Category: Capacity Planning

The capacity grid displays team utilization across quarters and team members.

Access the capacity grid

1. Go to your project
2. Click Capacity

The grid appears with:

• Rows — Team members
• Columns — Quarters
• Cells — Utilization % and hours

Understand the grid

Each cell shows:

• Utilization % — Used / available capacity
• Hours — Allocated hours / available hours
• Color — Green (healthy), Yellow (at capacity), Red (overallocated)

View by team

1. Click Group by Team

Team members group under their team names. This helps you see team-level capacity.

View base vs. scenario capacity

1. Click Base to see current actual capacity
2. Click Scenario to switch to a scenario view

Scenario mode shows capacity if you’ve added or removed headcount. See Plan across quarters.

Hover for details

Hover over a cell to see:

• Team member name
• Quarter
• Allocated hours
• Available hours
• Utilization %

Expand rows

Click a team name to expand and see all members in that team.

Navigate quarters

1. Use the left/right arrows to move between quarters
2. Or click a specific quarter from the dropdown

Export capacity data

Many teams take screenshots of the grid for reports. Some exports to CSV are available via the menu (if configured).

Capacity planning shows how much work your team can take on.

Key concepts

Capacity — How much time your team has available (hours, days, or story points per quarter).

Utilization — How much of that capacity is allocated to work.

Headcount — Number of people on your team.

Time allocation — % of time each person dedicates to work (100% = full time).

Team capacity calculation

Team capacity = number of people × hours per person × time allocation %

Example

• Team size: 4 people
• Hours per week: 40
• Time allocation: All at 100%
• Weeks per quarter: 13
• Total quarterly capacity: 4 × 40 × 13 = 2,080 hours

If one person is 50% allocated:

• Adjusted capacity: (3 × 40 × 13) + (1 × 40 × 13 × 0.5) = 1,820 hours

Utilization percentage

Utilization = allocated work / available capacity × 100%

• 0–80% — Healthy (room for unplanned work)
• 80–100% — At capacity (tight)
• 100%+ — Overallocated (risky)

View capacity in Capacity Planning

1. Go to your project
2. Click Capacity (or Capacity Planning)

The grid shows:

• Team members (rows)
• Quarters (columns)
• Utilization % for each person each quarter
• Available hours and allocated hours

Factors affecting capacity

Overhead — Meetings, administration, etc.

Team size — Adding or removing people

Time off — Vacation, parental leave, etc.

Project commitments — Internal projects that reduce availability

Capacity planning spans multiple quarters, helping you forecast and allocate work long-term.

View multiple quarters

1. Go to Capacity Planning
2. Use the quarter selector at the top
3. Or scroll left/right to see adjacent quarters

Each quarter shows your team’s capacity independently.

Quarterly capacity

Each quarter has:

• Available hours — Based on team size and time allocation
• Allocated hours — From linked work (issues with target dates in that quarter)
• Utilization % — Allocated / available

Factors that change per quarter

• Team changes — Headcount increases/decreases
• Time off — Vacation and parental leave
• Prioritization — Different work in different quarters
• Scenarios — Hiring plans (if using Scenario Planning)

Plan your year

Plan capacity for multiple quarters:

Q1: Launch feature X (75% team) Q2: Stabilize & optimize (60% team) Q3: Hire new people (add capacity) Q4: Plan next year (50% team)

Multi-quarter projects

For projects spanning multiple quarters:

1. Break the work into quarterly milestones
2. Assign issues to each quarter (via target date)
3. Check that each quarter stays under capacity

Example

Project: “Payment system rewrite”

• Q2: Design & architecture (8 issues, 30 pts)
• Q3: Implementation (12 issues, 55 pts)
• Q4: Testing & deployment (5 issues, 15 pts)

Check that each quarter’s assigned points fit team capacity.

Use scenarios to plan ahead

1. Go to Scenario Planning
2. Create a scenario for next year
3. Add/remove headcount
4. See how capacity changes
5. Use that forecast to plan your roadmap

See Model hiring and headcount changes.

Hiring timeline

If you plan to hire in Q3:

Once hired, update base capacity

Create a scenario with the new headcount

See how Q3 and Q4 capacity increases

Plan work that the new team members will take on

Team members can belong to multiple teams with different % time commitments. Each person manages their own team memberships and allocations.

Manage your team memberships

Users can join multiple teams and set their time allocation (%) for each.

1. Go to Team Memberships or your Account Settings
2. View your current team memberships
3. Each membership shows your % time allocation for that team

Join a team

1. In Team Memberships, click + Add Team
2. Select a team
3. Enter your time allocation % (e.g., 50%)
4. Confirm that your total allocation across all teams stays ≤ 100%
5. Click Join

Example: If you’re already 70% allocated to the Backend team, you can join the Infrastructure team at 30% (total 100%).

Update your allocation to a team

1. In Team Memberships, find the team
2. Click the Edit button (pencil icon)
3. Enter your new % allocation
4. The system validates that your total stays ≤ 100%
5. Click Save

If you set your allocation to 50% and other teams total 60%, you can only allocate up to 40% to avoid exceeding 100%.

