1. Consideration of Actual Working Times (Watermodel II)

With Watermodel II, reported working hours are directly incorporated into capacity calculations. This makes resource utilization forecasts more realistic—especially when deviations from the original plan occur. At the same time, employee motivation to regularly record working time increases, as it now has a noticeable impact on planning.

Example scenario 1 – Overload according to plan:
An employee with a weekly capacity of 40 hours is assigned the following work packages:

Prepare documentation: 5 days, 20 hours
Workshop: 2 days, 16 hours
Management meeting: 1 day, 8 hours

In standard planning, this results in 44 hours—an overload. Can Do displays this with a red risk warning. The Watermodel distributes the workload linearly across the duration of the work packages, meaning that for the documentation package, 4 hours per day are assumed.

Reaction of Watermodel II:
However, if the employee reports 2 hours of overtime on both Monday and Tuesday, the remaining workload is reduced. The work packages now fit within the available time, and the risk warning disappears. Capacity risks are therefore dynamically reassessed based on actual working times.

Example scenario 2 – Overload due to performance delay:

Same setup, but with the following packages:

Prepare documentation: 5 days, 20 hours
Workshop: 2 days, 16 hours
Management meeting: 1 day, 4 hours

Planned workload: exactly 40 hours. However, if the employee works less than planned at the beginning, the remaining hours must be compensated later—resulting in an actual overload that the system correctly detects.

2. Automatic Adjustment of Planned Effort

An additional feature is the automatic adjustment of planned values based on reported actual times. If more or less work is performed on a work package than originally planned, the system adjusts the planned value accordingly:

Example: Planned allocation: 4 hours → Reported: 5 hours → New allocation: 5 hours

Limitation: Planned values cannot be reduced below already reported hours.

Note: Automatic adjustment must be activated on the central Can Do server. Changes cannot be reversed—therefore, this feature should be tested in a test environment in advance and the database should be backed up.

3. Watermodel Strategy 0 – Planning Without Time Tracking

Not all companies record actual working times. By default, the system would assume that no work has been performed on tasks without reported time—potentially leading to incorrect overload warnings.

Solution: Watermodel Strategy 0. In this case, the system assumes that completed work packages were executed as planned—regardless of whether actual times are recorded.

Example:
Two parallel work packages with 100% allocation each → overload according to planning (24 hours with only 16 hours available).
If one of the packages is completed without time tracking, Strategy 0 assumes the effort was carried out—the risk remains, as the capacity is considered consumed.

4. Hybrid Operation – Watermodel Strategy 4

Many companies only partially record working times—for example, in specific departments. For such cases, Watermodel Strategy 4 is available:

Reported times are used where available
Missing reports are treated as: work performed as planned

This flexible combination allows for realistic capacity evaluation even in hybrid scenarios.

Summary of Watermodel Strategies

Reconciliation Method	Description
Watermodel (Strategy 1)	Reconciliation method for calculating capacity forecasts No rigid time windows are used for the calculation; instead, all work packages are considered in their interaction Actual working times are not taken into account in capacity calculations
Watermodel II (Strategy 2)	Both planned and reported effort are considered in capacity forecasting Deviations from planned times lead to recalculation or updating of capacity availability For completed objects, actual effort is used Remaining effort is distributed across the entire duration of the object
Watermodel II (Strategy 3)	Both planned and reported effort are considered in capacity forecasting Deviations from planned times lead to recalculation or updating of capacity availability For completed objects, actual effort is used Remaining effort is distributed over the time after the last reported entry
Watermodel 0 (Strategy 0)	For companies that do not record actual working times in Can Do Project Intelligence The system uses planned values in its calculations For completed objects, planned values are used (“worked as planned”) If time entries are reported, they are not considered
Hybrid Operation (Strategy 4)	For companies that only partially record working times (e.g., only certain departments) Similar to Watermodel II (Strategy 3): existing time reports are considered For completed objects without time reports, planned values are used (“worked as planned”)
Auto-Correction	Planned effort is adjusted based on reported time entries Cannot be activated in Watermodel Strategy 0 and 4

5. Conclusion

The Watermodel® strategies in Can Do provide flexible, situation-specific approaches to capacity evaluation—ranging from purely plan-based methods to the full integration of actual working times. The choice of strategy depends largely on internal processes, the organization’s time-tracking culture, and the desired level of control.

With the right configuration, companies can achieve more precise project control, minimize capacity risks, and increase overall planning accuracy across the organization.

Watermodel® Strategies: Which configuration options can influence the Watermodel calculation?

“How do different Watermodel® strategies affect capacity forecasts and risk assessments?