A simple guide to resource analysis + steps you can implement right away

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Useful links to more resource analysis and tracking essentials 

• Get to grips with all things resource tracking, complete with nine key metrics to prioritize
• Manage resource shortages with confidence using tactics to ensure resource availability
• Learn simple and actionable resource optimization techniques to help your team do their best work

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The first few emails hit your inbox: resource requests from your project managers. Then an email from management, asking about the capacity of your back-end developers. 

A quick glance at Slack shows a message from a key team member who is overwhelmed and unable to take on more work. And with summer approaching, you remember that you still need to factor in how time off will impact three upcoming projects 🫠

You know that you need to understand the state of your resources before you make any decisions, but where do you start?  

The answer lies in resource analysis. 

In this guide, we’ll show you how to <highlight>assess your resources, identify the right metrics, choose the best tools, and turn insights into action.</highlight>

What is resource analysis? 

Resource analysis is the process of assessing and tracking how resources are allocated and making data-driven decisions to improve efficiency and ensure successful project completion. 

While ‘resources’ could refer to time, equipment, and budget, when we talk about resources at Float, we mean the people on your team 🧑‍💻

People-focused resource analysis usually involves looking at data from a resource management tool to answer questions like: 

• Do we have the capacity to handle this project?
• Who is the most suitable person to do the work?
• Should we bring in contractors to help?
• Should we assign fewer or more tasks to our team members?

Depending on the tool you’re using, answering these questions—and assessing resources in general—can be easy 👇

A real-life example of resource analysis 

Lauren O’Halloran is the Director of Production at Toaster, a creative agency with offices in London, San Francisco, Singapore, and New Delhi. 

She holds daily, 15-minute stand-ups with her team to discuss upcoming allocations. During these meetings, they update their task management tool, Trello, with each team member’s tasks. 

Then, every Monday, O’Halloran has a bigger meeting with the project managers to analyze her resources. Using their resource management tool, Float, they assess whether team members are underutilized or overloaded for the upcoming week and adjust project assignments accordingly. 

If this weekly resource analysis meeting surfaces any issues, they involve the creative directors for support, or escalate any problems.

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Lauren O’Halloran

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Director of Production at Toaster

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We use Float every day, and I always have it open in my browser. I rely on it for checking how the team is logging their time, and monitoring team allocations. 

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When should you conduct resource analysis?

Resource analysis isn’t something you can do once, then sit back. It should be ongoing—so you can continuously optimize how your team’s time and skills are used. 

That said, there are some specific instances where conducting resource analysis becomes especially critical:

⚒️ At the start of new projects: during the project planning stage, it’s essential to analyze your resources to determine whether you have the right team members to handle the workload. This helps set realistic timelines and ensure the project starts on the right foot.

👥 During resource allocation: when distributing tasks and assigning team members to specific roles, resource analysis helps you make informed decisions. Understanding each team member’s capacity, skills, and workload helps you assign tasks to the right people, and prevent overloading or underutilizing anyone.

🚧 When managing resource constraints: if your team is facing limitations, such as tight deadlines, reduced capacity, or high demand for certain roles, resource analysis allows you to adjust your resource plans and find creative solutions to capacity management challenges.

🏆 At the end of projects: after a project is completed, analyzing resource utilization and allocations gives you valuable insights for the next project. You can evaluate whether time and skills were used efficiently and apply these learnings to improve future projects.

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Real-time resource analysis, anytime you need it

In Float, your resource data is constantly updated in real time, with a visual interface that makes it easy to see who’s assigned to what. No more guesswork—just clear, actionable insights whenever you need them.

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Importance of resource analysis: 4 reasons you should assess your people

Resource analysis sounds technical, but it’s really just about making sure your team’s time is being spent on the most important work that also caters to their individual interests and professional goals. By blending data with personal insights, you prioritize measurable outcomes and your team’s satisfaction. Here’s why that’s important:

1. Ensure project success

Analyzing resources enables your people to meet due dates and deliverables by helping you assign the right (and available) resources to activities. This, in turn, increases the likelihood of delivering a successful project on time.  

2. Improve decision making 

Understanding your people—including their availability and capabilities—helps you make better decisions on how to allocate resources to meet project goals. For example, resource analysis can help you spot a trend of overallocation and put a stop to it before your team members burn out.

3. Run cost-efficient projects 

You can find opportunities to reduce costs by using your people’s time more wisely. Direct it to efforts that matter, like urgent and important projects for a high-value customer or improving internal processes, and avoid unnecessary project costs by reducing overtime spent on projects. 

4. Enhance team well-being 

Problems like overutilization and underutilization can be easily spotted when you analyze resources, helping you manage and distribute team workload more effectively. Also, importantly, you can match your people to the right projects, ensuring they have the right skill set and competencies to handle their tasks. 

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How to conduct resource analysis

First things first ☝️ To make resource analysis a lot easier, we recommend using a dedicated resource management tool for the process we’re about to lay out. Yes, you could use a spreadsheet, but when your team size grows to more than 30 people, they require increasingly complex formulas and lots of work to manage.

