Croatian-based Q agency knows a thing or two about software development. For more than 10 years, they have been helping companies around the world bridge the gap between great ideas and exciting products.
Whether it’s a digital travel platform for the largest British publishing house in the UK, building psychological testing platforms for a leading employment agency, or partnering with ground-breaking medical researchers to develop a contactless measurement system and 3D body scanning app, they can take a product’s vision and transform it into reality.
Maybe that’s why their slogan is, “Whatever the Q, We got the A,” because, with a team of around 250 developers, software architects, project managers, testers, business analysts, and designers, they can always find a way to help clients find a unique solution to their specific needs. But who’s there matching client requests to the Q crew?
Well, enter Q’s Resourcing team. A group of 4 whose sole purpose is to allocate the best people to fulfilling their clients’ visions. And keep all of Q’s teams on track to complete these projects most efficiently.
Dedicated to resource planning
“When an agency is smaller than 300 people, then the many departments can work together to figure out how to allocate resources. But when there’s a dedicated team, then the project managers don’t have to think about that and we are here to do that in the best possible way.”
Marija Donkov, Resourcing coordination expert
As is the norm for most software development teams, resource management in Q agency was for many years a part of the project delivery team. But by 2020, with a rise in their workforce numbers as well as a higher project demand from their clients, it was time for Q agency to rethink this strategy.
That’s when their autonomous Resourcing Department was born. Over the next two years, the team had already expanded from one to four, as it was immediately clear what kind of benefits this structure had on workflow.
Speaking with Marija Donkov, one of Q’s resourcing coordination experts who joined in 2021, she summed it up with:
“Having a team who is dedicated only to the question of resource allocation is enabling quality to that allocation and it’s enabling other teams to do what they do best. It’s a win-win situation.”
And since a dedicated Resourcing team also needs a dedicated resourcing app, that’s also around the time they switched from the industry standard of spreadsheets, to Ganttic.
Marija expanded on this:
“One thing I like the most about Ganttic, is that it’s dedicated only to resource planning. We explored many tools that have that feature, but it’s just a side feature. Being part of a resourcing team, I don’t need these other features. Having one just for people allocation is great.”
Visualizing “who’s on the bench”
With their elite team of resourcing wizards in tow, Q agency’s development teams and project managers could focus on delivering their client requests. While the Resourcing department could ensure that the right team was assembled to do the job.
To achieve this, the resourcing department works closely with Q’s other departments in order to put out the best resource schedule week after week. Once a project is sold to a client, the sales team informs Marija and her fellow resource coordinators. They then compare the project demands to the available workforce.
Speaking about this workflow, Marija said:
“Ganttic for us, is kind of like a big database, not just for planning, for keeping all that data in one place and it’s a way to see who is currently on bench for the next project.”
Q’s resourcing team uses Ganttic on a daily basis, sometimes for hours at a time. In addition to their four-person crew, the planner is also shared with about 40 other users. These include line managers, team leads, and the department managers who dole out the work. As well as the finance department who keeps track of the billable client hours.
Ganttic’s customizable user rights ensures that it’s only the resourcing team who’s able to make changes. While project teams are able to view the continuously updated live schedule.
Each team’s line manager is the main point of contact for the resourcing team, and they report weekly whether they need a replacement, or if a project is extended or shortened – then it’s updated in Ganttic.
In comparing this workflow to the old ways with spreadsheets, Marija noted:
“Ganttic was here before I joined the company, so I can’t compare to how it was before. But we did use Excel and Google sheets – and compared to that, it really saves so much time, I can’t even calculate that right now!”
Resource planning features for IT teams
For the resourcing team at Q agency, it’s important to see what all their human resources are doing and for how long they’re engaged in their current and future projects.
That’s why a visual planner like Ganttic has been useful. Because not only can they see the resources’ projects, but they can track each project’s progress as well as control resource utilization across the project portfolio.
In addition to the visual resource allocation, Ganttic also comes in handy for skills management and keeping track of the developers’ ever changing tech stacks. To handle this, they utilize Ganttic’s Resource Data Fields – which allow them to include all these useful details. With more than 40 different data fields, they have a quick way to organize, search, and filter out the best resources for a new job. And eliminates the need of keeping the information about their 300 resources’ tech stacks, seniority, location, line manager, etc, in different spreadsheets. Or in their heads.
Reports are another time saver that the resourcing team uses daily. Different reports are made in Ganttic to show how much resources are utilized on a weekly or monthly basis. These are then easily exported to Excel for a final report for stakeholders.
Their other most used feature includes loads and loads of different Views. With each View they get a glimpse of their resources tied to current projects during different time frames, as well as Views sorted by utilization, seniority, or the technology used. Not only are these Views a quick snapshot of different resource pool segmentations, but they help in allocation. Since each View can be specially filtered, making it easier to quickly find the best resource for the job.
Customization & Integrations: Achieving the right flow
Everyone who’s done resource allocation knows that the work is never truly done. There’s always updates to be made – maybe someone got sick, or the client changed their mind which pushed everything back by a month.
And while Ganttic is the main resourcing tool for Q’s resourcing team, it’s imperative that all the other departments synchronize data across all their work tools. Even those who don’t do any resource planning.
Luckily, the ideal workflow was easy to create with the use of Ganttic’s API. This allows Q agency to connect and sync data flow across every department.
For example, with API, they connected the HR tool, HiBob to Ganttic. This automatically updates all the vacation and time off scheduled by the HR department into their resource planner. Saving them from manually updating this on a daily basis. And giving them the most up-to-date information on resource availability.
The other tool they sync with Ganttic is Teamwork, where the project leads handle the project management. With this integration Marija and the team can see the actual logged time for each project, as the Task’s Used Time in Ganttic. This way, the resourcing team gets the resource overview they need, while the PMs and finance teams get their billable hours. All without anyone doubling up on data entry. Another win-win!
Looking to the future
What’s next for Q agency? Well, according to them, there’s some big changes and major projects already in the pipeline. We can only assume that there’s some exciting things planned from the innovative software agency. So keep a lookout from them if you want to learn more. Or if you have your own ideas you want them to help make a reality.
Until then, Marija and her team will keep their eyes on the resource planning prize. With a little help from Ganttic.