Capacity Planning: Program Backlog

Capacity Planning views and reports on Program level allow to compare demand as planned workload with available capacity of teams who do the work. It is especially helpful to Product Managers, Release Train Engineers, and System Architects as they determine whether the overall program increment (PI) goals can be achieved with the available teams.

On Capacity Planning views, warnings and color highlights indicate overloaded teams. It allows to eliminate excess of limits in advance. Plan, postpone, or split work items, change assignments to distribute the workload more evenly. The absence of overloads decreases risk to uncomplete all the forecasted backlog items and not reach PI goals.

Capacity Planning tools play an important role in productive communication and collaboration between teams and management. Use them during PI planning to assure match of team commitments with business expectations.

Work-Time-People assignments

In Targetprocess, work is planned into time periods and people are assigned to work. Work may have estimates of size (effort). People availability or velocity per time period is defined. Capacity Planning views and reports compare demand as total size or count of planned work versus available capacity of assigned people in a time period.

Capacity Planning capabilities for Program backlogs support the following work/people/time relations:

Useful Capacity Planning views and reports on Program level include:

• Program Capacity Planning view
• Program Teams Capacity Planning view

Program Capacity Planning view

The view allows to distribute program backlog items (Features) across one or more Program Increments (PIs). The view helps to ensure that total estimate of assigned features does not exceed planned Capacity or Velocity of a given Agile Release Train (ART). Usually Product Managers, Release Train Engineers, and System Architects plan a next or track a current PI of a single Agile Release Train (ART) with this view.

Program Teams Capacity Planning view

The view allows to distribute program backlog items (Features) across one or more Program Increments (PIs) and teams. The view helps to ensure that total estimate of assigned features does not exceed planned Capacity or Velocity of a given team. Usually Product Managers, Release Train Engineers, and System Architects plan a next or track a current PI of a single Agile Release Train (ART) with this view.

More information: Feature-based Capacity Planning views