Capacity Planning

What this is for

Turn a ranked set of work into an explainable scenario based on your own estimates, capacity, and horizon.

When this helps

• Roadmaps assume unlimited capacity.
• A date is communicated before anyone states the estimate or staffing assumption.
• Teams discover overflow after the sprint or quarter starts.

How it works

Specky orders selected work by its priority signal and allocates your total weekly capacity across the chosen horizon. Choose story points, person-weeks, prototype cycles, or budget in thousands of your chosen currency. Enter estimates in that same unit; story points can use existing item estimates, but other units require explicit estimates. Missing estimates stay unestimated. People is a recorded assumption, not an extra capacity multiplier. The scenario does not schedule dependencies, model lead times, or certify delivery dates.

Before you start

• A selected set of prioritized planning items.
• The total capacity available per week in one consistent unit.
• A planning horizon in weeks and expected team size.
• An estimate for every selected item.

What you should see

• Total capacity and estimated work in the selected unit.
• A start week for work with available capacity.
• Visible partial allocation, overflow, and missing estimates.
• A named scenario you can reopen with its saved estimates and assumptions.

Try it now

1. Open Plan → Capacity planning and name the scenario.
2. Choose the unit and enter total weekly capacity—not a per-person number unless only one person is available.
3. Enter the horizon and people. People documents the assumption; it does not multiply the rate.
4. Select the work and review or enter every estimate. Changing units never converts existing points into time or money.
5. Inspect missing estimates and overflow, then change one assumption at a time.
6. Save the scenario. Use the saved-scenario selector to reopen it, check dependencies separately, and review with the team before communicating dates.

A real example

Illustrative software scenario: 20 points per week for six weeks gives 120 points. Items of 13, 21, and 110 points total 144, leaving 24 points beyond capacity. Hardware scenario: one prototype cycle per week for four weeks gives four cycles; two tests estimated at three cycles each exceed that budget by two cycles. Neither scenario accounts for a supplier delay until you adjust the assumptions.

Your next move

Review prerequisites and schedule risk in Dependencies & Drift. For a complete physical-product example, read Hardware and Connected Products.