Would a Project Manager be able to do this?

[Vle045]

ChatGPT will give you a rough idea of how it may work for some companies, it's a good resource to build an outline or get a brief intro to what you're looking for, you still need to get the bulk of the info from extra research or resources just to be on the safe side.  It's a good starting point though, but I wouldn't count on just using ChatGPT...

I never count on chatGPT unless we are talking about dinner recipes.  It’s been great and figuring out a recipe just by plugging in what I have and then adjusting for what I don’t have.  And it gave me some nice suggestions to step up the veggies for Easter.  Best dang canned green beans I’ve ever had. 

As for my initial question, just really trying to figure out what skillset might best fit that need.  There’s no option for mass hiring. It’s gotta be a skill acquired for a targeted person or two.

It sounds like you need to get a basic scheduling software and a data analyst. We paid less than 4k for our current system at my community college, which I used to manage 8k+ students during finals week for all our campus locations last semester. I used to work at the testing center as an operations specialist, but I was essentially a data analyst with some admin privileges.

I don’t know if this will be applicable to your situation since we start planning for finals from the beginning of the semester, but I guess the process would be similar.
1. Figure out approximately many students are taking exams. The number of students at the start of a semester will be way different towards the end.
2. Figure out site max capacity and type of exams they can support. Some locations do not have printers, so we had to pre-print paper exams. Locations that don’t have computers were set up with laptops.
3. Figure out the exam type (online, paper) and duration.
4. Figure out accommodations (double time, private room, distraction reduced, etc.)

With this information, we open time slots. We do time slots for each test site at ten minutes durations that students can schedule for. Ex) 15 slots at 9:00 am, 10 slots at 9:10, 12 slots at 9:20. We stagger them because having 100 students in the lobby is not productive as it takes time to check students in and provide the required test materials. Additionally, students will be late or go over the time limit while taking paper exams, so we try to avoid hitting max capacity. Students will miss appointments, so I calculate and forecast the amount of no shows based on previous semesters. I deliberately open less slots on the last 4 days to funnel students to schedule during the first 3 days, then open additional slots accordingly. 

With how simple our scheduling software is, it is possible to skip the scheduling software and to do it manually. However, with the required manpower and time, it will probably be cheaper to go the software route. Plus, you will be able to use the software in the future as well. As for skillset, I only used basic-intermediate excel: v-lookup, pivot tables, index/match, some conditional formatting.

Yes! I am thinking a big missing piece of the puzzle is the scheduling software. And the “right” people need to take charge of the spreadsheet.

[bjcheung77]

Yes! I am thinking a big missing piece of the puzzle is the scheduling software. And the “right” people need to take charge of the spreadsheet.

Too many staff, too many sites, it'll have to be split into multiple spreadsheets (one per site or 1 per X sites), multiple staff with the same role. There's probably a 'go-to-number' for the staffs, but it can't be just like 5 people or so, hmm...

[Hotdogman1]

Yes! I am thinking a big missing piece of the puzzle is the scheduling software. And the “right” people need to take charge of the spreadsheet.

Too many staff, too many sites, it'll have to be split into multiple spreadsheets (one per site or 1 per X sites), multiple staff with the same role.  There's probably a 'go-to-number' for the staffs, but it can't be just like 5 people or so, hmm...

I think you are underestimating how inefficiently a department can be organized. In my department alone, I have 15 people who outrank me with 10 having the same exact job title. I share my rank with 3 other people and I outrank 15 other people who have the same exact job title. I'm the only one that has a unique job title other than the director.