Before we end the chapter, let's quickly discuss the difference between planned and committed projects. The major difference between planned and committed projects is that committed projects affect the time remaining, assuming that this policy option is enabled as per the recommendation in this chapter. The difference between the two project types also allows an administrator to see, at a glance, what projects are definitely going to occur vs. what projects are in the maybe category.

Planned projects are useful for analyzing the impact of future projects or changes in your environment that have not yet been confirmed. They are also useful for modeling different scenarios, such as changes to supply. It is common that most committed projects will start their lives as planned projects. Once it is confirmed that the project will occur, an administrator can change it to committed.

Committed projects, on the other hand, and designed to reflect that a project is now confirmed and the associated changes to its capacity have been committed to external stakeholders. For example, large upcoming projects will require a number of machines in a week's time. The client has confirmed the deployment is going ahead and requires that capacity be available for the deployment.