Getting started with Kelloo

CHAPTER 1

Learn Kelloo basics

Getting started with Kelloo is easy, in this chapter you will learn about the fundamental components of Kelloo – resources, work, capacity and more.

Welcome to Kelloo!

Kelloo is a visual resource planning tool that empowers teams to plan, schedule and manage their resources, work and projects. It helps you get the right people onto the right projects, understand if you have enough resources to get your projects done or if you need to hire more people or reorganize schedules.

Some folks like to organize their projects using agile principles while others use more traditional ways to plan and schedule. We have both covered.

This is a quick overview of the things you need to know when you are first starting with Kelloo.

Section Overview

In this section you will learn:

  • What is a resource plan?
  • Planner – project view, resource view and priority view
  • Using the resource status panel to view utilization

 

 

What is a resource plan?

The resource plan in Kelloo is where you will spend most of your time. It is a master schedule of all your resources, work and projects and shows when things are happening. 

Some organizations have one person who does all the planning while others have multiple people who plan resources. You can work both ways in Kelloo.

Typical tasks you will perform in the resource plan are:

  • Create and assign work to resources.
  • Reschedule and re-plan work.
  • Keep tabs on utilization to spot resources with too much work or free time.
  • Set the priority of work.
  • Evaluate how different work schedules and resource hiring plans can solve resource constraints.

 

 

Project view

There are three views of the planner and project view is a good place to start.

project view navigation

Project view organizes all your work within projects. Look on the left of the screenshot below, we can see our major project headings and the work contained within them.

The bars on the right show when the work is happening. And in case you run agile projects – note how some of our work is split into sprints.

project view

 

 

Resource view

resource view navigation

No surprise here – resource view organizes your work by resource. Resources are organized within their role (i.e. developer, project manager etc).

The color coding indicates periods of over and under utilization. Red = bad and green = good. 

resource view

If you have a problem viewing the color coding in the planner, check out the options to fine tune the level of detail, color coding etc. used in the planner.

config

 

 

Priority view

v

On first impression, priority view looks a whole lot like project view. But notice the red dotted line running across the planner. That is a clue something different is going on in here.

  • Anything below the dotted cut off line is excluded from the resource plan’s capacity and utilization calculations. So if you want to model putting a project on hold and see the effect on your resources just drag it below the line. Learn more here.
  • The work in priority view is also organized into priority sequence. The highest priority work is at the top and the lowest at the bottom.
priority view

 

 

Utilization warnings

Notice how some of the planner bars have a red top border. This indicates periods when the resource assigned to the work is over allocated

While some periods do not have a red border. You’ve guessed it – these are the periods the resource is not over allocated. Red bar = problem to investigate.

project view detail

 

 

Resource utilization

Open the resource status panel to check on your resources utilization and availability.

resource status panel

Utilization is a metric that indicates how much of a resource’s time is available or if they are allocated too much work. Keeping tabs on utilization is key to ensure your people do not get overloaded.

utilization