Capacity planning; it’s the PMO’s eternal headache, right? Too many projects, not enough people, constant firefighting. It’s just the way of the world. Or is it?
For years, PMOs have been told that resource chaos is just part of the job. But here’s the truth: It doesn’t have to be. If you’re constantly battling bottlenecks, firefighting conflicts, and trying to explain to executives why their projects aren’t getting done, you’re not alone. And more importantly, we have a solution.
The real issue? Poor planning, not poor execution.
It’s not that the PMO lays out a great plan which then mysteriously falls apart. The problem is that leadership keeps pushing for too many projects, and there’s no structured way to turn the approved projects into a realistic, achievable delivery plan.
What happens next is inevitable:
Sound familiar? This is not an execution problem, it’s a planning problem.
If you want to solve resource management problems, start with smarter planning. That means tackling Capacity Planning and Scheduling—two different but equally crucial levers for portfolio success.
Capacity planning is about ensuring your project list is actually deliverable with the resources you have.
Let’s be clear: 100% utilization is a terrible idea. It leads to task-switching and errors which waste up to 40% of your capacity through rework. Instead, aim for 80-85% utilization, and you’ll actually get more done.
This isn’t just theory, it’s been proven again and again and conceptually it's simple. Imagine a highway that's at 100% capacity. We have a name for that; a traffic jam!
Once you go beyond a certain utilization rate, traffic slows. Keep adding more cars and you don't end up with more people reaching their destination, rather you slow to a standstill.
But if you load the road at around 80% everything flows smoothly. The same applies to project teams.
So, you need to do fewer projects. That means you must prioritize projects (so you know which projects add most value) and then you need to optimize your portfolio selection to maximize value given the shape of your resource constraints.
This is an exercise in running multiple scenarios to work out which combination of projects adds most value while simultaneously not overloading your teams. This is slow, thankless work…
…unless you use TransparentChoice’s specialized AI capabilities. TransparentChoice can simulate thousands of portfolios in just a few seconds meaning you end up with maximum value from a portfolio that fits within your resource constraints.
Here's the typical scenario: it's a new budget year, execs want to see their projects started and so you kick them all off.
More specifically, you kick them all off at once and you end up with... gridlock!
A classic mistake? The financial year starts, and every project gets the green light. What happens next? Your most critical resource pools are immediately overwhelmed, teams are juggling multiple projects, and progress slows to a crawl.
The fix? Stagger your project start dates. Prioritize properly, smooth out demand, and let your most critical teams finish their work before piling on more. The result? Faster delivery, higher efficiency, and executives who don’t have to wonder why nothing ever gets finished.
Of course, manually building a perfectly optimized portfolio roadmap is… well, impossible. It’s hours of work just to come up with one scenario that kinda-sorta-works.
That’s where TransparentChoice’s AI steps in, optimizing your portfolio roadmap in seconds so your teams get the best possible plan without the guesswork.
The result is projects that your delivery team isn’t overloaded. Yes, this means they get their lives back, the PMO spends less time firefighting and even the executives are happy. More projects are being completed more quickly and with fewer errors.
It’s a win-win-win.
Now, let’s clear up a common misconception:
Capacity planning isn’t about defining individual tasks or mapping out every step of a project in advance. For each project it’s about resource requirements at the team level. It doesn’t have to be bottom-up – an estimate based on previous projects would be great!
At the portfolio level, it’s about working out which projects should be delivered in which order to maximize value. It looks something like this:
This is where things usually fall apart. Traditionally, updating the portfolio schedule is a slow, painful process. But TransparentChoice’s AI-powered portfolio scheduling software does it in seconds, ensuring that your portfolio stays realistic even as projects evolve.
The Magic of Iteration: Capacity Planning + Scheduling
Capacity Planning and Scheduling are a dynamic duo, not a one-and-done exercise.
This iterative approach gives leadership real control over portfolio performance—something they’ve historically only dreamed of.
PMO leaders have been trained to be great at firefighting. But wouldn’t it be better to not have to fight the fires in the first place?
Together, they let your PMO deliver more projects, faster, with fewer headaches.
This isn’t just good for the PMO; it’s good for the executive team too. They finally get visibility into planning decisions, control over key resources, and confidence that projects will get delivered.
That’s what separates successful PMOs from the one's stuck firefighting every day. Want to see how you can stop reactive firefighting and start proactive planning?
👉 Book a demo to see how TransparentChoice helps PMOs build achievable, high-impact portfolios—without the headaches.