Optimal Resource Allocation Optimizing an organization’s labor resources across its processes, products, and project Optimize product is a significant dilemma for every organization. Add issues (changes, anomalies, enhancements, questions) supporting processes, products, and projects makes the problem more complex. How an organization uses its labor force across all efforts to maximize its ROI is a daily question that numerous executives ponder? ROI (return-on-investment) in this fact sheet signifies the financial return on the investment or the benefits derived for the end-users and stakeholders from their investment. The Optimize product US patent-approved resource allocation method guarantees the most critical tasks receive the best available labor resources while considering current experience, productivity, logistics, and costs. The performs the allocation process daily. The allocation takes place in minutes what would take an executive team of a dozen weeks to achieve. In nearly all organizations, executives assign, at the start of each process, product, project, or issue the individuals they believe are suited for the needed labor categories to the new process, product, project, and issue tasks. When panic occurs, they adjust their assignments. The Optimize product assigns individuals by allocating the best available resources for the required labor category to the essential tasks. As a result, the Optimize product uses an organization’s labor force across the tasks associated for the organization’s processes, products, projects, and issues. Determining Most Important Tasks The Optimize product creates a data structure containing the tasks from all the processes, products, projects, and issues for the allocation period at the end of the day. Task importance determines the list order. The default allocation period is three weeks, but a Portfolio Manager can change the allocation period from 2-10 weeks. The “Most Important Task” in the Optimize product combines three attributes: (1) Ranking (see “Ranking” fact sheet), (2) Critical Path Additive Factor, and (3) the Requirements Additive Factor. Critical path tasks affect the activities (process, product, and project) contributing to the end date. A manager specifies the “Requirement Additive” factor to differentiate between one requirement from another. The “Agile” methodology assures the implementation order satisfies the end-users and stakeholders’ desire for requirements (features) they wish to verify. The “Requirements Addition” factor is equivalent to the Agile prioritization feature. The formula for computing the “Most Important Task” is: Most Important Task = Ranking + Critical Path Factor + Requirements Factor Determining Best Available Person The Optimize product creates a data structure of “best-available-person” for the task during the allocation period for each task’s required labor category. What is the “Best Available Person?” In the Optimize product, it combines three attributes: Productivity, Process/Product/Project Experience, and Task Experience. The “Best Available Person” formula is: Best Available Person = Productivity + Process/Product/Project Experience + Task Experience Assigning Tasks The Optimize product assigns the best available person to the most critical task from the portfolio of processes, products, projects, and issues tasks. It starts with the most crucial task to the least critical task for the allocation period. Team Member’s (TM’s) assignments are posted in date order and ranking order within date to each Home Page Work Flow list. The list is also posted to their appropriate manager for the process, product, or project. Each TM uses this list to communicate their progress on their assigned tasks to the process, product, project manager at the end of the day. Staffing messages The Optimize product provides two critical messages after allocation to portfolio managers and executives. The first is “Unallocated Resources,” which summarizes the hours not used for an organization’s staff during the allocation period. The “Unallocated Resources” lets management know they have more resources than they need (possibly adjusting their labor resources), or at a minimum, making sure these people who have un-scheduled hours have meaningful tasks to be accomplished. The second is “Missing Resources,” which summarizes the tasks that are missing their resources needed during the coming allocation period. Management knows that the designated processes, products, projects, issues face severe staffing shortages in meeting their commitments.