Understanding Capacity Planning in Jira Align

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The capacity page is designed to help you develop a comprehensive plan that clarifies how much work your teams can achieve during a program increment (PI). It offers a user-friendly, flexible, and spreadsheet-like interface that allows all managers to easily view and contribute. Based on user inputs, the page calculates each team’s available capacity, aggregates the data, and compares it to the forecasted work for the PI.

When utilizing the Capacity feature, you will use either “Member weeks” or “Points” as the unit of measure, depending on the estimation system settings in your portfolio.

Capacity reflects the total effort available for teams, programs, and solutions (if applicable) collaborating within a program increment. This capacity is allocated to ART-level features and portfolio-level epics planned for the program increment.

Capacity can be likened to a glass of water. To determine how much water we can pour in, we first need to understand the size of the glass. The glass's size represents our available capacity, while the water we fill it with symbolizes the estimated work.

                                                         

In Jira Align, you can develop a capacity plan that provides a clear overview of your total available capacity. This available capacity is determined by four key inputs:

1. Team Members: The number of individuals working on the team.

2. Weeks: The total number of weeks in the program.

3. Increment Buffer: This represents the member weeks that teammates are unavailable due to holidays, leaves, training, and other reasons.

4. Capacity Percentage: This indicates the percentage of time the team is committed to work planned for the program increment.

Additionally, you can exclude non-planned work—such as bug fixes and regular maintenance—from your available capacity by setting an appropriate percentage.

To determine the available capacity for each team, we start by multiplying the number of team members by the number of weeks. Then, we subtract the buffer, which represents the total weeks that team members are unavailable.

To determine the available capacity, we start by multiplying the total member weeks by the team's capacity percentage. For instance, if our team consists of 7 members working over a 12-week program increment, we initially calculate 84 member weeks, accounting for vacations. After subtracting four member weeks from this total, we arrive at 80 member weeks. Finally, by applying the team's capacity percentage of 80%, we find that the available capacity is 64 member weeks.

How does this work in Jira Align?

1. Begin by navigating to the capacity page, which can be accessed through the portfolio, solution (if applicable), or program context using the top navigation bar.
2. Our goal is to develop the capacity plan for the entire portfolio within our program increment. Therefore, we will start at the portfolio level and select “Portfolio One.” Next, choose the upcoming program increment from the sidebar
3. We will focus on the capacity for our “Q3” program increment.
4. Finally, select the capacity option from the sidebar, located just below the forecast.
5. The filters allow you to narrow down the data on the page to specific programs. Since we initiated from the portfolio level, we can view child team levels.
6. At the bottom, you will find the plan details, which provide a spreadsheet-like experience where the real work occurs. Managers and other planning leaders input information about their specific programs and teams into the table.
7. The plan summary displays all aggregated data along with a helpful visual representation of your capacity status, indicating whether you are above or below capacity compared to your forecasted work.

For instance, if we are the leader of the Alpha program, we can select that program from the filter. Notice how the data displayed in the image below is now exclusively relevant to our program

Observe how the columns in the table correspond to the four components used to assess capacity: member weeks, buffer member weeks, and capacity percentage. At this level, we cannot edit individual cells since each team within the program has distinct values. Therefore, let's select the program on the left to examine the teams within it. This view is collaborative, and several team leaders have already populated the data. By hovering over each cell, we can access detailed information about each entry's data source, author, and timestamp.

Next, let's input the capacity values for the carrot team. There are four methods to enter data for a capacity plan:

Manual Entry: This is the method we will use for all of the team’s capacity values. We know that the team will consist of 7 members when the Program Increment (PI) begins, so we will enter 7 in the members' cell. The team will be working throughout the entire PI, which lasts for 12 weeks. However, 4 members will be on vacation for one week. To accommodate this, we will include a buffer of 4 member weeks. Lastly, we need to specify the capacity percentage. Our team anticipates spending 80% of its time on program increment work, with the remaining time allocated to unplanned tasks, such as fixing bugs. At the end of the row, we can now see the calculated available capacity for the team.

To streamline the process for the next team, we can explore alternative methods for data entry. Assuming that the team membership remains stable, we can utilize existing data from Jira Align to reference team allocations found in the team's details panel. By clicking the dropdown icon located to the right of each member's cell, we can access the data options menu and select the appropriate team allocation.

Data options are also accessible for a week's worth of information. To utilize this feature, select the dropdown menu for the week cell, where you will find the option for anchor sprints. This option is detailed in the PI details panel. In this context, we have a total of "6" anchor sprints, with each sprint spanning "2" weeks in duration.

We will utilize the third data option for the buffer. In the previous PI, we established a buffer of 2.5 member weeks. If we anticipate that this figure will remain consistent in the current PI, we can simply replicate it.

The 4th data option is set to default at a capacity percentage of 100%.

• Defaults provide a convenient method for quickly establishing values that are commonly used across all programs and teams.

• You can configure defaults by clicking the defaults button located on the page.

• The configurations within this section can influence the entire portfolio.

• To set or adjust default settings, please ensure that the default permissions toggle is activated for your system role.

To establish a best practice, all teams within the portfolio have collectively agreed to allocate 85% of their time to focus on PI priorities. Consequently, we have adjusted the default allocation from 100% to 85%.

• The previous PI option and the defaults option will update dynamically whenever the related data changes. This means you won't need to revisit and edit the cell again if, for example, the team size changes or a new default is established.

A capacity plan becomes active before the PI begins and locks its data once 30 days have elapsed since the end date of the PI. The data options utilized in cells can also be employed to bulk-edit an entire column. This feature is particularly beneficial when standard values apply to all teams within the program. You can view these options by selecting the menu icon at the top of the capacity percentage column.

Jira Align calculates the available capacity for each team, which is then aggregated for the entire program. You can always return to edit individual cells or carry out additional bulk edits as necessary

After populating all programs and teams with values in the plan details, your capacity plan will be complete. You can then proceed to analyze the data presented in the plan summary.

You can view the total number of teams engaged in the Program Increment (PI), along with the aggregated values for each component of the available capacity calculation and the overall available capacity. This available capacity is presented both numerically and visually through a capacity bar. As you input estimates for work in the PI—either via the forecast page or the forecast tab of each work item—the capacity bar will progressively fill up.

To begin, select the link on the forecast page to assess the planned work. We will utilize the program at our team level on this page to estimate for epics. You will notice that the same two PIs from our capacity plan correspond with the available capabilities.

We need to incorporate some estimates into these epics.

On the capacity page, you will observe that the capacity bar reflects our estimates. By hovering over the bar, you can view a detailed breakdown of capacity versus forecast estimates. Currently, we have exceeded our available capacity, which necessitates the removal of an epic from our Program Increment (PI). To address this, we must explore options to either break down an epic and reduce its estimate or identify strategies to enhance our capacity.

We can also evaluate our capacity by comparing it with the features we have previously estimated. This can be done by modifying the work item using the filter located at the top.

The capacity bar now displays the total amount of capacity utilized for feature work.