Capacity Planning: Overview
Objective. Open the overview and read the headline required-vs-available balance for a scope and horizon without mistaking a net balance for proven coverage.
The overview answers the leader's first question - across the plan horizon, do we have enough people and skills for forecast demand, and where is the gap? It matters because this is the number the operation will defend to finance.
See it in the demo
What this screen answers
The customer question is: for the plan I am looking at, is required capacity above or below available capacity, and where. A Sales or CSM person opens it first to frame the whole conversation - it is the staffing headline that everything else drills into.
The task
Set the scope (the plan, queue or skill group) and the period you want to read, then look at required capacity set against available capacity and the resulting gap. Treat it as the entry point: note the headline, then plan to open the balancing and assumption screens to see what sits behind it. Do not narrate buttons - set scope and period at the level the app supports and read the summary.
How to read it
The headline balance is a net figure. It is built on the demand forecast (a projection with error bars, not a commitment) and on the standards, shrinkage and occupancy rules that convert that demand into required FTE. The classic misread is to see a balanced or green headline and conclude staffing is solved. A net balance can hide a skill short at peak and a surplus elsewhere, and it inherits the forecast's uncertainty. Read it as 'here is the headline, now prove it by skill and interval.'
Honest limits
The overview summarises; it does not prove skill or interval coverage, and it does not confirm the assumptions are the customer's real figures rather than demo defaults. Nothing here is executed - it is a plan, not a schedule. Confirm the volume source and forecasting method with product, and confirm standards and shrinkage against the customer's own baseline.
Interpretation check
A net required-vs-available balance is not proof of coverage; it is a projection-based summary that can hide skill and interval gaps.
In the field
For an RCM or contact-centre operation such as KnackGlobal or an OVO-style utility centre, the overview is the headcount headline the operation takes to finance - useful only once the assumptions behind it are the customer's own.
Practical task
Produce a one-line reading of the overview for a chosen scope and horizon: state the headline gap, then name the one assumption and the one skill/interval you would check before trusting it.
Self-check
A customer sees a balanced headline on the overview and says staffing is solved. What do you say?
A net balance nets surpluses against shortfalls and inherits forecast uncertainty. It does not prove every skill and interval is covered - that has to be read on the balancing view, by skill and interval.
Name two things sitting behind the headline number that change it.
The demand forecast (with its error bars) and the capacity rules/standards/shrinkage that convert demand into required FTE. Change either and the headline moves.
Is anything on the overview executed?
No. It is a plan. Turning it into staffed shifts is Scheduling, and acting within the day is Intraday Management and RTA.
Verified vs demo. Screen is live in the demo at /#/overview; exact controls and figures are SME-validation-pending.