Should Parking lot items be counted as part of PI capacity ?

[Iris Gochman]

If If  move a feature to Parking Lot , should I save a capacity slot for it in the capacity ?  

[Jamie Giantonio · Accepted solution]

@Iris Gochman - I dont think parking lot items would require slots in your capacity, but I think it depends on how your group uses the parking lot.

What i have seen is it is typically used to callout/ reserve work that have some issues or unanswered questions to come back to later. This usually isn't "planned work" but work that requires extra attention. This isn't planned work, so we wouldn't account for it in capacity planning. 

I've seen other customers use the parking lot to capture what they consider "stretch work" for the Increment- i.e. the work they'd pull in next if they completed their planned work. Personally I coach away from stretch work and encourage frequent backlog refinement, so when additional work is needed you use current priority to pull items in,  vs the priority in the beginning of the increment. That said if you were using the parking lot for stretch goals, i still dont feel capacity would be reserved.