Category: Scenario Planning

Test headcount and staffing changes in a scenario without affecting your baseline.

Add a team member to a scenario

1. Go to Scenario Planning and open a scenario
2. Go to Settings > Teams (within the scenario)
3. Click a team
4. Click + Add Member
5. Enter:
   • Name — e.g., “Alice (new hire)”
   • Time allocation — % (default 100%)
6. Click Add

The scenario now includes this new person, increasing team capacity.

Set an anticipated start date

1. Click the new scenario member
2. Enter Start date — When they join
3. Adjust time allocation per quarter if they ramp up gradually
4. Click Save

Before their start date, their capacity is 0. After, they contribute full capacity.

Model partial ramping

Scenario members often ramp up gradually:

• Q1: 50% (onboarding)
• Q2: 75% (ramping)
• Q3: 100% (full contribution)
• In the scenario, adjust the member’s time allocation per quarter
• Each quarter can have a different allocation
• Capacity Planning recalculates utilization with the ramp-up

Remove a team member

1. In the scenario, go to Settings > Teams
2. Click the team
3. Find the member
4. Click Remove or set allocation to 0%
5. Click Save

The scenario now reflects the loss of this capacity.

Model attrition

1. Duplicate the baseline scenario
2. Remove team members (or reduce their allocation)
3. See how capacity is impacted
4. Plan how to backfill

Model department expansion

1. Create a new scenario
2. Add multiple team members
3. Set their start dates
4. See how capacity grows over time
5. Use this to forecast what projects you can take on

Budget impact

Adding headcount affects budget. See Scenario-based budget planning for financial scenarios.

Scenarios let you test “what-if” staffing changes without affecting your real baseline data.

Create a scenario

1. Go to Scenario Planning
2. Click + New Scenario
3. Enter:
   • Name — e.g., “Hiring 2 engineers Q3”
   • Description (optional) — Context for your team
4. Click Create

The scenario is created as a copy of your current baseline (headcount, team structure, capacity).

Edit a scenario

1. Click the scenario to open it
2. Make changes:
   • Add team members
   • Remove team members
   • Adjust time allocation
   • Adjust time off
3. Changes are saved automatically in the scenario only

Your baseline remains unchanged.

View scenario capacity

1. In the scenario, go to Capacity Planning
2. See how utilization changes with your hypothetical staffing

For example, adding 2 engineers may reduce utilization from 95% to 70%.

Compare scenarios

1. Go to Scenario Planning
2. View side-by-side cards for multiple scenarios
3. Compare headcount, capacity, and costs

Delete a scenario

1. Click the scenario
2. Click Delete
3. Confirm

Deleted scenarios cannot be recovered.

Duplicate a scenario

1. Click the scenario menu (•••)
2. Click Duplicate
3. Edit the duplicate for a new scenario

This is useful when testing multiple variations.

Scenario naming conventions

Use clear, descriptive names:

✅ “Offshore expansion”

❌ “Scenario 1”

✅ “Hiring 2 engineers Q3”

✅ “Attrition case (2 departures)”

Review multiple scenarios to decide which staffing plan is best.

View your scenarios

1. Go to Scenario Planning

All scenarios appear as a list, showing:

• Scenario name
• Status (Draft, Submitted, Finance Approved, CFO Approved, Official)
• Description
• Project name and year
• Submitted by (name and date)

Each scenario also shows a status badge indicating where it is in the approval workflow.

View scenario details

1. Click View on a scenario

The scenario detail view opens, showing:

• Budget Tracker — Team structure, headcount, costs, and time allocations
• Budget breakdown — By team, area, discipline, and user
• Discipline submissions — Individual discipline budget submissions (for finance reviewers)
• Status information — Current approval stage and next steps

Compare scenarios manually

Since there’s no built-in side-by-side comparison view, compare scenarios by:

Method 1: Open in multiple browser tabs

1. Right-click View on Scenario 1 → Open in new tab
2. Go back and right-click View on Scenario 2 → Open in new tab
3. Switch between tabs to compare budgets and headcount

Method 2: Screenshot and document

1. View Scenario 1 and note key numbers:
   • Total headcount
   • Key budget amounts (by team/discipline)
   • Costs by quarter
2. View Scenario 2 and take screenshots
3. Create a comparison document (spreadsheet or document) with key metrics

Method 3: Create a summary spreadsheet

Build your own comparison outside the app:

Metric	Baseline	Hiring (2 eng)	Attrition (2 lost)
Headcount	15	17	13
Q2 Budget	$420k	$450k	$380k
Q3 Budget	$420k	$455k	$380k
Q4 Budget	$420k	$480k	$380k
Annual Cost	$1.68M	$1.845M	$1.52M

Analyze what matters

When comparing scenarios, consider:

• Cost difference — What’s the financial impact of each option?
• Headcount timeline — When do hiring or attrition changes take effect?
• Quarterly variance — Do costs and headcount shift by quarter?
• Approval status — Which scenarios are still in draft vs. approved?
• Risk profile — Which scenario is most conservative?

Discuss with stakeholders

Once you’ve reviewed multiple scenarios:

1. Share key numbers with your team or leadership
2. Explain the tradeoffs (cost vs. capacity, speed vs. risk)
3. Get feedback on which direction to pursue

Make a decision

Once stakeholders approve a scenario:

1. See Commit scenarios to baseline to make it official

Note on scenario approval

Scenarios follow an approval workflow:

1. Draft — Created and being edited
2. Submitted — Awaiting Finance review
3. Finance Approved — Finance approved, awaiting CFO approval
4. CFO Approved — CFO approved, can be locked as Official
5. Official — Locked as the company’s baseline budget

Only official scenarios become the baseline for capacity planning and budgeting.

Once you’ve decided on a staffing plan, commit the scenario to make it your new baseline.

When to commit

Commit a scenario when:

• Your team has approved the staffing changes
• Hiring has been approved by leadership
• Attrition is imminent and confirmed
• You want the scenario to become your actual baseline

Commit a scenario

1. Go to Scenario Planning
2. Click the scenario you want to commit
3. Click Commit to baseline
4. Review the changes:
   • New team members to add
   • Team members to remove
   • Allocation changes
5. Click Confirm

The scenario is now your baseline. All views (Board, Capacity, Budget) reflect the new structure.

What happens to the committed scenario?

After committing:

• The scenario is archived or replaced
• The baseline is updated
• Historical baseline is preserved (for reference)

What about other scenarios?

Other scenarios are not affected. They still show their hypothetical staffing based on the old baseline.

If needed, you can:

1. Delete old scenarios
2. Create new scenarios based on the updated baseline

Undo a commitment

If you committed a scenario by mistake:

1. Contact your project admin or company admin
2. They may be able to restore the previous baseline from backup
3. Or, manually revert team changes in Settings > Teams

There is no “undo scenario commit” button—it’s intentional (to prevent accidental reverts).

Next steps

Create new scenarios for next planning cycle

Communicate the changes to your team

Update your financial budget if applicable (see Scenario-based budget planning)

Re-plan your roadmap with the new capacity