01
No single source of truth
Sales has its own list of free people, PMs have theirs, Finance has theirs. Each is a little different, and decisions are made on whichever one someone happens to open.
Where this system comes from
The same start every time
Different companies, the same situation. Before anyone buys a tool, people planning "somehow works" in spreadsheets.
As an Operations Manager I am responsible for who is free, who is overloaded and how much the bench really costs. Twice I joined a company that had no department for this. Each time I saw three things.
02
PMs compete for people
Without a shared view of workload, the person who asks louder gets the specialist, not the person whose project matters more.
03
Non-billable time is visible only after the fact
You learn that someone was on the bench from the report at the end of the month. By then the cost is already incurred and nothing can be changed.
I first organized this with processes and spreadsheets, then with my own tools. Sorvelo is these rules written down in a system: one place where you see workload, bench and margin before the month ends.
Experience
My road to Resource Management
No dates and no company names. What matters is what each stage taught me.
Stage 01Sales
Negotiations and building a sales process
I started on the client and contract side: I led negotiations and built a sales process. That is why I know what is promised to a client before anyone checks who will do the work.
Stage 02Project manager
The other side of the same problem
I led projects as a project manager. I needed people by a deadline, and nobody could say who was free. I know this problem from the side of a PM who is waiting for a resource.
Stage 03Resource Management department in a software house
The first RM department, built from scratch
I set up resource planning processes that connect Sales, HR, PM, Delivery and Finance, and standards of cooperation between RM and the rest of the company. The tools started with Excel and VBA. Non-billable time across all of delivery fell below the board's target in the first year.
Stage 04Operations Manager in an IT services company
A second RM department and wider responsibility
In my current company I built a second Resource Management department from scratch, this time as Operations Manager. Allocation, utilization, non-billable time, project billing standards and reports for the management board. The tools moved from spreadsheets to custom solutions.
Stage 05My own system
Sorvelo: what I did in spreadsheets, as a system
I designed the rules that worked twice in practice as a ready system for IT companies. The decisions about what to calculate and how are mine. The code is written by AI, as I explain below.
How it was made: AI and a person
Code written by AI. The rules, the checks and the responsibility are mine.
I say it openly: all Sorvelo code is written by AI agents. My job is the rules from practice, checking the results and deciding what goes into a release.
Design and rules from practice
The calculation rules come from what I implemented in two companies: when someone is on the bench, how to calculate utilization, how to bill project phases. These are business decisions, and I make them.
# rule from practice
bench = no billable allocation
My decision
Code written by AI
AI agents write the code based on my rules and descriptions. I check the result: does the feature work and does the outcome match practice. If not, it goes back for a fix.
# AI writes
+ feature code
→ checking the result: a person
AI writes, I check
Automated and manual tests
More than 18,000 automated tests guard the calculation rules. They were also written by AI. In addition, I go through the screens myself and check that the numbers are correct and that it can be used without instructions.
✓ utilization during leave
✓ project margin by phase
✓ workload above 100%
AI tests + my review
Security and quality, screen by screen
Separate AI agents review the code for security, permissions and quality, and the look of every screen is compared with the design. I decide what goes into a release.
# before release
✓ security review (AI)
✓ screen by screen
My responsibility
On the AI side
Writing code and tests
- All of the application code
- Automated tests
- Fixes after my comments
On my side
Rules, checking and responsibility
- Business rules taken from Resource Management practice
- The decision about what goes into the system and what does not
- Checking the results, a manual review of screens and the decision about the release
How much work went into it
This is not a weekend project
6months of work
600+ hhours of planning, testing and verification
18,000+automated tests
20+rounds of acceptance and reviews, including 5 security reviews
What you get from this
Three things that follow from this story
For someone who is going to buy a people-planning system, these matter more than the technology it is written in.
The system calculates the way a real IT company does
The rules were not invented on a whiteboard. They come from running real staffing plans, billing and reports for the management board, so the result matches what Finance and Delivery expect.
It understands bench, utilization and project phases
These terms need no explanation. From the start the system separates billable from non-billable time and shows margin by phase, not only hours.
A conversation with a person who knows the process
Before you buy, you can ask how the system sets priorities or shows non-billable time. You talk to someone who has implemented it, not to a sales team that reads out a manual.