View total allocation

1. In Team Memberships, see your total allocation %
2. It should total 100% (fully allocated) or less (available capacity)

If you’re at 100%, you must reduce allocation to one team before increasing another.

Remove yourself from a team

1. In Team Memberships, find the team
2. Click Leave Team or Remove
3. Confirm the removal

You are no longer a member of that team.

How allocation affects capacity planning

Your team allocations feed directly into Capacity Planning:

• If you’re 50% allocated to a team, that team’s capacity planning uses 50% of your available hours
• If you’re 70% + 30% across two teams = 100%, your full hours are assigned
• If you’re 70% allocated, you have 30% unallocated (available for other projects)

Example: Cross-functional assignment

Alice manages her own allocations:

• Backend team — 70% (primary team)
• Infrastructure team — 30% (secondary team)
• Total: 100% (fully allocated)

Alice can see her utilization in Capacity Planning:

• Backend utilization: based on 70% of her capacity
• Infrastructure utilization: based on 30% of her capacity

What admins can do

Project admins can:

But cannot set allocations—users manage their own

Create and delete teams (in Settings > Teams)

Add/remove team members from a team

The Capacity grid shows which teams and individuals are overallocated. Once identified, you can rebalance work.

Identify overallocated teams or people

1. Go to Capacity Planning
2. Look for:
   • Red text/cells — Person has >120% utilization (critical overallocation)
   • Resources needed badge (red) on a team — Team is short-staffed for that quarter

Red highlighting indicates the person has more assigned work than available capacity.

Understand what the grid shows

Each row shows a person’s utilization for each month in the quarter:

• Green — Healthy utilization with available capacity
• Red — Overallocated (>120% utilization); person cannot absorb this work
• Resources needed (red badge) — Team lacks enough capacity for assigned work

The grid displays utilization as a percentage, not individual hours.

Rebalance work

Once you identify overallocation, fix it by reassigning issues:

Step 1: Identify the overallocated person

1. In Capacity Planning, find the red-highlighted person
2. Note the month(s) they’re overallocated

Step 2: Reassign their work

1. Go to Board or Backlog
2. Filter or search for issues assigned to the overallocated person
3. Find issues in the overallocated quarter
4. Reassign to a team member with available capacity (check their green cells)
5. Click Save

Step 3: Verify the rebalance

1. Return to Capacity Planning
2. Click Refresh to see updated utilization
3. Confirm the previously red cells are now yellow or green

Other rebalancing approaches

Extend timeline

1. Move lower-priority issue due dates to a later quarter
2. This spreads work across more capacity
3. Return to Capacity Planning and refresh to see new utilization

Adjust team allocation

If a person is on multiple teams, you can reduce their allocation to one:

1. Go to Settings > Teams
2. Reduce the overallocated person’s % allocation to one team
3. Reassign their lower-priority work from that team
4. Their overall utilization will drop

Use Scenario Planning

If you need more capacity long-term:

1. Go to Scenario Planning
2. Model adding headcount
3. See how utilization improves
4. Use this data to pitch hiring to leadership

See Model hiring and headcount changes.

Preventive practices

Involve team leads in allocation decisions

Check Capacity Planning monthly

Keep most people at 80% utilization (leave 20% buffer for unplanned work)

Don’t push individuals into red (>120%)

Use capacity forecasts to guide project planning

Account for holidays, meetings, and other activities that reduce available team capacity.

Adjust capacity for holidays

1. Go to your project Settings
2. Find the Holiday % field (under Capacity section)
3. Enter the percentage of work time lost to company holidays (e.g., 10%)
4. Click Save Capacity

The Capacity grid recalculates available hours for all team members, reducing capacity by this percentage.

Example

• Base team capacity: 2,000 hours per quarter
• Holiday %: 10%
• Adjusted capacity: 2,000 × (1 – 0.10) = 1,800 hours

Adjust capacity for meetings

1. Go to your project Settings
2. Find the Meeting % field (under Capacity section)
3. Enter the percentage of time team members spend in meetings (e.g., 15%)
4. Click Save Capacity

The Capacity grid recalculates available hours, reducing capacity by this percentage.

Example

• Base team capacity: 2,000 hours per quarter
• Meetings %: 15%
• Adjusted capacity: 2,000 × (1 – 0.15) = 1,700 hours

Combined adjustments

Both holiday and meeting adjustments apply together:

Base capacity: 2,000 hours

• Holiday %: 10%
• Meetings %: 15%
• Final available capacity: 2,000 × (1 – 0.10) × (1 – 0.15) = 1,530 hours

This reflects realistic capacity once holidays and regular meetings are accounted for.

Impact on utilization

Adjustments are reflected in the Capacity grid:

• Available hours = Base hours × (1 – Holiday %) × (1 – Meetings %)
• Utilization % = Allocated / Available × 100

A 90% utilization with adjustments means the team is near capacity after accounting for holidays and meetings.

Review and update adjustments

1. Go to your project Settings
2. Locate the Holiday % and Meeting % fields in the Capacity section
3. Update values if your company’s policies change
4. Click Save Capacity

Changes apply to all team members in the project immediately. These are project-wide settings, not configurable per team or per quarter.