Reference
The jargon behind scheduling, capacity, and profitability — without the jargon.
The use of artificial intelligence to optimize resource allocation decisions, predict scheduling conflicts, and automate routine planning tasks.
A block of time assigned to a person for a specific project, representing the building block of any resource schedule.
The actual hours a team member is free for project work after accounting for time off, holidays, and reduced schedules.
The remaining capacity a team member or team has available for new work after accounting for all current commitments.
Periods when a team member has no billable project work assigned and is effectively idle from a revenue perspective.
Hours spent on client work that can be charged against a project's billing rate.
The minimum revenue or billable hours needed to cover all fixed and variable costs, resulting in zero profit and zero loss.
The rate at which a project or organization consumes its budget over time, measured in monetary units or hours per period.
A tangible output or artifact produced during a project and handed to the client, such as a design file, a deployed feature, or a strategy document.
A visual scheduling method where allocations are created, moved, and resized by dragging directly on a timeline.
Using current scheduling, capacity, and financial data to predict future workload, staffing needs, and project profitability.
A unit that normalizes different working arrangements into a single measure, where 1.0 FTE equals one person working full-time hours.
A unit of work equal to one person working one full day, typically 8 hours. Used for estimating project scope and tracking capacity.
An open protocol that lets AI models securely connect to external tools and data sources, enabling direct interaction with business applications.
A key checkpoint in a project that marks the completion of a major phase or deliverable, used to track progress and trigger decisions.
When a team member is assigned more work hours than they have available, leading to missed deadlines, quality drops, and eventual burnout.
Ongoing business expenses that aren't directly billable to any client — rent, software subscriptions, admin salaries, and other operational costs.
Hours worked beyond an employee's standard monthly capacity, often indicating overallocation or unrealistic project timelines.
A tentative booking that reserves capacity for an unconfirmed project or an unnamed team member.
A forward-looking projection of whether a project or team will generate profit, based on scheduled allocations, billing rates, and costs.
The percentage of revenue remaining after subtracting costs — expressed as gross margin (direct costs only) or net margin (all costs including overhead).
The total hours or monetary limit allocated to a project, used to track spending and prevent overruns.
The person responsible for delivering a specific project on time, within budget, and to the agreed scope — coordinating team, client, and resources.
A chronological plan laying out a project's phases, milestones, and deliverables from kickoff to completion.
A government-mandated non-working day that varies by country and region, automatically reducing employee availability in scheduling tools.
The strategic process of distributing available team members across multiple projects to maximize output, balance workloads, and meet deadlines.
The umbrella discipline covering resource scheduling, allocation, capacity planning, and workforce optimization across an organization.
The person responsible for planning and optimizing how team members are distributed across projects, balancing capacity, skills, and business priorities.
The complete roster of people available for assignment to projects, including their roles, skills, capacity, and cost rates.
The practice of assigning people to projects across a timeline, balancing availability, skills, and project demands.
A forward-looking projection of expected income based on scheduled billable allocations, active contracts, and pipeline opportunities.
The gradual, often uncontrolled expansion of a project's scope beyond its original boundaries, consuming budget and eroding profit margins.
Assigning work based on team members' skills and expertise, not just availability.
A time-boxed planning ceremony from agile methodology where teams decide what work to commit to in the upcoming sprint.
Any person or group with a vested interest in a project's outcome, including clients, sponsors, team members, and end users.
A senior individual contributor who combines hands-on project work with leadership duties like mentoring, quality oversight, and team coordination.
A visual interface showing people and their allocations plotted horizontally across time, used to see the big scheduling picture at a glance.
The practice of tracking, approving, and integrating employee absences directly into resource scheduling workflows.