A team capacity planning template,and the version that fills itself in.
Capacity planning answers one question: how much work can the team take on in the coming weeks, given who's actually around? A spreadsheet can answer it if it has the right columns and someone keeps it current.
Here's the template I'd build in Excel or Google Sheets, the formulas, how to fill it, and where it tends to break.
The columns
One row per person per sprint (or per week): Person · Sprint · Working days (weekdays minus holidays) · Days off (vacation, sick, conferences) · Allocation % (share of time on this team) · Focus factor % (time left after meetings and support, usually 60–80%) · Capacity days = (Working days − Days off) × Allocation × Focus factor. Add the capacity days up per sprint, and compare with a full sprint.
Step 1
Set up the sheet
Make one tab per quarter with the columns above, and one row per person per sprint. Put working days in a formula: in Excel or Google Sheets, =NETWORKDAYS(start, end, holidays) counts weekdays minus a list of holiday dates you keep on another tab.
Capacity days is then =(WorkingDays − DaysOff) × Allocation × Focus. Sum it per sprint with SUMIF on the sprint column.
Step 2
Fill in time off and holidays
Days off come from wherever your team keeps time off. Holidays come from each person's country: a teammate in London has different days off from one in New York. Keep one holiday list per country and point each person's row at theirs.
Step 3
Turn capacity into a plan
Compare each sprint's capacity with a full one. If you usually finish 40 points and a sprint has 70% of normal capacity, plan about 28. The sprint capacity calculator does this for one sprint without a sheet.
Step 4
Where the sheet breaks
The sheet is only as current as the last time someone updated it. Time off booked after you filled it in, a sick week, a conference added late: none of it shows up unless someone re-enters it. And the sheet doesn't warn you that the one person who knows the payments service is out on release day.
Keep the plan honest
Plan to 80–90%
Leave slack for surprises, sick days and support.
Include partial allocation
Someone 50% on another project is half a person, every sprint.
Count conferences and training
They're days off for the sprint, even if they're work.
Review every sprint
Update time off and compare planned with actual capacity.
Watch single points of failure
Capacity in total can look fine while one area has nobody.
One source of truth
Don't keep time off in three places. Pick one and link the rest to it.
A capacity sheet is a snapshot.A calendar stays current.
The same plan on a Forgot board: sprints, time off and each person's holidays, updated the moment someone adds a day off. It's live, so try it.
Fills itself in
Time off and each country's holidays are already on the rows, without re-entering anything.
Names who's away
Each sprint lists who's out during it, so capacity gaps are obvious.
Warns on key dates
A release date warns you when someone is away on it.
- Sprints as bands across the team
- Time off and holidays inside each sprint
- Who's away during each sprint, named
- Drag in time off and see it change
Plan capacity on a calendar that's always current.
Forgot keeps the team's time off, holidays, sprints and release dates on one timeline, so capacity is always up to date.
- Sprints and freezes as team periods
- Everyone's time off on one timeline
- Public holidays for each person's country
- Your team sends dates without signing up
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Questions
What should a capacity planning template include?
Person, sprint or week, working days after holidays, days off, allocation to the team, a focus factor, and the resulting capacity in days, summed per sprint.
How do you calculate team capacity?
For each person: (working days − days off) × share of time on the team × focus factor. Add it up for the team and compare with a full sprint.
How do you count working days in Excel?
Use NETWORKDAYS(start, end, holidays), with a range of holiday dates as the third argument. Google Sheets has the same function.
What is a good focus factor?
Most teams land between 60% and 80%. Start at 70% and adjust from your actual results.