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Use case

Quarterly Planning That Survives Contact With January

Most quarterly plans are a list of ambitions with no capacity check behind them. This one starts from what the team actually delivered last quarter.

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The scenario

Every quarter, each department head brings a list. The lists are added up, everything is approved because nothing has an obvious reason to be rejected, and the quarter starts with roughly forty per cent more work than the organisation can do. By week six people are choosing silently which things to drop. A better planning session takes the same three hours but starts with capacity, and ends with an explicit list of what is not being done.

Runs
Every quarter
Session length
Half a day
Prep needed
One to two weeks
Owner
PMO, or the leadership team
Who is involved

Who is involved

The resource manager is the person who makes this planning session different from the last one.
RoleWhat they ownWhat they see in Orangescrum
Department headsThe proposals from their area and their relative priorityTheir own projects, and how their team's time went last quarter
PMO or planning leadThe session, the plan, and writing down what was declinedThe programme view across every department
Resource managerWhether the plan can actually be staffedAllocation, availability, and utilisation across everyone
FinanceThe budget envelope and the cost of the planBudget against actual cost for the quarter just finished
Delivery leadsThe honest estimate and what will slip if things are addedTheir team's workload for the coming quarter
The workflow

Eight steps to a plan you can staff

Steps one to three happen in the two weeks before the session.
  1. 1

    Close out the last quarter honestly

    Before planning the next one, look at what was actually delivered against what was committed. Not to blame anybody, but because the gap is the most useful number you have for planning realistically.

    Carried byReports and analyticsAdvanced reporting
  2. 2

    Work out real capacity, not headcount

    Headcount times thirteen weeks is not capacity. Subtract holiday, support rotas, the standing meeting load, and the maintenance work that happens whether you plan it or not. What is left is what you can commit.

    • Look at utilisation for the quarter just finished to see how much time actually went on planned project work
    • Be honest about the run rate of unplanned work rather than assuming it will be lower this time
    Carried byResource managementTimesheet
  3. 3

    Collect proposals in one format

    Each proposal states the outcome, a rough size, the people it needs, and what it depends on. Anything without those four is not ready to be argued about.

    Carried byTask managementCustom fields
  4. 4

    Rank the whole list, across departments

    One ordered list for the organisation, not five lists that each get their top three. Ranking across departments is uncomfortable and it is the entire value of the exercise.

    Carried byProgram management
  5. 5

    Draw the line where capacity runs out

    Work down the ranked list, subtracting the capacity each item needs, until you run out. Everything below the line is explicitly not happening this quarter, and you say so out loud.

    • The list below the line is the most valuable output of the session
    • It stops people quietly working on declined items
    Carried byWorkload managementResource allocation
  6. 6

    Check nobody is triple booked

    The plan can be within total capacity and still be impossible, because one specialist is needed by four of the projects above the line. Look at the allocation per person before you sign it off.

    Carried byResource managementWorkload management
  7. 7

    Cost the plan and check it against the budget

    People cost, vendor cost, and license cost against the quarterly envelope. Finding out in week nine that the plan was never affordable is a poor use of nine weeks.

    Carried byBudget and cost management
  8. 8

    Publish the plan and review it monthly

    Put the quarter on a timeline everybody can open, then hold a short monthly check. A quarterly plan reviewed once at the end is a document. Reviewed monthly, it is a plan.

    Carried byGantt chartAll in one dashboard
Set it up

Build it on Monday morning

The first quarter takes real effort. After that the data is already there.
  1. 1Get the projects into one workspaceYou cannot plan across departments while three of them keep their work in spreadsheets. This is the prerequisite, and it is usually the hard part.
  2. 2Group projects under programmesSo you can see a department or an initiative as one thing rather than eleven separate projects.
  3. 3Turn on time tracking for one quarterYou need one quarter of real data to know what your capacity actually is. Estimates from memory are consistently optimistic.
  4. 4Set budgets at project levelThen the quarterly cost question is a report rather than a spreadsheet exercise.
  5. 5Agree the proposal formatOutcome, size, people needed, dependencies. Four fields, same for everyone, no exceptions.
  6. 6Book the monthly review nowThree thirty minute slots in the calendar for the quarter. It is what turns the plan into something live.

Large organisations running several teams against one plan can look at Scaled Agile, which is on the Premium plan and in Self-Hosted.

The result

What good looks like

The plan fits the team
Because capacity was calculated from real data before anything was committed.
What is not happening is written down
People stop quietly working on declined items, which is where a lot of capacity leaks.
No specialist is booked four times
Per person allocation was checked before sign off, not discovered in week five.
Finance is not surprised
The plan was costed against the envelope during planning rather than reconciled afterwards.
Priority arguments happen once
One ranked list means the argument happens in the room instead of every fortnight for the rest of the quarter.
The plan gets adjusted, not abandoned
The monthly review catches drift while there is still time to do something about it.
Watch out

Where this usually goes wrong

Capacity is headcount times weeks
Holiday, meetings, support, and maintenance are ignored, so the plan is thirty per cent too big before it starts.
✓ Use utilisation from the last quarter as the basis.
Five lists instead of one
Every department gets its top three, so the organisation never actually prioritises.
✓ One ranked list across all departments, with a line drawn on it.
Nothing is ever declined
Everything is approved, so the real prioritisation happens silently in week six.
✓ Publish the below the line list as an explicit output.
The specialist bottleneck
Four approved projects all need the same person, and each assumed they had them.
✓ Check allocation per person before sign off.
Planned once, never revisited
The plan is a slide deck by February and nobody says so.
✓ A thirty minute monthly review with the timeline open.
No cost check
The plan is affordable in theory and over budget by week nine.
✓ Cost it during the session, against a real budget figure.
Features used

Everything this runs on

Resource managementAvailability, allocation, and utilisationWorkload managementWho is over committed, before you sign offProgram managementDepartments and initiatives as one viewBudget and cost managementCost the plan against the envelopeGantt chartThe quarter on one timelineTimesheetReal data on where time wentAdvanced reportingCommitted against delivered, last quarterScaled AgileFor several teams on one plan
Frequently asked questions

Quarterly planning FAQ

How far in advance should we start planning a quarter?
One to two weeks of preparation before the session. Most of that is closing out the previous quarter honestly and working out real capacity, which cannot be done in the meeting itself.
How do we work out real capacity?
Start from what the team actually spent on planned project work last quarter rather than from headcount. Utilisation reporting gives you that figure, and it is usually a good deal lower than people expect.
Why is the declined list so important?
Because if nothing is explicitly declined, the prioritisation still happens, it just happens silently in week six when individuals decide what to drop. Writing it down moves that decision into the room.
Does Orangescrum do OKRs?
No. There is no OKR module and no objective scoring. Quarterly planning here means deciding what work is committed, staffing it, and costing it. Goals can be tracked as programmes and projects, but they are not a separate OKR feature.
Can it tell us the optimal allocation?
No. There is no scheduling optimiser. Orangescrum shows availability, allocation, and utilisation, and the decision about who does what stays with the people who know the team.
Which plan includes resource management?
Resource management and workload management are in the Cloud and Self-Hosted editions. Scaled Agile is on the Premium plan and in Self-Hosted. Every plan includes unlimited users.
Can we export the plan to a BI tool?
There is no Tableau or Power BI connector. Reporting lives in Orangescrum, and the self-hosted edition includes the advanced reporting module.
How often should the plan be reviewed?
Monthly, for thirty minutes, with the timeline open. A quarterly plan reviewed only at the end of the quarter is a document rather than a plan.

Plan a quarter the team can actually deliver

Capacity, allocation, and cost in the same place as the work.

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Related use cases

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