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Capacity Planning Software for Development Teams
Capacity planning determines what your team can actually deliver. Without proper tools, teams over-commit, burn out, or under-utilize resources. Modern capacity planning software helps engineering teams balance workload, predict delivery timelines, and maintain sustainable velocity.
Capacity Planning Overview
| Factor | What It Measures | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Team Size | Available developers | Base capacity |
| Velocity | Points per sprint | Actual throughput |
| Availability | Working days minus PTO | Real capacity |
| Focus Factor | % time on sprint work | Realistic commitment |
| Carry-over | Incomplete work | Reduces new capacity |
The Capacity Planning Problem
WITHOUT CAPACITY PLANNING
═════════════════════════
SPRINT PLANNING FAILURE:
─────────────────────────────────────
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ Sprint Planning Meeting │
│ ───────────────────────────────────── │
│ │
│ Product Owner: "We need these 15 features" │
│ Team: "Sure, we can try!" │
│ │
│ Reality Check: │
│ ├── 2 developers on PTO │
│ ├── 1 developer on-call this week │
│ ├── Company all-hands (4 hours) │
│ ├── Carry-over from last sprint (3 tasks) │
│ └── Production incident likely │
│ │
│ Result: │
│ ├── 40% of sprint incomplete │
│ ├── Team demoralized │
│ ├── Stakeholders frustrated │
│ └── Cycle repeats next sprint │
│ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
WITH CAPACITY PLANNING:
─────────────────────────────────────
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ Sprint Planning Meeting │
│ ───────────────────────────────────── │
│ │
│ Tool shows: │
│ ├── Historical velocity: 42 points │
│ ├── This sprint capacity: 32 points (-24%) │
│ ├── Reason: 2 PTO, 1 on-call, holiday │
│ └── Recommended commitment: 28-32 points │
│ │
│ Team: "We can commit to 30 points" │
│ Product Owner: "Let's prioritize top 8 items" │
│ │
│ Result: │
│ ├── 100% sprint completion │
│ ├── Team confidence high │
│ ├── Stakeholders trust estimates │
│ └── Sustainable pace maintained │
│ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Capacity Calculation Formula
CAPACITY CALCULATION
════════════════════
BASIC FORMULA:
─────────────────────────────────────
Sprint Capacity = Team Capacity × Velocity Factor
Where:
├── Team Capacity = Σ (Member Days Available)
├── Velocity Factor = Historical Points / Historical Days
└── Adjustments for known disruptions
DETAILED CALCULATION:
─────────────────────────────────────
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ TEAM: Alpha (5 developers) │
│ SPRINT: 14 (2 weeks = 10 working days) │
│ │
│ MEMBER AVAILABILITY: │
│ ───────────────────────────────────── │
│ Alice: 10 days × 0.8 focus = 8.0 days │
│ Bob: 8 days (2 PTO) × 0.8 = 6.4 days │
│ Carol: 10 days × 0.8 = 8.0 days │
│ David: 5 days (on-call) × 0.5 = 2.5 days │
│ Eve: 10 days × 0.8 = 8.0 days │
│ ───────────────────────────────────── │
│ Total Available Days: 32.9 days │
│ │
│ VELOCITY BASELINE: │
│ ───────────────────────────────────── │
│ Last 4 sprints average: 42 points │
│ Average available days: 40 days │
│ Points per day: 1.05 pts/day │
│ │
│ SPRINT CAPACITY: │
│ ───────────────────────────────────── │
│ 32.9 days × 1.05 pts/day = 34.5 points │
│ │
│ RECOMMENDED COMMITMENT: 32-35 points │
│ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
GitScrum Capacity Features
GITSCRUM CAPACITY PLANNING
══════════════════════════
VELOCITY TRACKING:
─────────────────────────────────────
Board → Reports → Velocity
Points
Completed
│
50 ┤ ████
│ ████ ████ ████
40 ┤────────────────────────────────────── Baseline: 42
│ ████ ████ ████ ████
30 ┤ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████
│████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████
20 ┤████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████
│████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████
10 ┤████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████
│████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████
0 └────────────────────────────────────
S9 S10 S11 S12 S13 S14
SPRINT COMMITMENT VIEW:
─────────────────────────────────────
Sprint 14 Planning
├── Historical Velocity: 42 pts (avg)
├── Current Commitment: 38 pts
├── Capacity Status: ⚠️ 90% (comfortable)
└── Recommendation: Can add 2-4 more points
CAPACITY INDICATORS:
─────────────────────────────────────
0% 50% 80% 100% 120%
│ │ │ │ │
└───────────┴───────────┴──────┴────────┘
Green Yellow Red Over!
