“If you’re still blaming ‘resource shortages’ for missed deadlines, the real shortage is leadership.” That sentence landed like a grenade when I first posted it on LinkedIn—half my network applauded, the other half hit unfollow. But the numbers back me up:

• 21 % of project failures are driven by limited resources and resource dependencies (saviom.com).

• 83 % of senior executives say strategic resource re‑allocation is the single biggest lever for growth—more important than operational excellence or M&A (mckinsey.com).

• Effective resource management is among the top five levers most correlated with project success, according to PMI’s Maximizing Project Success mega‑study (10,000+ respondents) (plaky.com).

Yet when I ask PMO leaders how they manage capacity, I hear variations of the same story:

“We’re too busy delivering to step back and plan.”

“We can’t justify the license cost for an enterprise tool right now.”

“Our data lives in 27 spreadsheets—good luck wrangling that.”

Sound familiar? Then buckle up. In the next 6,000 words, I’m going to show you—step by step—how one PMO leader went from capacity chaos to a crystal‑clear portfolio roadmap using nothing more sophisticated than a shared drive and colored sticky notes. No expensive software. No data‑science PhD. Just pragmatic moves you can copy today.

 

Meet Jade — A PMO Leader on the Edge

Jade never planned to become the villain in her own project story.

Four months ago, Jade took the role of Director of the PMO at a mid‑market manufacturer trying to digitize fast enough to outrun cheaper overseas competitors. Within weeks, she realized the PMO’s glossy dashboards hid a darker truth:

• 57 active projects for only 38 full‑time delivery staff.

• A corporate mandate to freeze hiring for the next two quarters.

• An executive steering committee that approved every shiny new initiative without killing old ones.

• Sprint teams pulling double duty across five product lines—burnout was skyrocketing.

The breaking point came at the Q2 review. The CFO’s slide showed a $3.2 million variance—projects slipping and costs ballooning. Instantly, fingers pointed at Jade. Why didn’t the PMO flag the resourcing risk? Why indeed.

Walking back to her desk, Jade felt that piecing sense of failure. She had two options:

1. Blame the tools. Beg for budget to implement an enterprise PPM platform. Wait six months for procurement. Hope the board’s patience lasted.

2. Hack a stop‑gap solution. Prove now that smarter capacity planning—not bigger software—could pivot the ship.

Jade chose option 2. What follows is the exact guerrilla playbook she ran over 30 days—and how you can replicate it inside your own PMO by next Friday.

💡 Pro‑Tip: Copy the checklist at the end of the article and book 90 minutes on your calendar. Small, focused sprints beat mammoth transformation programs every time.

 

🛠️ Step 1 — Establish the “Ugly Truth” Baseline

Objective

Quantify current supply versus demand with whatever data you already have.

What Jade Did

1. Dump Timesheet Export — She exported the last full quarter of timesheet data (CSV) from her timesheet system.

2. Role Categorization — In Excel, she grouped every entry into just six role families (e.g., BA, Dev, QA). Fancy RACI codes come later; right now speed = life.

3. Calculate Average Weekly Hours — Pivot table => Sum Hours per Person => Divide by 13 weeks. Done.

4. Visual Heatmap — Conditional formatting turned the table into a red‑amber‑green grid the execs could read at a glance.

Why It Works

Even dirty data beats no data. By ignoring debates over precision, Jade gave leaders a shared reality check in 48 hours (directional accuracy is better than data accuracy).

 

🧮 Step 2 — T‑Shirt Size Every In‑Flight Initiative

Objective

Translate project demand into rough‑order effort—no Gantt charts required.

What Jade Did

1. 45‑Minute Project Huddle — She invited every project lead to a single call. Rule: No slides. Each lead answered two questions: Duration left? Peak FTE mix needed to finish?

2. T‑Shirt Mapping — Using a whiteboard, Jade created a simple table:

1. Sticker Time — Leads placed colored stickers (matching role colours) in the grid. Ten minutes later Jade had a visual demand map.

Why It Works

Human brains process visual groupings 60,000 × faster than text. Jade’s execs instantly saw over 40 % of demand parked in XL projects—the very projects exceeding budgets.

 

🧲 Step 3 — Marry Supply & Demand in a Single Slide

Objective

Expose capacity gaps by overlaying Step 1 and Step 2.

