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Set up project staffing ​

Use this checklist to get ready to plan who works on which project. An engineering or delivery lead owns it, with a Flowstate admin for access and HR for skills.

Before you start ​

1. Give every project its dates ​

What: Make sure each project you'll staff has a start date and, where known, an end date. Who: Delivery or PMO lead. Where: Delivery → Roadmap → Projects. See Projects. Done when: The Dates column is filled in for every project you'll staff.

People you add to a project are allocated over its dates, and their availability is checked over the same dates. If your projects sync from Linear, set the dates in Linear. See Connect your project tool.

2. Build your skills list ​

What: Add the skills you want to search people by. Who: Engineering lead or HR. Where: Resourcing → People and teams → Skills, then Add. See Manage skills. Done when: Every skill you need is listed as Active.

Keep the list short, but specific enough to tell people apart. Only active skills appear in the skill filters on a project's Resourcing plan tab and on Allocations.

3. Tag people with their skills ​

What: Record each person's skills. Who: Line managers or HR. Where: Open a person from Resourcing → People and teams → People, then Skills on their Overview. Or open a skill on the Skills tab and use Add under People with this skill. See Record someone's skills. Done when: Filtering People by Skills returns the people you'd expect.

4. Give planners the right permissions ​

What: Make sure the people who staff projects can change allocations, and see the cost they need. Who: Flowstate admin. Where: Settings → Users & Access → Roles. Done when: A planner can add someone on a project's Resourcing plan tab.

A planner's role needs to let them update the employees, contractors, vacancies and teams they'll put on projects. To drag project dates on the spend timeline, it also needs to let them update projects. To see cost on the spend timeline, or salaries while finding people, it needs financial access. To make changes inside a scenario, it needs to let them edit scenarios. The exact permissions are in Roles and permissions.

Choose one way to plan:

  • In live data: changes take effect straight away and flow into the forecast. Fine for routine staffing.
  • In a scenario: changes stay in the scenario until it's merged. Use this for bigger moves you want reviewed first. See Live data and scenarios.

5. Put each team on the projects it owns ​

What: Attach the teams that deliver each project, either with a share of their time or for reporting only. Who: Engineering managers. Where: Open the project, then Resourcing plan → Teams. See Allocations. Done when: Each project's Human resources section lists its teams.

Choose one for each team:

  • Ownership only: the team is attached for search and reporting, but adds no FTE or cost to the forecast. Use this when people are allocated to the project one by one.
  • An FTE and dates: the team's time counts towards the project and the forecast.

6. Get spend flowing to the spend timeline ​

What: The spend timeline shows each project's spend from submitted effort, so make sure effort is being reported and submitted. Who: Engineering managers, with your Flowstate contact. Where: Set up weekly effort reporting. Done when: Delivery → Roadmap → Spend timeline shows spend against your active projects.

You can skip this step if you only need to plan who works on what.

You're set up when ​

  • A project's Resourcing plan tab lists its teams and people, each with an FTE and dates.
  • Resourcing → People and teams → Allocations shows each person's project bars, and the Skill filter narrows it to the right people.
  • Delivery → Roadmap → Spend timeline shows month-by-month spend for your active projects.

Next: day-to-day guides ​

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