A resource calendars template tracks the availability, leave, and allocation of individual project resources over the project timeline, providing the resource-specific availability data needed for accurate schedule development and resource leveling. According to the Project Management Institute (PMI), the resource calendars template is a critical input to Schedule Management processes in PMBOK 8, ensuring planned work can realistically be completed with the available resources at the times they are actually available. Schedules built without individual resource calendars routinely overestimate team capacity by ignoring leave, competing commitments, and part-time availability — resulting in schedules that look achievable on paper but are impossible to execute with the actual team. The resource calendars template prevents these avoidable schedule failures by making individual availability constraints visible before the schedule baseline is set.

What are Resource Calendars?

A resource calendars template documents when specific team members, equipment, or facilities are available for project work throughout the project timeline. It captures working hours, planned leave periods, public holidays applicable to each individual, part-time availability percentages, and competing project commitments that reduce capacity available for this project. Resource calendars operate as overlays on top of the project calendar, showing where individual availability deviates from the baseline project working pattern. In PMBOK 8, the resource calendars template is a required input to the Develop Schedule process because activity duration calculations must account for resource-specific availability rather than assuming all team members are always fully available. Resource calendars also feed resource leveling algorithms in scheduling tools, enabling the software to automatically adjust activity timing to prevent over-allocation while maintaining logical sequencing constraints.

What's Included in This Resource Calendars Template?

• Individual Resource Calendar Sheets — One calendar per team member showing their availability pattern by month and week throughout the project timeline, with availability percentages for each period reflecting leave, part-time arrangements, and competing project allocations.
• Leave and Absence Register — Planned vacation periods, approved training days, medical leave estimates, and other planned non-project time for each team member, entered as early as possible to enable accurate schedule planning and proactive resource conflict identification.
• Allocation Percentage by Period — The percentage of each team member's working time committed to this specific project by week or month, accounting for all other projects and organizational responsibilities consuming their capacity during the project duration.
• Competing Project Commitments — Other projects and organizational priorities that consume team member capacity during this project's timeline, with estimated percentage and duration, enabling the project manager to assess the risk of resource conflicts across the portfolio.
• Equipment and Facility Availability — Non-human resource availability windows for shared equipment, specialized facilities, testing environments, and other resources with constrained availability that affect when specific project activities can be scheduled.

How to Use This Resource Calendars Template (PMBOK 8)

1. Collect availability information from team members and functional managers — Ask each team member and their manager to confirm their availability percentage and planned leave for the project duration. Do not assume availability — confirm it formally and record the source of each availability commitment.
2. Update at the start of each month — Refresh the resource calendars template at the beginning of each month with any new leave requests, changed assignments, or updated competing project commitments identified since the previous update cycle.
3. Use as input to schedule development and resource leveling — Import or reference resource calendar data in your scheduling tool to enable resource leveling that produces a schedule reflecting actual resource availability rather than theoretical maximum capacity throughout the project.
4. Identify periods of low availability proactively — Use the resource calendars template to identify periods of significantly reduced team capacity — major holidays, training periods, competing project peaks — and adjust the schedule or negotiate additional resources before these periods become critical path threats.
5. Archive for future project benchmarking — Retain resource calendars at project closure as a reference for future projects estimating the same resources. Historical availability data enables more accurate resource planning for future projects involving the same team members or resource types.

When to Create This Document (PMBOK 8)

The resource calendars template is created during the Planning Performance Domain, during the Plan Resource Management and Estimate Activity Resources processes. In PMBOK 8, resource calendars are required inputs to the Develop Schedule process and must be established before schedule development produces reliable duration calculations. The calendars are updated throughout execution when team composition changes, new leave is approved, or competing project priorities shift team member availability for this project.

Related Templates

• Project Calendars Template
• Project Team Assignments Template
• Schedule Management Plan Template
• Resource Requirements Template
• Resource Breakdown Structure Template