equipment
Pricing: Free to test, with paid memberships starting at $9/user per month.
Their pro plans come with a 30-day trial so you may try them out before you buy.
Best for: Businesses that rely primarily on hours of work as a resource in capacity planning
Another resource management tool with all the bells and whistles is predicted.
It uses artificial intelligence to produce important insights and forecast (as the name implies) future capacity planning.
Forecast
Tools for project accounting, resource management, business intelligence, and project management.
Pros: AI-powered insights and deep integrations
Cons: Expensive and includes tools that not all teams need.
Pricing: Starting at $39 per user per month.
Best for: Larger businesses looking for an all-in-one platform to power all project management components
Saviom
Saviom is enterprise-level software that delivers capacity planning tools including resource and staff management, as well as real-time scheduling and forecasting.
Saviom takes a step further and keeps track of KPIs and other business metrics.
Features: Real-time features that alter capacity estimates to changing circumstances, as well as a warning system to identify and address project bottlenecks
Pros: Business-oriented analytics and strong real-time adjustments
Cons: Certain features, such KPI tracking, can be unnecessary or already included in another piece of software.
Pricing: Demos are free, however paid plans are not listed.
Best for: Large enterprises that are hunting for an all-in-one solution
ClickUp
That’s right; ClickUp isn’t just for task management.
Unlike other task apps, ClickUp also has a workload view feature that helps project managers plan and visualise the team’s capacity.
ClickUp’s capacity can be evaluated using tasks, hours, or points (using the Agile and Scrum points system).
A real-time snapshot of activity levels and a Gantt chart for building roadmaps are among the capabilities.
Advantages: a task management and capacity planning template that is incorporated
Cons: Limited capacity to spot bottlenecks and awkward interface
Pricing: Free plan for life, premium plans start at $5 per user each month
Best for: Small firms without complex resource capacity planning tools.
ResourceGuru
Strong features and a user-friendly design are ResourceGuru’s key selling points.
You can see how much capacity each team member has left at a glance thanks to its hilarious calendar layout, which also offers alerts for scheduling exceeding capacity.
ResourceGuru is easy to use thanks to its drag and drop interface.
Features: Covers reservation of meeting places and equipment management
Positives: Simple to use, quick, and prevents overbooking
Cons: Lacks adaptability and customisable features
Pricing: Monthly fees start at $2.50 per user.
Companies whose capacity planning must account for equipment management are the best candidates.
Runn
Runn is free to use to get started for project managers.
It offers both a broad calendar view and in-depth information about specific team members.
Runn also features financial tracking and reporting for projects.
Detailed and high-level insights
Pros: Useful features for tiny teams
Cons: Does not have advanced features that larger teams may demand.
Pricing: Free for the first five users, $10 per user per month for the pro plan.
Nonprofits and organisations from low-income nations receive 50% discount.
Best for: Small enterprises and nonprofit organisations in need of a free tool.
Smartsheet (10,000ft)
In 2019, Smartsheet acquired 10,000ft, a capacity planning tool.
Smartsheet provides basic but dynamic capacity tracking and reporting.
As they offer a choice of plans with distinct features that can handle teams of different sizes, this is one of the best capacity planning tools.
Features: resource allocation, capacity estimates, and time tracking
A benefit is having features that scale with your company’s size.
Cons: Works best when combined with the Smartsheet environment.
Pricing: Professional, Business, and Enterprise
Teams that require a solution that can grow with them as they do and anticipate expansion are the best fit for this solution.
Monday.com
Monday.com is a highly customisable integration management platform that can handle any assignment.
Because of its excellent integration capabilities and flexibility, Monday.com is one of the best capacity planning tools for teams who seek specialised functionality.
Project roadmaps, resource allocation, team capacity evaluation, and projection are some of the capacity planning tools that are accessible on Monday.com.
Features: Modular and integration customisation
Pros: Extremely configurable and compatible with practically any software
Cons: Customization and setup require knowledge and time.
Pricing: There is a free plan for life, and monthly premium subscriptions start at $8 per user.
Businesses with unique capacity planning requirements that necessitate customization are the best candidates.
Float
The HR and capacity planning application Float takes a “people first” approach to capacity planning. Float, which permits a shared work schedule, allows project managers to see what the team members are working on. Float can assist managers in identifying gaps beforehand so they can hire or contract out work to meet project requirements.
Features: A shared calendar and HR management tools
- Positives: The availability of a single solution for capacity planning and HR requirements
- Cons: Ignores non-HR resources that are necessary for some projects.
- Basic package for $6 per user per month with resource planning.
- The cost for time tracking is $10 per user per month.
- Best for: Businesses that have fluctuating labour demands, often contract out employees, and need to track billable hours
Going forward
Capacity planning tools assist project managers to allocate project resources effectively and forecast their team’s capacity to scale and take on new projects.
The best capacity planning tools support integrations, automation, real-time data, and flexibility.
Any one of our top ten best capacity planning tools for 2023 will be very helpful to project managers.