Architecture and engineering projects rarely stay exactly where they started. EquilibriaPM gives project managers a flexible way to build a resource plan, keep it current as schedules change, and see workload conflicts before they become delivery problems.
Spreadsheets are flexible when the first plan is being built. The difficulty comes when the project begins changing.
Spreadsheets are flexible and familiar. They work especially well when you're building the first version of a staffing plan.
The problem comes later. When a project phase moves, assignments need to move. When staffing changes, multiple rows, formulas, dates, and tabs may need to be updated. As more projects overlap, keeping the resource plan current can become almost as much work as creating it in the first place.
EquilibriaPM is designed to preserve the flexibility of that planning process while making the plan easier to maintain after the initial schedule is built.
Resources are allocated to tasks, so the resource plan stays attached to the actual project structure instead of living in a separate staffing sheet.
Each project can contain multiple phases. Each phase can contain multiple tasks. Staff resources are allocated directly to those tasks.
The overall client project.
Major portions of project work.
Where staff resources are allocated.
Project managers can assign an employee to a task using either:
Employee capacity is measured in hours, set by project managers, and can be changed when the planning assumption changes.
A resource plan is only useful if it stays connected to the schedule that created it.
When scheduled work moves in EquilibriaPM, the associated staff assignments move automatically with it.
That means a project manager can adjust the plan without manually recreating the staffing schedule every time a task or phase shifts.
Instead of asking “What else do I need to update because this date changed?”, the project manager can focus on “What does this change do to the rest of the team?”
Schedules and staffing plans aren't the only things that change during a project. A task may be waiting on client feedback. A structural background may not have arrived. Information another team needs may be delayed.
EquilibriaPM Issues give project managers and staff a simple way to surface those problems directly on the task where they occur. A project manager can create an Issue to make the team aware of a problem affecting the work, and staff can create Issues when they encounter a hold-up that the project manager needs to know about.
Issues are shared project communication visible through the Hub and Schedule views. Once the problem has been addressed, the Issue can be removed.
The goal is intentionally simple: make problems visible early, connect them to the affected task, and give the team a shared picture of what may be holding up the project.
The Team view gives project managers a forward-looking picture of employee load, with enough context to understand where the work is coming from.
Employees are listed vertically and time runs across the horizontal axis. Project managers can toggle between daily and weekly views depending on the level of detail needed.
EquilibriaPM is more useful for looking ahead than for analyzing utilization after the fact.
Project managers set employee capacity in hours and can change it when availability assumptions change.
Task allocations roll into the Team view so planned workload can be compared with available capacity.
Use upcoming overload and task-level Issues to decide what needs attention before delivery is affected.
In architecture and engineering firms, employees often contribute to several projects at the same time. The challenge is understanding how all of those assignments interact when the plan changes.
Keep concurrent schedules and their staffing demands visible without maintaining a separate resource workbook.
Adjust the schedule while associated task assignments follow the work automatically.
Keep Issues such as missing backgrounds or delayed feedback visible alongside the plan.
The point is not just to create a plan. It is to keep the plan usable as the project changes.
Organize work into projects, phases, and tasks.
Assign employees to tasks using hours or a percentage of available time.
Define the available hours for each employee and change them when needed.
Move work when project dates and priorities change.
Associated resource assignments move automatically with the scheduled work.
Review upcoming load and task-level problems before they affect delivery.
Spreadsheets aren't the enemy. Their flexibility is one of the reasons they're so commonly used for resource planning. But the flexibility that makes a spreadsheet easy to build can make it difficult to maintain once projects start moving.
EquilibriaPM was built to keep the flexibility project managers need when creating the plan while reducing the manual work required to keep that plan accurate afterward.
Explore EquilibriaPM and see how project schedules, task assignments, employee capacity, Team workload, and Issues work together as the plan changes.
Contact the company directly about the product, the demo, or using EquilibriaPM at your architecture or engineering firm.