LEARN. PRACTICE. GROW.Concept and mechanism
Team capacity is not headcount multiplied by every calendar day. Consider absence, support, meetings, training, dependencies, and the required mix of skills. Make assumptions explicit and revisit them when demand changes. A team can have aggregate capacity while remaining blocked by one missing skill. Avoid committing to new work without observing what already started. Blocked work remains in progress until it meets the definition of completion. Item age helps reveal waiting that a closed-task count can hide. Forecasts should communicate uncertainty and use consistent start and finish criteria.
Guided application
In a fictional exercise, four people have five working days and only 40% of that time is available to a project after other work has already been deducted: capacity is eight person-days. An eleven-person-day request exceeds capacity by three before specialist constraints are considered. The Team Lead presents scope, timing, or staffing options to decision makers without double-counting time reserved for support. On the board, five started items include two blocked items; WIP remains five. Removing blockers and finishing work may take priority over starting more. Check afterward whether the change improved flow and delivered outcomes.
4 × 5 × 40% = 8 person-days; five started items including two blocked items represent WIP of five.
Common pitfalls
Headcount treated as capacity; support time double-counted; blocked work removed from WIP; forecast treated as guarantee.
Related topics: Mandate, responsibilities, and agreements · Delegation and development · Feedback, conversations, and conflict
Show capacity and constraints before committing, and manage work already started.
Reference: Capacity planning · Atlassian Team Playbook, GitLab leadership handbook, Google SRE, Kanban Guide May2025 and DORA five-metric model; inspected 2026-10-01