Build your capacity plan

The capacity page helps you create a comprehensive plan to understand how much work your teams can accomplish in a program increment (PI). It provides a simple, flexible, and spreadsheet-like experience for all managers to view and contribute. Based on user inputs, the page calculates each team’s available capacity, aggregates the data, and compares it to forecasted work for the PI.

This article provides a step-by-step guide on how to build a plan, including the various ways to customize your page and enter data into the plan details. For general information about the capacity page, read the previous article: Understand the capacity page.

On this page:

• Open your capacity plan
• Set your page filters
• Edit default settings
• Edit programs and teams 
• Keep track of changes

Open your capacity plan

To navigate to the capacity page:

1. Select Portfolios, Solutions, or Programs in the top navigation bar and select the entity you want to open a capacity plan for.
2. From the sidebar, select Capacity.
3. From the sidebar, select a single program increment (PI).

Permissions and access limitations

• To access the page, you need the Capacity permission toggle enabled for your system role. This toggle is available at the portfolio, solution, and program levels. 
• Regardless of permission level, all plans “lock” and become read-only 30 days after a PI’s end date, with a 30-day countdown leading up to the lock date.

Set your page filters

Set filters so you only see the solutions, programs, and teams that you want to plan for right now.

1. Select your solutions, if applicable.
2. Select your programs, if applicable.

Edit default settings

While all teams differ, organizations often have important requirements to consider. For example, as a leader overseeing multiple programs, you may simplify matters by establishing a consistent number of members or points per sprint across all teams. Alternatively, as a manager, you might need to allocate 12 weeks or 7 sprints per program increment (PI). By setting defaults at the portfolio level, you can easily update individual teams or entire programs in a few clicks.

To edit default settings:

1. Select the Defaults button in the upper right of the plan details section.
2. The Default settings dialog will open.
3. In any of the text fields, enter a value.
4. Select Save. This will update all cells set to “default” for active plans within the PI.

Note: To edit the defaults, you’ll need the Portfolio > Capacity > Set Defaults permission toggle enabled for your system role.

Edit programs and teams

The plan details table provides spreadsheet-like functionality, empowering you to make edits quickly and efficiently, while also giving you control and flexibility. Depending on your role, you may find it useful to edit multiple programs or teams simultaneously or edit individual teams in more detail.

Bulk edit by program

As a leader overseeing multiple programs, you might consider updating all of them simultaneously. For example, you might set everything to the default option in order to observe its impact on the overall available capacity. This insight can then be used to spark a strategic discussion among all managers.

To perform bulk editing on all programs:

1. Select the menu icon within a column header.
2. Select a data option that you wish to apply, such as default or previous plan.
3. Confirm (or cancel) the bulk update. It’s important to note that this action cannot be undone.
4. If confirmed, the change will be applied to all teams and override any existing entries.

Note: The default option will enter the same number for all teams, while the previous plan and average velocity options may give a different number for each team when applied in bulk.

Bulk edit by team

Similarly, as a program manager overseeing multiple teams, you might want to dive into a single program and update all teams at once.

To perform bulk editing on all teams within a single program:

1. Select a program. The table will update to display a paginated view of teams within that program.
2. Follow the same steps listed above.

Edit individual teams

Finally, as a team manager responsible for a single team, or a program manager with varying team needs, you might want to edit teams one by one. In this case, you have the option to enter a custom value within a single cell or select a data option. To edit an individual team:

1. Select a cell and enter a custom value.
2. Or, select the arrow icon on the cell and choose a data option (the same options apply).
3. Your entry will automatically save when you:
   • Hit the “enter” key
   • Tab into a new cell
   • Click out of the cell

As you complete each row, the system calculates the team's available capacity. These values are aggregated at the program level in the plan details section and the highest level based on your filters in the plan summary. Keep in mind that you can continue editing the capacity plan throughout the program increment (PI) until 30 days after the PI’s end date.

Keep track of changes

Tooltips

You can monitor the activities of other users in the plan by hovering over cells in the plan details table. This enables you to access valuable information about the content within each cell through a tooltip, which provides details such as the data option, author, and timestamp.

Audit log

You can also review past activity in the audit log, which you can access at the upper right corner of the page. One limitation is that when performing a bulk edit, the audit log only records the new values and not the previous values of the affected cells. This is different from cell-level edits, which do record the previous values.

Ready to get insights about capacity?

Read the next article: Review your capacity plan