Forum Discussion

MichaelBretton's avatar
MichaelBretton
Qrew Member
5 years ago

Capacity/bandwidth planning?

Hi all, Just wondering whether anyone has used their Quickbase apps for team bandwidth/capacity planning? I just can't picture how I need to build this despite knowing what I need. The use case...
App builders
BlakeHarrison's avatar
BlakeHarrison
Qrew Captain
5 years ago
Michael -

Are you looking to do something that is very broad and just really looks at a Person's standard bandwidth allocation vs their current workload assignment? (Ex: Joan can handle 6 Projects and she's currently working on 4, so she's at 67% of her Capacity)
OR
Do you need to get much more in depth where you might take into consideration that person's actual daily schedule, PTO, Holidays, etc? (Ex: Joan works 10 hrs/day, 4 days a week, but is on vacation the 3rd - 10th....etc., etc., etc.)


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Blake Harrison
bharrison@datablender.io
DataBlender - Quick Base Solution Provider
Atlanta GA
404.800.1702 / http://datablender.io/
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MichaelBretton's avatar
MichaelBretton
Qrew Member
5 years ago
Hi Blake,

Thanks for your reply - No, I don't think I need to drill into the specific in-depth details of a person's schedule like you mention in the second option....I just need to get a handle on their current bandwidth like the first option, but with the capacity levels and project weighting in-line with the table I posted above.

Hope that makes sense?

Thanks,
Michael

  • BlakeHarrison's avatar
    BlakeHarrison
    Qrew Captain
    5 years ago
    I agree with Jen's suggested setup. Taking into account your original list of roles and their points value, it sounds like you may have multiple users/roles assigned to each project. With that in mind, I think a structure like this would be a good starting point:

    The Roles table would be where you would define the Role and their associated Points. Project Role would then combine the Role, User, and Project. And the Users table would allow you define their capacity as well as do the summary field Jen mentioned from the Project Roles.

    If you don't have the need for multiple Role assignments per Project, then just eliminate the Project Roles table and move the User and Role relationships to the Project directly.


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    Blake Harrison
    bharrison@datablender.io
    DataBlender - Quick Base Solution Provider
    Atlanta GA
    404.800.1702 / http://datablender.io/
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    • MichaelBretton's avatar
      MichaelBretton
      Qrew Member
      5 years ago
      Blake and Jen,

      I really appreciate your replies here, thank you!

      @Blake Harrison - in your image, does that mean the relationship would be like 'users have many project roles', 'roles have many project roles, 'projects have many project roles' ? Or the other way?

      @Jen Hamilton -  Sadly whilst this does make sense I can't picture in my mind how I would add the project levels and points system and the comparing to the capacity - I'm a very inexperienced app builder, unfortunately!

      Then back at the User Details table I add a summary field that counts their number of active items in each relationship (such as projects.)

      You could setup this basic relationship counting projects, then add project levels with a points system to your Projects table and bring it over to the User Details table as an additional summary field. Finally, make a formula field to compare it to capacity and a summary report to display this data.​​

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      Michael Bretton
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      • BlakeHarrison's avatar
        BlakeHarrison
        Qrew Captain
        5 years ago
        Yes, the direction of the arrow would indicate Parent ==> Child.

        Regarding how to setup your Project Levels, if your calculation doesn't weight the capacity for the role, you can change it around like this:

        This is still assuming you need to have multiple users assigned to each Project, but you can always remove the Project Roles table if you don't.
        This setup allows you to pull the Points value from the Project Levels table to the Project and then down to the Project Roles through Lookup fields in your relationships. You would then create a Summary field in the Users<Project Roles Relationship that would Sum the Project Points lookup field on the Project Roles.

        This can be an uphill battle for someone that's new to building applications, so if you decide you need some outside assistance, feel free to reach out to me directly so we can discuss the project in more detail and I'll be happy to provide you an estimate.


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        Blake Harrison
        bharrison@datablender.io
        DataBlender - Quick Base Solution Provider
        Atlanta GA
        404.800.1702 / http://datablender.io/
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