Agile Release Train (ART) Demand and Allocation v 3.0

Requires the following solutions to be installed:

• Agile Release Train (ART) Availability in Periods (14c94b67-2fe4-412f-876c-e398781445a0)
• Demand and Allocation Core (b15d6737-0f14-4b50-bfcd-e292ba5e8630)

Can be used together with the following solutions:

• Team Demand and Allocation (64f866ef-fdcf-41cb-b6e6-bb56330fc4d1)
• User Demand and Allocation (6d990828-2bd0-45af-afaf-e68d45b6a148)

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Solution Overview

The solution allows tracking the upcoming demand of Agile Release Trains (ARTs)  for existing and forthcoming Initiatives, Projects, or any other Work Items, seeing ARTs' availability, and balancing the available and allocated capacity within a specific Period (such as Week, Month, Quarter, Year or Period). Such demand and capacity management approaches are applicable for high-level planning when no work estimates are provided yet, and no lower-level items, such as Features or User Stories, exist. Planning is happening to roughly understand how much capacity is needed for work to be done and find the right ART to do the work. It also allows tracking if ARTs are going to be overloaded or see which ARTs are available to spread the load.

The solution is installed by default for Portfolio Epics (so we create ART Work Allocations for Portfolio Epics and track capacity based on this). However, we can connect the capacity solution to any other entity you prefer to do capacity planning for.

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Solution Installation

Update Period Type (only needed if you use Weeks, Quarters or Years instead of Months)

The solution is installed for Months by default. However, if you prefer to use Weeks, Quarters, Years or Periods instead, you need to adjust the Configurable Dropdown ART Allocation mashup and Reports in the solution.

1. Update Mashup

1. Go to Settings -> Mashups
2. Open Configurable Dropdown ART Allocation mashup
3. Update periodType value in the mashup from MonthPeriod to WeekPeriod, QuarterPeriod, YearPeriod or Period:

2. Update Reports

There are two reports in the solution which need to be updated with the needed Period:

• Portfolio Epic Allocation Status
• ARTs Load

To do that:

• Open the report
• Click Setup up Report button
• Find the needed Period in Data fields
• Replace Month Period on X axe on the report

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Solution Flow

There are the following entities are enabled by the solution:

• Work Allocation – represent work demand defining for how long (Planned Start and Planned End dates) and for which Percentage (%) we need an ART to work on an item. We can define a specific ART or create a work allocation without an ART if we don't know what ART it will be or if it doesn't matter at the moment. There can be multiple work allocations for the same ART with different % during different Periods.
• Demand - represents demand for a specific Period, i.e. if capacity planning is happening based on a Month Period and a work allocation is planned for 3 months, then the system will automatically create 3 Demands for each Month within this Work Allocation - one Demand for each Period.

1. Define Demand for a Portfolio Epic

To plan capacity and allocations of ARTs, Project Managers or Initiative Owners first should create Work Allocations for a Portfolio Epic, defining what ARTs (or what capacity if an ART is not known yet) they need to work on a work item. Work Allocations may not have an ART if there is no need for a specific ART. It'll be possible to find an Available ART later. Work Allocation can be created either from a Portfolio Epic detailed view or from the Portfolio Epic Demand view in the left menu.

Here you need to define:

• Percentage (%) of capacity requested
• Status of Work Allocation (Requested or Approved, later it also can be Rejected. Work Allocations with Rejected status are not considered in ART Capacity.)
• Planned Start and End Dates
• Agile Release Train if known.

When a Work Allocation is created, it’ll be connected to the respective Periods (Weeks, Months, Quarters or Years) based on its Planned Start/End Dates. Demands will be generated automatically for each respective Period. Demands inherit Work Allocation parameters, such as Capacity %, Planned Dates, and an Agile Release Train.

2. Process Unfulfilled and Overloaded Demand

There are several views for people responsible for fulfilling the demand, as well as ensuring that there won't be overloaded ARTs.

New (Requested) Demand

On this screen you can see all the current and future Work Allocations in the Requested state. Here is a list of already allocated demand (Work Allocations with an Agile Release Train), which need to be Approved, and Work Allocations with no Allocated ART, where we need to find an ART to allocate. In the Available ART field you can find ARTs available based on their current load and availability (%) for the needed duration (Planned Start and End Dates of Work Allocation). In Agile Release Train field you'll see all the ARTs in the company. You can choose an ART from that list, however, an ART might get overloaded when allocated to this Work Allocation.

Demand to Process

There are cases when Work Allocations got Approved however there is no ART allocated to it yet, or there are overloaded ARTs. You can see such Work Allocations on the Demand to Process view. Here you can resolve Overloads by choosing another Available ART and also can allocate ARTs to the not fulfilled Work Allocations.

3. Allocation Status Dashboard

This dashboard helps to focus on Portfolio Epics with overloaded ARTs allocated or going to be overloaded in future; see on a chart where in time these ARTs are overloaded and make a change to fix overloads.

4. ARTs Load Dashboard

This dashboard helps to focus on ARTs overloaded across all the Portfolio Epics they work on, as well as see a chart in which Periods they are overloaded and make a change to fix overloads.

Note: After the solution installation, the system may automatically add extra Portfolios and Teams filters to both Dashboards. You need to delete them from the dashboards, as they won't apply correctly to the data on dashboards. To do that:

• Click Actions -> Set up dashboard
• Go to the Setup tab
• Click Portfolios filter
• Uncheck Show in the View header checkbox and save
• Repeat for Teams filter

5. Work Allocation Roadmaps

There are two more views where we can see a roadmap of Work Allocations.

The first one shows Work Allocations by ART, where we can focus on a specific ART and see their Work Allocations across all the Portfolio Epics over time:

The second one shows Work Allocations by Portfolio Epic, where we can focus on a specific Portfolio Epic and see their Work Allocations for all the ARTs:

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Version 3.0