1. What is Agile Capacity Planning?

Agile capacity planning is a technique used in agile project management to estimate the amount of work a team can complete in a given sprint or iteration. It helps teams plan their work effectively by accounting for available working hours after subtracting time for holidays, meetings, and other non-project activities.

2. How Does the Calculator Work?

The calculator uses the agile capacity formula:

Where:

• \( Base\ Hours \) — Total available working hours in the period
• \( Holidays \) — Hours lost due to holidays and time off
• \( Meetings \) — Hours allocated to meetings and other non-project activities

Explanation: This formula calculates the actual productive hours available for project work after accounting for various time commitments.

3. Importance of Capacity Planning

Details: Accurate capacity planning helps teams set realistic goals, avoid overcommitment, improve delivery predictability, and maintain sustainable pace. It's essential for effective sprint planning and resource allocation in agile environments.

4. Using the Calculator

Tips: Enter base hours (total available hours), holidays hours, and meetings hours. All values must be non-negative numbers. The calculator will compute the remaining capacity available for project work.

5. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q1: What should be included in base hours?
A: Base hours should include the total working hours available in the planning period, typically calculated as team size × working hours per day × number of working days.

Q2: How do I account for part-time team members?
A: Adjust the base hours calculation to reflect the actual availability of part-time team members. For example, a half-time team member would contribute 50% of full-time hours.

Q3: Should training time be included in meetings?
A: Yes, any non-project activities including training, administrative tasks, and support work should be accounted for in the meetings/holidays deduction.

Q4: How often should capacity planning be done?
A: Capacity planning is typically done at the beginning of each sprint or iteration, but can also be done for longer planning horizons like quarterly planning.

Q5: What if our team has variable availability?
A: For teams with variable schedules, consider creating different capacity scenarios or using average availability figures to estimate capacity.