Step 1 — Work Catalog · Your task catalog defines every type of work your department performs. Each row represents one discrete type of work.
Field Definitions & Criteria ▾
Task Name — Be specific enough that two people would agree on what it means. Broad categories like “General Support” are not tasks — break them into their actual component activities. Include the system, process, or context where it matters.
Team — Assign to the team or function that owns primary execution of the work, not who requested it or who supervises it.
Category — Reactive (unplanned, arrives as a request or incident), Proactive (scheduled, preventive), Project (planned, time-bounded deliverable), Admin (overhead, coordination, meetings), or Compliance (audit, policy, regulatory requirement).
Min / Unit — The average time in minutes to complete one occurrence from start to finish, including any documentation or follow-up. Use measured data where available. If estimating, use your actual experience — not best case. This is the most consequential field in the model. A small error on a high-volume task will materially shift your staffing result.
Notes — Document your time estimate basis (measured, estimated, or observed), any scope assumptions baked into the number, and what is explicitly excluded from one unit of work.
Task Library
| # | Task Name | Team | Category | Min / Unit | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Step 2 — Demand Volumes · For each task in your catalog, enter how many times it occurs during your analysis period. This is the most data-dependent step — the accuracy of your staffing result depends directly on the accuracy of these numbers.
Field Definitions & Criteria ▾
Volume / Period — Enter the number of times this task occurs in one average period. Use the same period consistently across all tasks (monthly is recommended). Sources to pull from: ticketing or case management systems, scheduling records, system logs, HR records, or direct observation. If you have no data source, enter your best estimate and mark it as such.
Data Source — Always record where your number came from. Actual Data means it came from a system record. Estimate means it is based on experience or judgment. Manager Input means it was provided by a supervisor or lead. This field tells you which volumes to revisit first when results look wrong.
Total Hours — Calculated automatically. Review this column for outliers — a task showing an unexpectedly high or low hour total usually means either the volume or the time-per-unit in the catalog needs correction.
What to do when you have no data — Enter your best estimate for now and mark it as Estimate. A rough number is better than zero. Zero tells the model the task doesn’t exist, which will understate your true demand and produce an unreliable staffing result. Come back and refine once you have better data.
Working Days — Set this to the actual number of working days in your analysis period. The default is 21 for a standard month. Adjust if your period is shorter, longer, or accounts for holidays.
Analysis Period
Task Volumes
| Task | Team | Category | Min/Unit | Volume / Period | Total Hours | Data Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TRACKED TOTAL | ||||||
Step 3 — Untracked Work · This step captures the work your department is doing or should be doing that never appears in any formal tracking system. It is typically the most underestimated section of the model — and the most important for making an honest staffing case.
Field Definitions & Criteria ▾
Shadow Work — Work that is actually being performed but is never logged, ticketed, or recorded anywhere. It consumes real staff time but is invisible to management. Common examples: informal requests handled in person or by message, quick fixes that don’t meet the threshold for a formal record, coaching or mentoring that happens informally, workarounds staff have developed that no one formally tracks. If your staff are regularly handling requests that never hit your system, that time belongs here.
Deferred Work — Work that should be done but is not being done because there is not enough capacity. This is not laziness or poor prioritization — it is unmet demand accumulating as risk. Common examples: documentation that keeps getting pushed, maintenance cycles being skipped, audits or reviews that are behind schedule, projects that are scoped but never started. Deferred work is future liability. Capturing it here makes that liability visible.
Hrs / Period — Estimate the total hours per period consumed by or owed to this item. For shadow work, use staff observation, time surveys, or manager estimates. For deferred work, estimate how long it would take if it were actually being done. A rough number is far better than zero.
Basis — Document how you arrived at the hour estimate. This field protects you when someone questions the number. “Staff survey — estimated 2–3 unlogged interactions per day” is defensible. An undocumented number is not.
Shadow Work & Deferred Demand
| Description | Type | Team | Hrs / Period | Basis | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UNTRACKED TOTAL | |||||
Step 4 — Staff Parameters · Set the number of staff in each position. Total FTE auto-calculates from your roster. Adjust the WISN allowances per team to reflect how each team actually spends non-task time.
Position Roster
8 hrs/day · 21 days/month
Total FTE
0
| Position | Team | Staff Count | Type | Net Hrs/Period | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TOTAL | — | — | |||
WISN Allowances% of gross time per team
Allowances reduce gross hours to net productive task hours. Set per team — different teams may have different meeting loads, travel, etc.
Weighted Avg Allowance42%
Gross Hours / FTE168 hrs
Avg Net Hours / FTE97.4 hrs
Total Net Hours (All FTE)— hrs
Total Demand
—
hours / period
FTE Required
—
to meet full demand
FTE Available
—
current staff
Staffing Gap
—
FTE delta
WISN Analysis
—
WISN RATIO
Tracked demand—
Untracked demand—
Net hrs / FTE—
Total capacity—
Unmet demand—
By Category
| Category | Hours | % | FTE |
|---|---|---|---|
| TOTAL | — | 100% | — |
Demand by Team
Full Task Breakdown
| Task | Team | Cat | Vol | Min | Hours | % Demand | FTE Equiv |
|---|
Recommendations
User Management
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