Co-written by Brooke Barton and Mike Chambers
What comes to mind when you hear the phrase "capacity planning"? Better yet, what emotions spring up when you're asked to discuss your current capacity or plan for future capacity to take on new tasks and projects? We're going to venture to guess that the first thing that comes to mind is NOT "Oh, Boy! I love capacity planning." If you're like us, the response is more like "Can we talk about this later? Like NEVER? Is never good for you?"
So, we're going to do our best to take the pain out of capacity planning. Trust us. We understand the pain points. We'd like to say that because we're so smart we figured out some best practices for talking with team members about estimating their time, talking with managers about how to predict bandwidth and how to create a useful strategy for planning. But, to be honest it was more of a trial and error approach. In any case, we're going to share what we've discovered with you.
But first, a definition…
What is capacity planning?
Capacity planning is the process of determining the ability for a team to meet changing demands on its members.
Capacity planning is important
Capacity planning allows us to align with our colleagues on the scope and priority of our work and the availability of our resources -- it also gives us opportunities to be flexible and accommodate inevitable changes that occur. Having an agreed upon approach to determine capacity can set you and your team up for success.
Capacity planning is difficult
Working with your team to allocate their time on future tasks and projects can be like walking on a tightrope; you don't want to overestimate or underestimate the amount of time needed for tasks but want to find just the right balance. Because not balancing means you fall and that really hurts! We also found that our team members actually dreaded conversations about how to best utilize their time, but we think we figured out why: because accurately predicting your time on a project is impossible! So, we had to re-think our approach.
Adopt a fresh new view of capacity planning with these goals:
- Plan in short term increments
Rather than saying, "Let's pin down your exact capacity for projects over the next six months within a 10% margin of error" try "Let's talk about how much time you expect to spend on projects over the next two weeks." A long timeframe will likely result in an inaccurate shot in the dark while a two week timeframe is just plain easier to get right. Frequent updates to the 2-week estimate are encouraged. We meet with team members about once a week to review estimates. Yes, they can change that quickly!
- Establish a capacity goal
On our team we realize that every team member has unique demands on their time. No two people are the same! So for each team member, a percentage of their time is agreed upon for project work so that's the part we focus on. For example, Brooke as a Process Improvement Analyst has a few special responsibilities that cut into her project time. So 40% of Brooke's time is allocated to projects. Mike is a project manager and his project allocation is 85%. Makes sense, right? The allocations are discussed among the management team and revised every quarter with input from each team member.
- Create metrics or ways to measure capacity
At Boise State we use a simple spreadsheet that shows each team member's current project names, their estimates and any potential new projects that haven't been made officially active yet. Mike meets weekly with each team member and gets fresh new estimates of their time for the active projects. Team members are asked about other demands on their time and Mike is there to help figure ways around roadblocks and establish departmental priorities. The resulting estimates help the management team decide when a new project can be assigned. And they help each team member know how their work fits into the whole and what is waiting for them when their current projects are finished. And yes, that decreases downtime!
- Be transparent about the rationale for capacity planning
Humans tend to fill in gaps when information is missing. If we all talk about capacity planning and nobody understands what that means or why the conversations are happening, there will likely be rumors. Talk with your team about how capacity planning can benefit all parties. It might be a surprise to your team, for instance, that capacity planning is a tool that can (and should) be used to help safe-guard employees from having too much on their plate.
- Resource allocation may improve with successful capacity planning
Engaging in regular conversations with your team about capacity planning can result in more accurate and timely resource allocation. We get better at it the more we practice it!
The last word on capacity planning
Knowing where there's bandwidth and where there isn't allows leadership to make informed decisions about which resources to allocate and when. Team members can feel empowered by having regular, honest discussions with their managers about their time as well as getting support and guidance on their projects.