Resource Loading Calculator

Average FTEs tells you the overall staffing intensity across the whole project, which is useful for budgeting, but it can badly understate how many people you actually need to have available at the busiest single phase, which is exactly what peak FTEs captures. A project needing 12 people at its peak but averaging only 4 across the full timeline needs a very different staffing and hiring strategy than one where those two numbers are close together.

It means your average staffing level sits well below your peak requirement, which typically signals a project with a sharp staffing spike during one phase surrounded by much lighter phases — a pattern that's genuinely harder to staff, since you either need to bring in temporary or contract help for the peak, or accept that some team members will be underutilized during the lighter phases. A number close to 100% means staffing stays relatively level across all three phases.

No — total hours is calculated purely from each phase's duration and FTE count, entirely independent of the hourly rate, which only comes into play when converting those hours into a dollar cost. Adjusting the blended rate changes every cost figure proportionally but leaves total hours, average FTEs, and peak FTEs completely unchanged.

A reasonable approach is a weighted average of each role's actual billing or loaded cost rate based on how many hours each role is expected to contribute, rather than a simple average across roles that ignores how much each one actually works. Since this calculator applies one flat rate across every phase and every hour, getting that blended figure right matters more here than it would in a tool that lets you break out cost by individual role.