Key Concepts
Essential concepts for understanding Agentnoon
These core concepts will help you navigate Agentnoon and understand how workforce planning works within the platform.
Positions vs People
Position
A job role in your organization, whether filled or open. Positions include attributes such as title, department, salary range, and reporting structure.
People (Employee)
The individual assigned to a position. One person can only fill one position at a time.
💡 Agentnoon is primarily position-based. You plan by creating and modifying positions first, then assigning people to them. This allows you to model future organizational structures before roles are filled.
Main Org vs Scenarios
Main Org
Your current-state organization as it exists today.
View-only (cannot be edited directly)
Reflects real-time or imported data
Updated through data sync
Serves as the baseline for scenario planning
Learn more: Key Concepts for Main Org
Scenarios
Editable copies of Main Org used for planning future changes.
Support what-if modeling
Track additions, reductions, and modifications
Can be compared, shared, and submitted for approval
Scenarios are isolated from Main Org until changes are implemented externally and data is refreshed.
Learn more: Key Concepts for Scenarios
Views: Org Chart vs Directory
Org Chart View
A visual, hierarchical view that displays reporting relationships.
Best used for:
Understanding organizational structure
Visualizing reporting lines
Drag-and-drop changes in scenarios
Directory View
A table-style view of all positions and employees with sortable columns.
Best used for:
Bulk analysis
Filtering and sorting data
Exporting structured reports
💡 You can switch between Org Chart and Directory views at any time with keyboard shortcuts (3 for Org Chart, 5 for Directory).
Cards
In Org Chart view, each position appears as a card.
Cards display key information such as:
Name and title
Department
Direct reports count
Additional selected attributes
Card content can be configured to display different fields, including calculated metrics.
Card interactions:
Click to open detail panel
Hover to see quick info
Drag to move to new manager (in scenarios)
Color-coded indicators show change type (in scenarios)
Attributes vs Fields
Attributes
Data points about positions or people (for example, Department, Location, Salary, Title).
Fields
How attributes are organized and displayed in the platform.
Attributes appear throughout the system — on cards, in the Directory, in analytics charts, in filters, and in exports.
There are two types of attributes:
System attributes (FX) Calculated automatically by the platform. These update automatically as the organization changes. Examples include:
Span of Control
Layer
Total Org Size
Cost Impact
Custom attributes
Defined by your administrator to reflect your organization’s structure. Custom attributes can be used in filters, highlights, analytics, and exports. Examples may include:
Business Unit
Cost Center
Employee Type
Pay Grade
Learn more: Fields and Attributes
Spans and Layers
Span of Control (SOC)
Span of Control helps evaluate management distribution and organizational balance. It is calculated automatically and reflects the number of positions that report directly to a given position.
Common ranges:
Individual Contributors: 0 direct reports
First-Line Managers: 5–10 direct reports
Mid-Level Managers: 5–8 direct reports
Executives: 5–10 direct reports
Layers
Layers help define organizational depth and represents the number of management levels between a position and the CEO. Industry best practice typically ranges from 4–7 layers for most companies, depending on size and complexity.
Example:
CEO: Layer 0
VP: Layer 1
Director: Layer 2
Manager: Layer 3
Individual Contributor: Layer 4
Permissions & Access Control
Access Groups
Access Groups define who can see what data in the platform and can be scoped based on department, location, or other defined attributes.
Permission Levels:
Viewer: Can see data, cannot edit
Planner: Can create and edit scenarios
Approver: Can approve scenario changes
Admin: Full system access, configuration
Permissions are configured by administrators.
Learn more: Access Control
Deep Dives
Key Concepts for Main Org — Data sync, read-only nature, baseline for scenarios
Key Concepts for Scenarios — Change types, OpEx Panel, approvals, comparisons
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