Lesson 4 of 5
Resources, business time and contingency
9 min
An estimate in hours is only half the job. To become a plan, the hours must turn into named people in specific weeks, and the plan must hold explicit contingency for the drivers you could not pin down. This lesson covers both, with the hardest resource of all: business time.
From hours to people and weeks
Convert hours to calendar time with honest productive hours. A tester booked eight hours a day rarely executes more than five or six: meetings, triage calls, environment waits and evidence capture eat the rest. Key users who keep part of their day job may manage two or three hours of testing a day. Divide by those numbers, not by eight.
Fix capacity is a resource too
A test plan can execute faster than the project can fix. If defects arrive at 40 a week and the functional team can close 25, the backlog grows by 15 a week and retest work piles up behind it. Estimate fix capacity explicitly: how many consultant and developer days are reserved for defect work during each cycle, and who decides priority when build and fixing compete.
Planning business time
Business people are needed for far more than UAT: workshops, test case review, migration validation in every mock, training, cutover tasks and hypercare. Build a business demand plan: one row per named person, one column per week, with hours. Then take it to each person's line manager and get agreement to release that time, and a decision on backfill.
| Person | Weeks 1–4 | Weeks 5–8 | Weeks 9–11 | Backfill |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maria (order-to-cash key user) | Test case review, 4 h/week | SIT support and Mock 2 validation, 12 h/week | UAT, 24 h/week | Temporary order-entry clerk for six weeks |
| Dan (finance process owner) | Reconciliation design, 4 h/week | Mock 2 finance sign-off, 10 h/week | UAT finance, 16 h/week, not in close week | Senior accountant covers close tasks |
| Warehouse key user, Chicago | Test data review, 2 h/week | Stock validation in Mock 2, 8 h/week | UAT logistics, 20 h/week | Overtime approved for shift lead |
Part of Contoso's business demand plan. Each row is agreed with the person's manager, including the backfill.
- Month-endClose weekFinance testers unavailable; no finance UAT scheduled
- Mid-quarterPeak shippingLogistics key users limited; schedule warehouse testing around it
- SummerVacation seasonPlan cover before the vacation calendar fills up
- Quarter-endQuarter closeFreeze finance test scope; finance resources protected for close
Building explicit contingency
Contingency is the effort and time you set aside for the uncertainty you have identified. It belongs in the plan as a visible reserve, owned by the PMO, not spread invisibly across tasks where it is spent by whoever reaches it first.
- Size it from the ranges. Use the gap between most likely and pessimistic values from your three-point estimates for the most uncertain drivers: retest rate, cleansing volume, defect fix rate.
- Hold schedule contingency, not just hours. A spare week between SIT and UAT, or a reserved slot for an extra mock, protects the calendar in a way that extra hours cannot.
- Set release triggers. Agree in advance what lets the PMO release contingency, for example a retest rate above 30% in cycle 1.
- Report its burn. Show contingency used and remaining at every steering committee. A reserve that is half gone by the middle of SIT is an early warning.
- Is the driver measured or assumed?Measured → small reserve · Assumed → size reserve from the three-point range
- Does the driver sit on the critical path?Yes → hold schedule contingency (spare week or extra mock slot) · No → hold effort contingency
- Has a trigger for release been agreed?Yes → PMO can release it without a new approval · No → agree one before the cycle starts
What would you do?
Two weeks before UAT, Maria's manager says she cannot be released for 24 hours a week because two customer service colleagues have left. What should Grace do?
- Convert hours to weeks with honest productive hours, especially for part-time key users.
- Plan fix capacity explicitly; a backlog grows whenever arrival outpaces closure.
- Build a named business demand plan and agree release and backfill with line managers.
- Hold contingency as a visible reserve with release triggers, including schedule contingency on the critical path.
Check your understanding · not graded
Lesson check
1. Why should a plan use five or six productive hours a day for a full-time tester rather than eight?
2. What is a business demand plan?
3. Where should contingency sit in a test and migration plan?
4. Defects arrive at 40 a week and the team closes 25. What happens?