Assumptions and method
People are not interchangeable and availability is not productivity. Review bottleneck skills and timing separately.
Test a scenario
Use the result in a decision
Keep effort, elapsed duration and skills distinct.
People are not interchangeable and availability is not productivity. Review bottleneck skills and timing separately.
Set a baseline and change one assumption to compare outcomes.
A worked example
Follow the fixed teaching example
- Available effort = 4 × 5 × 6 = 120 person-hours.
- Demand/capacity = 108/120 × 100 = 90%; spare nominal capacity = 12 person-hours.
These illustrative inputs describe a project scenario, not a published benchmark. All monetary inputs use the same currency and price basis.
- People available
- 4
- Days in period
- 5
- Usable hours per person per day
- 6
- Required effort (person-hours)
- 108
- Available effort
- 120 person-hours
- Demand / capacity
- 90 %
- Capacity minus demand
- 12 person-hours
Interpret the output only within the assumptions above. Changing the inputs changes the result; it does not validate the inputs.
Source & credit
Standard estimating practice; the cited guide documents use rather than claiming invention.
GAO: Cost Estimating and Assessment Guide
This is independently written code and explanation of the underlying method. The linked publication, its diagrams and its trademarks remain its owner’s material; no permission to reuse them is implied.