Planning workflow

Production and Scenario planning

Production

Production is the current agreed plan. It is the reference used by the main review and intelligence pages.

Changes should normally follow a controlled route:

1. review the evidence;
2. prepare a forecast, workforce action or transformation;
3. stage or save the change;
4. review its effect;
5. confirm or commit it through the appropriate workflow.

Scenarios

A Scenario is a safe alternative version of the plan. It allows planners to test changes without immediately altering Production.

A Scenario can hold its own requirement-side assumptions and transformations. When a Scenario is selected as the active Workbench plan, relevant Workbench pages show the scenario result. Department supply and other assumptions that remain owned by Production continue to use the Production basis unless the Scenario workflow explicitly changes them.

Committed Scenario snapshots can be compared with Production. Committing a snapshot records the scenario result for review; it does not silently replace the agreed Production plan.

Active plan selector

The left-hand planning-context selector shows whether the Workbench is using:

• Production; or
• a selected draft Scenario.

Always check this selector before changing or interpreting a plan. It prevents users from mistaking a test scenario for the agreed position.

---

Recommended planning workflow

The exact starting point will depend on the task, but a normal planning cycle is:

Step 1 — Review configuration

Check that the reusable rules remain appropriate:

• organisation and Queue structure;
• Work Type and requirement method;
• Department baseline assumptions;
• Queue planning drivers;
• intraday demand profiles;
• shrinkage;
• ramp profiles;
• budget;
• governance thresholds.

Configuration is normally changed less frequently than the operational plan.

Step 2 — Refresh historical evidence

In Forecast, load or review the latest historical demand. Check the normalisation view for anomalies, events and transformation-related conditioning.

In Plan vs Actual, review whether demand and AHT are behaving as expected.

Step 3 — Review or generate the forecast

In Forecast:

1. select the Department and Queue;
2. choose Time-series Forecast or Contact Rate Forecast;
3. run the eligible methods;
4. compare accuracy, bias and model behaviour;
5. select the most appropriate result;
6. review the proposed forecast;
7. save it as a pending revision;
8. confirm pending Queue revisions into a new approved forecast version.

The forecast is not changed merely by running a model. The selected result is reviewed and staged before it becomes the approved baseline.

Step 4 — Review transformation effects

In Transformations, check which initiatives affect:

• demand;
• AHT;
• occupancy;
• contact rate.

Review timing, rollout, lifecycle and whether a live impact is awaiting evidence or has been absorbed into business as usual.

Step 5 — Review demand and requirement

Use Demand & Requirement to trace:

baseline demand
→ demand transformation effect
→ resolved demand
→ baseline requirement
→ requirement transformation effect
→ resolved requirement

This confirms whether changes are entering the calculation at the intended layer.

Step 6 — Maintain workforce actions

Use Workforce to review available and effective FTE and to maintain planned movements such as:

• recruitment;
• known attrition;
• temporary resource;
• internal transfers or movements;
• productivity ramping.

Step 7 — Review capacity

Use Current Position, Workforce and Capacity Plan to identify:

• the first expected shortfall;
• peak shortfall;
• persistent surplus;
• budget pressure;
• the Departments and periods needing intervention.

Step 8 — Test alternatives

Create a Scenario when you want to test an alternative without changing Production. Activate it in the Workbench, make the scenario assumptions, then commit a snapshot and use Scenario Comparison.

Step 9 — Review intelligence

Use the Intelligence pages after the underlying plan is ready. Intelligence interprets the current Production evidence but does not itself alter the plan.

Step 10 — Revisit the plan

Return to Forecast, Workforce, Transformations or Scenarios to address the risks identified by the review and intelligence pages.

---

Shared controls and conventions

Department and Queue selectors

Many pages can be filtered to:

• the Enterprise;
• one Department;
• one Queue.

A Department view aggregates its active Queues. A Queue view explains the local demand and requirement drivers. Workforce supply and budget remain Department-owned even when a Queue is selected.

Week commencing

Weekly dates are shown as w/c, meaning week commencing. Prescio uses a Monday-based weekly planning calendar.

Status colours

The exact thresholds are governed by the configured rules, but the common interpretation is:

• Green — healthy, aligned or within tolerance;
• Amber — emerging risk or an item that should be reviewed;
• Red — material issue or action required;
• Neutral — contextual information or no classification available.

Positive and negative FTE gaps

FTE gap = effective supply − resolved requirement

• Negative gap: forecast shortfall.
• Positive gap: forecast surplus.
• Zero: aligned position.

Read-only intelligence

Intelligence pages explain the Production plan. They do not modify forecasts, transformations, workforce actions or Scenario assumptions.

---