capacity-planning

SKILL.md

Capacity Planning

Table of Contents

Overview

When to Use

Quick Start

Reference Guides

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:

# 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
Capacity Assessment

Capacity Planning Template
Capacity Planning Template

Resource Leveling
Resource Leveling

Capacity Forecasting
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

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