Resource management tools show you precisely how your people’s time is allocated across multiple projects, making it easy to identify inefficiencies and adjust plans accordingly. You get real-time, accurate information with none of the hassle. Here’s what it looks like 👇

1. Set a goal

It’s very easy to get lost in the sea of data about your resources, so it’s best to start by asking, “What do I need to know?” 

From here, you can determine the data you need to gather, which may vary depending on your role. 

For instance, a resource manager might analyze resources to understand how their team’s time is spent and plan team workload. A project manager allocating resources to a project might first want to see if they have enough people to work on it.  

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Japie Stoppelenberg

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Founder of Truus

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Once a week, we have a meeting, usually on Thursday around noon, where we check if everything is clear for the following week. We ask: is next week clear for everyone? Are there any issues that need to be addressed? Is anyone double-booked or in need of a specific resource?

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2. Source the right resource data

Look into your work management tool, resourcing spreadsheet, or dedicated resource management tool for the necessary data. You’re most likely focused on three key areas: capacity, efficiency, and workloads. 

Simply put, you want to check if your team has the capacity to take on new projects, ensure time is being used effectively, and confirm that people are assigned to the right tasks without being overworked or underworked, especially if you’re dipping into a shared resource pool.

Here are some key metrics to look at:

• Utilization rates: to see the percentage of time a resource is being used productively and to gauge if they are being overworked
• Overtime: to spot the number of extra hours worked beyond the standard schedule
• Scheduled time off: to measure the planned time employees are unavailable due to PTO, vacations, or other reasons
• Available skills and roles: to spot skill gaps or reduced capacity in roles within the team
• Capacity (by hours): to understand the total available working hours for a resource or team
• Billable hours: to track the productive hours that clients can be charged for 
• Non-billable hours: to measure time spent on tasks that cannot be billed to clients, like administrative work or internal meetings

👉 Learn about the key resource tracking metrics to prioritize.

If you use a resource management tool like Float, you can easily find this information on your team’s shared schedule:

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Or in a capacity report, if your tool has reporting capabilities:

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Pro tip: don’t rely solely on quantitative data when assessing your team’s performance. 

Qualitative data from observing how your team works, engaging in conversations, and paying attention to feedback can help you understand the nuances behind the numbers. For example, a team member may appear fully utilized on paper, but you might discover they feel overwhelmed or are struggling with a particular task through conversation. Similarly, someone working fewer hours might be taking on critical but less measurable responsibilities, such as mentoring junior team members.

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3. Analyze your data

When assessing data, you can use three approaches 👇

• Look for patterns: identify recurring trends or behaviors in your data. For example, how many people are consistently spending time on non-billable activities? 

• Compare current and past data: check for shifts or changes over time. Are specific roles, like developers, seeing reduced capacity as projects progress? 

• Identify data that goes against expectations: spot anomalies or deviations. Are there individuals working on tasks that don’t match their skills, leading to delays? 

4. Take action and make improvements

Based on what you’ve discovered, it’s time to ask: What changes need to be made to improve resource allocation and team output?

Let’s explore some scenarios and actionable steps you can take:

Reduced availability of specific roles or skills

If you notice gaps in certain roles or critical skills becoming scarce, this is a signal to set hiring plans in motion. You can share this information with the right stakeholders so they can hire new talent or invest in upskilling your current team. 

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👀 See it in action

Accounts and Legal is a UK-based consultancy firm that proactively hires based on insights from its resource capacity. Using Float, managers assign roles to team members and monitor reports closely to see when the capacity for a certain role is almost full, indicating the need to hire.

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Heavy workloads

When you notice that some team members are consistently overworked, it’s time to step in and manage their workloads more effectively. You can work with managers to redistribute tasks or adjust timelines. Consider bringing in additional resources to balance the load if your internal team is at capacity. 

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👀 See it in action

The capacity management team at Scholz & Friends, a leading global agency, uses Float to get a clear overview of who is working on what and whether they’re fully booked. When they notice there’s too much work and not enough staff, they look for help from other offices or, as a last resort, bring in freelance support.

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High utilization rates 

If you find that some individuals are not assigned enough work, consider it an opportunity to reassign them to projects that match their skills or strengths. This helps ensure everyone contributes, team members feel valued, and your organization is not losing money.

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👀 See it in action

While looking through her team’s shared schedule in Float, Comfort Agemo, the Senior Capacity and Freelance manager at Scholz & Friends, looks for team members with low utilization. When she spots a trend, she investigates why they aren’t being assigned to projects, which often helps her identify skill gaps that need to be addressed.

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[fs-toc-omit] Assess your resources with the right tool

Accurate data is the foundation of effective analysis.

If you’re still relying on spreadsheets for resource management, you’re likely no stranger to common bottlenecks, like manual errors and accidental formula changes, that can cause everything to go wrong.

The good news is you don’t have to spend hours in Excel to get the right information. Switch to a dedicated resource management software (like Float 👋) to make decisions quickly and with confidence. 

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Error-free resource analysis

With Float, you get precise resource data in one place, making analysis and decision-making seamless. Ready to eliminate errors and streamline your resource management?

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Dive deeper into resource tracking and analysis: 

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• A complete introduction to resource tracking
• Resource optimization tactics for teams that put people first
• How to track resource availability and manage shortages effectively

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