How to staff a project from scratch

Starting point: A brand new project appears. If you're using a CRM integration, the project may already exist as a tentative project synced from a deal.

Written By Matti Parviainen

Last updated 12 days ago

Staffing (or resource management, resource planning, resourcing…) a project means defining who will do the work and when. In Operating, this involves creating positions, optionally finding the right people to fill them, and then creating allocations to schedule their time. This guide walks through the full process.

Step 1: Define the team setup with positions

Every person working on a project needs a position — an assignment that represents their role in that project. Start by defining what roles the project needs, even before you know who will fill them.

Add positions from the project details

  1. Open the project in Operating.

  2. In the Team setup section, click Add position.

  3. For each position, you can set:

    • Role — the competence role this position requires (e.g., Developer, Designer, Project Manager). The role determines the billing rate through the rate card.

    • Seniority — refines the rate card lookup (e.g., Senior Developer vs. Junior Developer).

    • Site — where should this role come from (e.g., UK or San Francisco). May affect the costs and charge-out rates.

    • Person — assign a specific person, or leave this blank to create an open position.

    • Required skills — optionally specify skills the person filling this position should have (e.g., React, Financial Services). This helps Operating suggest suitable candidates.

Start with roles, add names later

In early sales phases, you often know the shape of the team but not the exact people. Create positions with roles only — for example, "2× Senior Developer, 1× Designer, 1× Project Manager." You can assign specific people later as the project solidifies.

This approach has practical benefits: open positions with roles still generate planned revenue and cost estimates (via the rate card), giving you a financial forecast even before the team is finalized.

Add positions from the timeline

You can also create positions directly in the Projects timeline. Expand a project row and add a new position row. This is convenient when you're already planning allocations visually.

Step 2: Find the right people

Once you've defined what the project needs, the next step is finding who can fill those positions. Operating offers several ways to match people to open positions.

Use the Positions view

The Positions view (accessible from the sidebar) shows all open positions across your projects — positions that have a role but no person assigned. This is your staffing to-do list.

From here, you can see what each position requires and jump to filling it. Operating suggests candidates based on their role, seniority, skills, and availability.

Search by availability in the People timeline

Switch to the People timeline and use filters to narrow down candidates:

  • Role — filter to the role the position requires.

  • Availability — filter to people with at least a certain percentage of availability during the project's timeframe (e.g., "at least 50% available in August").

  • Skills — filter by specific skills the position requires.

  • Site — filter by location if the project needs people from a specific office.

  • Group — filter by organizational unit if relevant.

You can sort results by availability to see who has the most capacity, which helps prioritize bench clearing.

Save your staffing views

If you run staffing processes regularly (most firms do this weekly), save your commonly used filters as views. For example:

  • "Available developers" — People, filtered by Role = Developer, availability > 25% in the next 3 months

  • "Open positions" — Positions, filtered by Person = none

  • "Tentative projects needing staffing" — Projects, filtered by Status = Tentative

Pin these views to your sidebar for quick access during weekly staffing meetings.

Step 3: Assign people to positions

When you've identified the right person for a position:

  1. Open the position (from the project details, the Positions view, or the timeline).

  2. Set the Person field to the selected person.

The position now shows the person's name. Their skills, cost rate, and other metadata are linked to the position, and if they have a rate card entry for their role + seniority + site, the billing rate is determined automatically.

One person, multiple positions

A person can hold multiple positions — even within the same project. This is useful when someone performs different roles (e.g., a senior consultant who acts as both a developer and a part-time project manager), especially if the billing rates differ per role.

Leaving positions open

Not every position needs to be filled immediately. It's perfectly normal to have open positions during the sales phase or while you're still deciding on the team. Open positions remain visible in the Positions view as a reminder that staffing decisions are pending.

Step 4: Create allocations

With positions in place (whether named or open), create allocations to schedule the actual time.

  1. In the Projects timeline or People timeline, expand the relevant row.

  2. Click and drag on the timeline to create an allocation bar for a position.

  3. Set the date range, percentage, and status (confirmed or tentative).

For detailed guidance on creating and managing allocations, see How to manage allocations.

How much detail to add at each stage

The right level of detail depends on where the project is in its lifecycle:

Early sales phase (tentative project): Create positions with roles only. Add rough allocations — perhaps a single allocation per position covering the estimated project duration at the expected intensity. Don't overthink it; the goal is to have the project visible in your capacity forecast.

Deal close to winning: Assign specific people to positions. Refine allocation dates and percentages. Keep the status tentative until the deal is confirmed.

Project confirmed: Confirm the project (which confirms all allocations). Review and adjust allocations to match the actual agreed schedule. Add any additional positions as the detailed scope becomes clear.

Project in delivery: Maintain allocations as the project evolves. Split allocations when intensity changes, extend or shorten them as timelines shift. Compare planned hours against actual time entries to track progress.

Step 5: Review the staffing result

After staffing the project, verify that the plan looks right.

Check the project timeline

Expand the project in the Projects timeline to see all positions and their allocations laid out visually. Confirm that the dates, percentages, and statuses make sense.

Check individual people

Switch to the People timeline and look at each person you've assigned. Are they overbooked? Do they have conflicting allocations from other projects? The summary bar at the top of each person's row shows their total allocation across all projects.

Check planned financials

If rate cards and cost rates are set up, the project now has planned revenue and planned cost estimates. Check these in the project details or in reports to verify the expected margin before the work begins.

Common staffing patterns

Staffing a tentative deal from the CRM

When a CRM deal syncs to Operating, it creates a tentative project. Add positions with roles matching what the client needs. Add rough allocations, “paint with broad strokes”. When the staffing team meets weekly, they review these tentative projects alongside the available people and start making preliminary assignments.

Replacing a team member mid-project

If someone is leaving a project (or the organization), create a new position for their replacement. Assign the new person and create allocations starting from the handover date. End the departing person's allocation on their last day. Both positions remain visible in the project's history.

Scaling up a project

Add new positions for the additional roles needed. If an existing person is increasing their allocation (e.g., from 50% to 100%), you don't need a new position — just adjust or add an allocation on their existing position.

Staffing with external contractors

External people (freelancers, contractors) work the same way as internal people in Operating. They have positions, allocations, and can track time. The main difference is that their cost rate may be higher, and their employment dates define when they're available.

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