Capacity Planning

---
name: capacity-planning-16b604f97d9f
description: >
  Analyze team capacity, plan resource allocation, and balance workload across
  projects. Forecast staffing needs and optimize team utilization while
  maintaining sustainable pace.
---

# Capacity Planning

## Table of Contents

- [Overview](#overview)
- [When to Use](#when-to-use)
- [Quick Start](#quick-start)
- [Reference Guides](#reference-guides)
- [Best Practices](#best-practices)

## Overview

Capacity planning ensures teams have sufficient resources to deliver work at sustainable pace, prevents burnout, and enables accurate commitment to stakeholders.

## When to Use

- Annual or quarterly planning cycles
- Allocating people to projects
- Adjusting team size
- Planning for holidays and absences
- Forecasting resource needs
- Balancing multiple projects
- Identifying bottlenecks

## Quick Start

Minimal working example:

```python
# Team capacity calculation and planning

class CapacityPlanner:
    # Standard work hours per week
    STANDARD_WEEK_HOURS = 40

    # Activities that reduce available capacity
    OVERHEAD_HOURS = {
        'meetings': 5,           # standups, 1-on-1s, planning
        'training': 2,           # learning new tech
        'administrative': 2,     # emails, approvals
        'support': 2,            # helping teammates
        'contingency': 2         # interruptions, emergencies
    }

    def __init__(self, team_size, sprint_duration_weeks=2):
        self.team_size = team_size
        self.sprint_duration_weeks = sprint_duration_weeks
        self.members = []

    def calculate_team_capacity(self):
        """Calculate available capacity hours"""
        # Base capacity
        base_hours = self.team_size * self.STANDARD_WEEK_HOURS * self.sprint_duration_weeks

// ... (see reference guides for full implementation)
```

## Reference Guides

Detailed implementations in the `references/` directory:

| Guide | Contents |
|---|---|
| [Capacity Assessment](references/capacity-assessment.md) | Capacity Assessment |
| [Capacity Planning Template](references/capacity-planning-template.md) | Capacity Planning Template |
| [Resource Leveling](references/resource-leveling.md) | Resource Leveling |
| [Capacity Forecasting](references/capacity-forecasting.md) | Capacity Forecasting |

## Best Practices

### ✅ DO

- Plan capacity at 85% utilization (15% buffer)
- Account for meetings, training, and overhead
- Include known absences (vacation, holidays)
- Identify skill bottlenecks early
- Balance workload fairly across team
- Review capacity monthly
- Adjust plans based on actual velocity
- Cross-train on critical skills
- Communicate realistic commitments to stakeholders
- Build contingency for emergencies

### ❌ DON'T

- Plan at 100% utilization
- Ignore meetings and overhead
- Assign work without checking skills
- Create overload with continuous surprises
- Forget about learning/training time
- Leave capacity planning to last minute
- Overcommit team consistently
- Burn out key people
- Ignore team feedback on workload
- Plan without considering absences