A certain PMO office which we talked to defined project management ‘supply and demand’ this way. (The video below describes it in detail. Scroll down.)
1. Demand: Product line managers ask employees to work a certain percentage of their daily schedule on a series of projects.
2. Supply: The actual employees supply their hours to the projects they want to work on.
Hopefully, the demand and the supply end up the same. But sometimes not. Sometimes, employees don’t feel the priorities are correct, or tactics on the ground don’t work out exactly as the managers planned. In any case, there may be a gap between the demand and the actual hours supplied by employees. It is that gap that should be understood.
Are managers asking for too much? Or setting unrealistic priorities that can never be executed by employees? Or misunderstanding the ground-pounders?
Or… are employees just overriding the strategery set forth by upper management? Do they ‘get’ the vision at all? Or are they just unable to execute the plan?
Usually, the supply and demand do match. People try to get along. And strategies like this usually work out just as planned. But if they don’t, perhaps a meeting of the minds is justified. But at least you know when gaps exist. It’s a tool to help align management and staff.
Hope it helps! 🙂