Skill: capacity-planning

Skill: capacity-planning

Purpose

Calculate realistic team capacity and distribute work across sprints, accounting for meetings, leave, and overhead — so commitments are grounded in reality.

When to Use

• At the start of release planning
• When a new team member joins or leaves
• When scope is being negotiated against timeline

Framework: Capacity Planning

Step 1 — Gather Team Data

For each team member, ask:

• Role (Dev, QA, Designer, etc.)
• Available days in the release window
• Planned leave or part-time allocation
• % allocated to this release (vs. other projects)

Step 2 — Capacity Formula

Gross Capacity = Working days in release window × Hours per day

Net Capacity = Gross Capacity − Meeting overhead (typically 20%) − BAU / support tasks (ask team, typically 10–20%) − Leave days

Story Point Capacity = Net Capacity in days × Team velocity per day

Step 3 — Capacity Table per Sprint

Sprint	Dev Capacity (days)	QA Capacity (days)	Design Capacity (days)	Notes
Sprint 1	35	15	10	Design lead on leave day 3
Sprint 2	40	20	5	Full team
Sprint 3	30	25	0	Code freeze week
Total	105	60	15

Step 4 — Scope vs Capacity Check

Item	Estimated Effort	Priority	Fits in Capacity?
Feature A	20 dev days	Must Have	✅ Yes
Feature B	15 dev days	Must Have	✅ Yes
Feature C	40 dev days	Should Have	⚠️ Tight
Feature D	25 dev days	Could Have	❌ No — defer

Step 5 — Recommendation

State clearly:

• What fits within capacity
• What needs to be cut or deferred
• Where risk of overcommitment exists

Output Format

1. Capacity table per sprint
2. Scope vs capacity check
3. Recommendation on what to cut or defer
4. Suggested next command: /milestone-plan or /cut-scope