Who’s Doing What, and When?
Traditional project portfolio managementProject Portfolio ManagementProject portfolio management (PPM) is a process that seeks to select, prioritize, monitor and analyze a company’s projects. tools require every detail long before a projectProjectA project is a time-limited undertaking with defined objectives and resources that delivers unique results and often includes complex tasks. even starts. And work management tools only know about projects that are already underway.
Meisterplan is different: You plan future projects at a high level to create a realistic portfolio. The details from active projects are synced from your teams’ work management tools. This gives you full visibility into who is doing what, and when, across every planning horizon.
Different Time Horizons Require Different Levels of Planning Detail
The amount of effort you invest in the details of your portfolio and resource planning depends on whether projectsProjectA project is a time-limited undertaking with defined objectives and resources that delivers unique results and often includes complex tasks. are still far in the future, about to begin, or already underway. With each step closer to delivery, your planning becomes more precise.
- Future projects: Plan ahead at a high level by estimating which roles you'll need, when you’ll need them, and how much capacity they’ll require.
- Projects starting soon: Assign specific people to roles and refine your top-down plans based on the project team’s bottom-up planning.
- Active projects: Optimize individual utilization and resolve ad-hoc resourceResourceResources are all the people, places and things that you need to complete projects. The most important resource? Employees, of course! conflicts as they come up.
Plan Future Projects and Resource Requirements at a High Level
Create New Projects in Minutes
ProjectProjectA project is a time-limited undertaking with defined objectives and resources that delivers unique results and often includes complex tasks. name, rough timeline, estimated role-based capacity demand – that’s all you need to create a project in Meisterplan. You can quickly create confirmed projects or service requests. Or, add project ideas that haven’t been approved yet, but whose capacity requirements you want to evaluate.
Plan Broadly and Schedule in Advance
Meisterplan compares your estimated capacity demand with available capacity. Prioritize a new project with drag-and-drop and schedule it when the required roles are available. This gives you a reliable initial prediction for the project start date before detailed planning even begins.
Manage Capacity for the Long Term
Maintain a portfolio-level view of which capacities are already committed in upcoming quarters. Identify bottlenecks early enough to address them and see which skills and capacities you need to build in order to stay properly staffed.
Plan Projects in More Detail as They Approach
As a projectProjectA project is a time-limited undertaking with defined objectives and resources that delivers unique results and often includes complex tasks. moves closer to execution, high-level role demands turn into concrete staffing requests. Assign roles to people who are actually available. Your teams continue detailed planning in their own tools.
- Staff projects: Assign projects from the requested role to the individual – based on actual availability.
- Integrate work management: Meisterplan connects your teams' delivery tools and gives you insight into tasks and dependencies in the portfolio.
- Compare plans: If the team’s plan differs from your portfolio plan, it becomes clear early on whether the estimate or the scope is incorrect.
Keep Active Projects Under Control
Things change every day during execution. Deadlines shift, priorities change, and people become unavailable. Meisterplan shows you immediately what this means for your portfolio.
- Resolve resource conflicts: Review the affected projectsProjectA project is a time-limited undertaking with defined objectives and resources that delivers unique results and often includes complex tasks. and explore alternatives before replanning.
- Compare plans to reality: The progress data from your teams' tools flows back into the portfolio to ensure your commitments remain reliable.
- See realistic utilization: Get an accurate picture of employeeEmployeeSynonym for → ResourceResources are all the people, places and things that you need to complete projects. The most important resource? Employees, of course! availability that takes all planned projects and absences into account.