Current: ████████████████████░░░░ 85% (Healthy)
EFFORT POINTS SUMMARY:
─────────────────────────────────────
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Sprint 14 Effort Breakdown │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ Committed: 38 points │
│ Completed: 24 points (Day 6 of 10) │
│ In Progress: 10 points │
│ Not Started: 4 points │
│ │
│ Burndown Status: On Track ✅ │
│ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Team Availability Planning
AVAILABILITY MANAGEMENT
═══════════════════════
SPRINT CALENDAR VIEW:
─────────────────────────────────────
Sprint 14: Jan 13 - Jan 24
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri
13 14 15 16 17 20 21 22 23 24
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Alice ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███
Bob ░░░ ░░░ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███
Carol ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███
David ▓▓▓ ▓▓▓ ▓▓▓ ▓▓▓ ▓▓▓ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███
Eve ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ░░░ ░░░
Legend: ███ Available ░░░ PTO ▓▓▓ On-Call (50%)
CAPACITY SUMMARY:
─────────────────────────────────────
Normal capacity: 50 person-days
This sprint: 40 person-days
Reduction: -20%
Adjust commitment accordingly!
RECURRING COMMITMENTS:
─────────────────────────────────────
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ Team-level capacity reducers: │
│ ├── Weekly team meeting: 1.5h/person = 7.5h │
│ ├── Daily standups: 15min × 10 days = 2.5h │
│ ├── Sprint ceremonies: 4h/person = 20h │
│ └── Slack/email overhead: ~10% = 40h │
│ │
│ Individual reducers (this sprint): │
│ ├── Bob PTO: 2 days │
│ ├── David on-call: 50% capacity for week 1 │
│ └── Eve PTO: Friday week 2 │
│ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Workload Visualization
WORKLOAD DISTRIBUTION
═════════════════════
BY TEAM MEMBER (Sprint 14):
─────────────────────────────────────
Committed Capacity Utilization
Alice 12 pts 10 pts ████████████░░ 120% ⚠️
Bob 6 pts 8 pts ██████░░░░░░░░ 75%
Carol 8 pts 10 pts ████████░░░░░░ 80%
David 4 pts 5 pts ████████░░░░░░ 80%
Eve 8 pts 10 pts ████████░░░░░░ 80%
─────────────────────────────────────────────────
Total 38 pts 43 pts 88%
WARNING: Alice is over-committed
ACTION: Redistribute 2 points to Bob
BY WORK TYPE:
─────────────────────────────────────
Features: 24 pts ████████████████████████░░░░░░ 63%
Bug Fixes: 8 pts ████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 21%
Tech Debt: 4 pts ████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 11%
Support: 2 pts ██░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 5%
BY PRIORITY:
─────────────────────────────────────
P0 Critical: 8 pts Must complete
P1 High: 18 pts Should complete
P2 Medium: 10 pts If capacity allows
P3 Low: 2 pts Stretch goal
Forecasting with Capacity
DELIVERY FORECASTING
════════════════════
ROADMAP CAPACITY PLANNING:
─────────────────────────────────────
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ Q1 2026 Capacity Forecast │
│ ───────────────────────────────────── │
│ │
│ Sprint 14 (Jan 13-24): 34 pts available │
│ Sprint 15 (Jan 27-Feb 7): 42 pts available (full team) │
│ Sprint 16 (Feb 10-21): 38 pts available (1 PTO) │
│ Sprint 17 (Feb 24-Mar 7): 40 pts available │
│ Sprint 18 (Mar 10-21): 30 pts available (2 PTO) │
│ Sprint 19 (Mar 24-Apr 4): 42 pts available │
│ ───────────────────────────────────── │
│ Q1 Total Capacity: 226 points │
│ │
│ PLANNED WORK: │
│ ───────────────────────────────────── │
│ Feature A (Epic): 45 points │
│ Feature B (Epic): 60 points │
│ Bug Backlog: 30 points │
│ Tech Debt Sprint: 25 points │
│ Buffer (15%): 34 points │
│ ───────────────────────────────────── │
│ Planned Total: 194 points │
│ │
│ STATUS: ✅ Achievable (86% of capacity) │
│ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
MONTE CARLO SIMULATION:
─────────────────────────────────────
When will Feature A (45 pts) be done?
Based on velocity variance (38-48 pts/sprint):
├── 50% confidence: Sprint 15 (Feb 7)
├── 80% confidence: Sprint 16 (Feb 21)
└── 95% confidence: Sprint 17 (Mar 7)
Best practices
- Track velocity historically - 4+ sprints for reliable baseline
- Account for focus factor - No one codes 8h/day
- Plan for the unexpected - 15-20% buffer for incidents
- Update availability weekly - PTO changes, on-call shifts
- Balance workload - No team member should be 100%+ consistently
- Review and adjust - Retrospect on capacity accuracy
- Visualize commitments - Make over-commitment visible
- Include carry-over - Incomplete work reduces next sprint