How Strategic Resource Management Enables VAG Nürnberg to Optimize Delivery

VAG Nürnberg operates the public transportation network for Nuremberg and surrounding areas, serving up to 600,000 daily passengers via subway, trams, and buses. VAG is part of the Stadtwerke Nürnberg Group, which encompasses electricity, energy, and infrastructure services in Nürnberg and its immediate surroundings.

When Sven Pfeiff joined VAG's IT department four years ago, he encountered an organization struggling with fundamental project management issues. The lack of standardized tools and processes created a cascade of problems that threatened operational efficiency and employee wellbeing.

Fragmented Project Management

• Teams operated in silos, each following their own practices and methodologies
• Projects were managed in Microsoft Office applications, which operated in isolation and didn't allow visibility across initiatives.
• Decisions were made in isolation, without comprehensive data
• Task collaboration among team members was complicated
• Multi-project oversight was virtually impossible

Resource Management Pain Points

• Employees constantly juggled operational duties (support, troubleshooting, maintenance) with project deliverables
• Work assignments followed informal processes without clear prioritization criteria
• Project delays and quality issues became routine due to the intransparency of resource availability

Employee Frustration and Organizational Impact

Internal surveys revealed widespread dissatisfaction:

• Teams demanded manageable workloads within standard working hours
• Employees wanted validated resource allocation planning
• Project members urged for transparent project tasks including dedicated efforts
• IT leadership struggled to justify requests for additional resources or external support
• The absence of data-driven arguments weakened requests for organizational changes

To address these challenges, VAG launched a targeted proof of concept with Planview ProjectAdvantage (formerly Sciforma) in their IT department. This pilot program, involving ten employees across four projects, quickly demonstrated the platform's potential to deliver transparency and structural improvements.

After an orientational phase, the key steps included:

Comprehensive Workload Modeling

Beyond traditional project tracking, VAG incorporated all recurring IT activities into ProjectAdvantage as work items in the employee's projects and service projects. This included troubleshooting, workshops, meetings, training sessions, and other operational tasks, creating an accurate representation of total workload demands as they are estimated by each employee themselves.

Basic Load Project per Employee

The Basic Load Project recognizes that up to 20% of working hours involve unavoidable activities unrelated to the work itself like social interactions, travelling in between different work sites, arrival and departure, time spent replying to a quick email or Teams message, etc. This basic load is blocked in a hidden project per year; therefore, the resource allocation planning will not exceed the working hours.

Historical timesheet data provided the foundation for improving project effort estimates, creating a continuous improvement cycle for planning accuracy.

Strategic Resource Management Process

• Resource managers—typically team heads—identify potential overload situations in advance
• Potential overload triggers a communication with the employee which leads to a discussion between resource manager and project manager for a common solution
• Decision-making focuses on trade-offs
• Visibility into capacity constraints enables proactive staffing decisions

Stakeholder Engagement and Compliance

Given Germany's strict worker protection regulations, VAG prioritized Works Council (the body representing workers at company-level) involvement from the beginning. By framing Planview ProjectAdvantage as a tool that protects employees from overload rather than monitors performance, they secured approval following a comprehensive one-year proof of concept.

The implementation delivered measurable improvements across multiple dimensions:

Organizational Growth and Capacity

• Team expansion: IT department grew from approximately 13 staff to 25 team members
• Justified investments: ProjectAdvantage data provided compelling evidence for resource requests and external consultant engagements
• Strategic planning: Capacity planning now extends years into the future through soft resource assignments

Operational Excellence

• Delivery performance: IT projects can now consistently meet project deadlines and quality standards
• Scalability: This success of the pilot resulted in approval for organization-wide adoption of the tool across the entire Stadtwerke Nürnberg group
• Process efficiency: The IT-department streamlined unplanned requests as the department adopted structured planning approaches for IT projects
• Overtime reduction: Enhanced visibility enables proactive support planning, minimizing emergency situations

Streamlined Support Operations

• A lightweight problem report workflow within ProjectAdvantage replaced scattered email and phone-based support which adds to the resource availability
• Structured demand submission through guided wizards improves prioritization

Enhanced Accountability

• External consultants must log time on work items in ProjectAdvantage for invoice approval
• Standardized processes ensure consistent project execution
• Transparent workload management eliminates informal work assignments

Cultural Transformation

• Increased collaboration through shared visibility into resource availability
• Data-driven decision making replaces intuition-based resource allocation

Building on this success, VAG continues to evolve their project management capabilities. The organization is currently formalizing its IT PMO, expanding project management certifications across departments. Sven Pfeiff and his team are developing a management book to standardize IT project execution—even for “smaller” maintenance or renovation projects.

The organization also plans to start using the Microsoft Teams integration functionality to allow project members to collaborate faster and easier, in the tool they use most.