Can I calculate the capacity of future sprints in JIRA?

[Amit Namdhari]

This will help me plan my future sprints considering the holidays and planned vacations. I have used TFS and it has that feature. Can it be done in JIRA itself without using the external add-ons or plugins?

[Susheela Kushwaha]

Came across same requirement. Does Jira have this feature now? Can I use EazyBi to accomplish this? Any suggestion would be much appreciated.

[Zane eazyBI Support]

Hi @Susheela Kushwaha,

The eazyBI data are around Jira issues, and you can analyze and predict Sprint scope from issue perspective and past velocity trends. Unfortuantely, data on planned vacations that could be used for asserting future Sprint capacity is not there.

If you have future sprint capacity already calculated and available in Jira, you may import it in eazyBI as additional data for each Sprint. And there use this capacity for reports and further calculation.
More details on the additional data import are here: https://docs.eazybi.com/eazybijira/data-import/jira-issues-import/additional-data-import-into-jira-issues-cube.

To get a better insight on what Sprint and management analytics eazyBI offers, you may check out the Demo account with report examples: https://eazybi.com/accounts/1000/dashboards/5956-sprints-overview.

Best,
Zane / support@eazyBI.com

[Tim Nesdale]

As an experienced user of both TFS and JIRA, I do find it quite disappointing that JIRA doesnt have this feature.

For those that don't know, TFS has this fantastic feature where you simply type in your forecast velocity for a sprint on your backlog and it simply calculates based on your prioritised list of backlog items where the 'cut off' line is. i.e. If you've said you can achieve 30 points in a sprint, a line will be drawn directly above any story whose total takes the total points above that line above 30. Its a wonderful tool because it means that product owners can fiddle with their backlog items as much as they want to get the items they want above the line and have more certainty of being delivered while they cannot have more than that 30 points no matter how much they try to manipulate it. It means they have to focus on value and make trade offs of forgoing a larger story to ensure they get smaller stories delivered.

Its brilliant! Come on JIRA, where is this feature?!

[Randall Kasper]

Exactly! Pretty much everything about TFS is horrible for Agile Scrum purposes except this particular feature. It's also a fairly simple concept and can't imagine why Atlassian not only does not offer it, but refuses to even answer the many of us that inquire about it.  This has been a request for YEARS but I guess they just don't care enough about their paying customers.

[Kian Stack Mumo Systems]

Hey Amit, 

In general you can forecast how much capacity you have for a future sprint base don how quickly you are completing work in previous sprints.

To get a good sense of how much work you completed in previous sprints, you can take a look at the reporting functionality that is given by default in JIRA Software. Probably the best report to see how much work you've done in the past is the velocity chart. 

https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirasoftwareserver075/velocity-chart-935562730.html

If you want more detailed planning around planned vacations and holidays, I'd recommend taking a look at JIRA portfolio.

[Amit Namdhari]

Thanks Kian for the quick response. 

Looking at the velocity, I would get a sense of capacity in general, however it will not be conclusive of variables like holidays and/or vacations. 

I do use the functionality of Teams and assigning the capacity at teams in Portfolio, however it is static and I will have to adjust it every sprint based on the planned vacations of the team members and scheduled holidays. It doesn't feel very efficient.

On my previous project with a different client, I was working in SAFe framework and for the purpose of PI planning (for 6 - 7 sprints), we had to have the visibility at the capacity of the team to forecast and plan better.

We used a spreadsheet with Macro's to calculate the capacity of a team for each sprint by recording the common holidays and planned vacation of the individual team members. And we used TFS.

During my research, I have come across some add-on/plugins in the Atlassian Marketplace which fulfills my requirement of capacity planning, however they are paid products and my organization may not invest in them unless proven useful, which might take time. Hence I am trying to explore the inbuilt capability of JIRA, if there is any.

[Kian Stack Mumo Systems]

Hey Amit, 

I'm afraid that I might not be of much more help if you've already explored those avenues! I don't think JIRA has what you are looking for as built in functionality. 

Thanks, 

Kian

[Amit Namdhari]

Appreciate you honest response, Kian!

I would still keep the question open, just to see if anyone else has a different perspective about it.