Scheduling Templates
Scheduling templates control what Plenar optimizes for after satisfying your deadline constraints. Meeting P0, P1, and P2 deadlines is always the top priority regardless of template. Templates control the secondary objectives.
Available templates
Deadline Driven (default)
Optimizes for meeting deadlines with strong skill matching. Best when you have clear target dates and want them respected above all else.
Use when: Your project has firm external deadlines (launch dates, contractual commitments, compliance deadlines).
Throughput
Minimizes total project duration. Tasks are scheduled as early as possible, and Plenar packs work tightly to finish sooner.
Use when: Shipping fast matters more than hitting a specific date. Good for exploratory projects, prototypes, or catch-up sprints.
Team Balanced
Distributes work evenly across team members. No single person is significantly more loaded than others.
Use when: Sustained pace matters. Good for long-running projects where burnout risk is real, or when fairness in workload distribution is important.
Quality First
Maximizes skill-to-task matching. Plenar prioritizes assigning tasks to the most qualified person, even if it means slightly longer project duration.
Use when: Expertise matters more than speed. Good for specialized work (security reviews, complex integrations, architectural decisions) where having the right person outweighs finishing a day earlier.
Comparison
| Template | Optimizes for | Trades off |
|---|---|---|
| Deadline Driven | Deadline compliance + skill match | May overload individuals to meet dates |
| Throughput | Shortest project duration | May unevenly distribute work |
| Team Balanced | Even workload distribution | May extend project duration |
| Quality First | Best skill-to-task fit | May extend project duration |
How to switch templates
- Open project settings
- Select the scheduling template
- The change goes through the change impact preview — you see the schedule diff before committing
You can switch templates at any time. The impact is shown in the preview, so you can compare the current template’s schedule with the proposed one.
When to switch
- Starting a new phase — A project might start with Quality First during architecture, then switch to Throughput during implementation.
- Approaching a deadline — Switch to Deadline Driven or Throughput when a deadline is at risk.
- After team changes — A new team member might warrant switching to Team Balanced to distribute ramp-up work.
- After scope changes — A major scope cut might make Throughput more appropriate if the remaining work is straightforward.
What templates do NOT affect
- Already-started tasks — Tasks that are In Progress keep their current assignee regardless of template. Templates only affect scheduling decisions for unstarted tasks.
- Manual assignments — Tasks you explicitly assigned to someone are not reassigned by any template.
- Dependencies — Dependency order is always respected. No template can schedule a task before its predecessor finishes.
- Priority order — P0 goals are always prioritized over P1, which are always prioritized over P2. Templates do not change this.
See Settings for all scheduling configuration options.