Reporting for Management

I was once tasked to build a Capacity Model. The objective was to have a model to measure the department's resource utilization level. My manager were to use the model to justify to the higher powers of the need to hire more staff.

Sounds like an important task, extra motivation to get it done and done right. I spent the next few weeks working on the model. All along with feedbacks and advice from my manager. After 4 weeks, an oracle-like model was born. After all, it's supposed to tell us how much free time David has on a typical workday and also forecast his workload for the next 12 - 24 months. With this model, better management decisions can be made, such as assigning David more tasks. No more internet gossips for poor David.

So I proudly presented my Capacity Model to my manager, along with a few other team leads. Try as I might to explain the technical bits in layman's term, the design of the model - detailing the various key drivers that powered it, all in the hope of buying their confidence vote that this thing can help them make the best resource management decisions.

First run with real-life data – Model showed most teams under-utilized. Not good. Manager wants to hire additional staffs. Needless to say, changes were inevitable. I "updated" the model and tweaked various parts.

Second run - still showing teams under-utilized. "The teams are over-stretched, the model should reflect that", said my manager. I went straight to the data and changed them. Finally the model showed the "right" results. It had to. She was pleased.

I have since left the company. Recently I received an email from a lady, who asked for help with the Capacity Model. She was tasked to update the model but found it too complicated and asked if I could help her. My advice to her; find out first what the results the managers expect (want) to see. Feed the model with data that give them just that. Feel free to make up your own data if necessary. Process is secondary, end result is everything.