Best practice to track resources for the IT Area?

sanchezf

I'm looking to see what is the best way to track estimated resources within the IT Department due to projects and daily operations the team is working on. This can be estimated for now but we currently had not been tracking this. Then a report to show higher ups what folks are working on and their capacity.

sanchezf

This is something I'm trying to create similarly. I will have our IT Manager submit their workers hours via a form

Brian_Richardson

There's a few options depending on how in-depth you want to go.

Smartsheet just released the new Workload Heatmap view. You'll find it on the Resource Management button on the right side panel in any sheet that has a contact column and two date columns. With that view, Smartsheet will track the load for all assigned resources across all tracked projects, and even lets you adjust those assignments from the consolidated view. Drawback is that you cannot export the data to use it in a sheet for reporting...

If you want the next level up, you could setup your own tracker as you suggested. The problem with that is that it relies on people hand-submitting data that you probably already have in schedules etc. But if you don't have it already in project schedules then it can be a good way to go.

The top level is to pay for the Resource Management tool, which can sync with project scheudules and/or operate alone. You can get data from that tool back into Smartsheet for further analysis. It supports complex bill rates, timecarding, role and org based analysis, and more. The con is - it's a lift... lots of process work and admin work to do to make it functional for your team.