What Jade Did

1. Spreadsheet Mash‑Up — She mapped role families to T‑shirt sizes, estimating hours (e.g., 1 L‑sized project ≈ 1 Dev × 24 weeks).

2. Gap Calculation — Formula: Total Demand Hours – Available Hours = Surplus/Deficit.

3. One‑Page Story — A single slide showed each role’s monthly deficit. Devs were short 1.7 FTE; QA had 0.4 FTE surplus—quick wins!

Why It Works

Leaders don’t care about formulas; they care about decisions. Jade’s slide sparked debate—kill or delay?—instead of blame.

 

🔥 Step 4 — Prioritize or Perish

Objective

Create a ruthless decision matrix that links capacity realities to strategic value.

What Jade Did

1. Value Scorecard — She borrowed the CFO’s scoring rubric (NPV, compliance, customer impact) and applied it to every project.

2. 2×2 Matrix — Value (high/low) vs. Effort (high/low). Projects landing in Low Value / High Effort became sunset candidates.

3. Executive Workshop — In a 2‑hour session, the steering committee voted live—delay, descale, or kill. Result: 5 projects paused, freeing 12 % capacity.

Why It Works

Nothing motivates ruthless choices like a red deficit line tied to dollars.

 

🌡️ Step 5 — Introduce the Rolling 30‑60‑90 Capacity “Pulse”

Objective

Move from annual planning to a lightweight rolling review.

What Jade Did

1. Pulse Cadence — Every Friday, project leads updated a two‑column Teams list: Hours this week & Forecast next week.

2. Traffic‑Light Auto‑Rules — Excel conditional logic flagged any role > 95 % for two consecutive weeks (red).

3. 90‑Day Snapshot — Once a month, Jade exported the raw data to feed a 90‑day look‑ahead chart in Power BI.

Why It Works

Small signals surface sooner than quarterly retros—executives stop hearing bad news at the eleventh hour.

 

🖼️ Step 6 — Tell the Story Visually

Objective

Translate rows of numbers into an executive narrative.

What Jade Did

1. Heat‑Map Calendar — She used conditional formatting on a monthly calendar grid: the deeper the red, the hotter the role.

2. “What‑If” Slider — In PowerPoint, Jade inserted a simple slider object letting execs see the impact of adding 1 contractor.

3. Executive Email — Subject line: “One slide. One decision.” The body contained the heat map and asked for approval to hire 2 Contingent BAs.

Why It Works

When leaders can see bottlenecks and feel choices, approvals accelerate.

 

🏁 Step 7 — Lock It in Governance

Objective

Prevent capacity chaos from creeping back.

What Jade Did

1. RACI Refresh — She amended the PMO charter: No project enters delivery without a capacity check signed by Finance & IT.

2. Monthly Kill Meeting — Yes, she called it that. Every 30 days the steering committee reviews the 2×2 and kills or reprioritizes at least one project.

3. Success KPI — Time‑to‑Decide metric: # days from capacity alert to executive decision. Target: ≤ 7 days.

Why It Works

Governance isn’t bureaucracy—it’s consistency. By wiring capacity checks into the approval path, Jade ensured her gains wouldn’t erode.

 

🎉 The Payoff — 90 Days Later

Three months on, Jade’s company posted its best on‑time delivery rate in three years.

• On‑time projects jumped from 61 % → 78 %.

• Average employee overtime dropped 18 %.

• Forecast accuracy improved 31 % for the next quarter.

And Jade went from scapegoat to hero!

Remember those front‑office leaders who blamed her? They now ask her PMO to vet every new idea before it reaches the board.

 

📝 Rapid‑Action Checklist

1. Export last quarter’s hours & build the heat map.

2. Run the 45‑minute T‑shirt huddle.

3. Overlay supply vs. demand; flag gaps.

4. Draft 2×2 prioritization matrix.

5. Book the first “Kill Meeting” with execs

 

🔔 Ready to End the Overload Cycle?

If Jade’s story feels like your Monday morning reality, let’s talk. I’ve helped PMO leaders just like you reclaim their calendars—and their credibility—without adding headcount or blowing the tooling budget.

Because projects don’t fail from lack of hustle; they fail from lack of capacity clarity. Let’s fix that, together!

👉 Book a free 30‑minute PMO Capacity Blueprint call. We’ll map your current bottleneck, sketch a zero‑software pilot, and decide if a deeper engagement makes sense—no hard sell.

Schedule your call now