Capacity Calculation in Agile: How to Do It

This calculator works out your team’s available capacity for a sprint by taking your total working hours, subtracting time for meetings, admin, and other non-project work, and giving you the number of hours you can realistically plan for. You enter the number of team members, the length of the sprint in days, the hours per day each person works, and the percentage of time they spend on non-project activities. The result is the total capacity in person-hours, which you can then use to size your sprint backlog.

Formula

Capacity (person-hours) = Team size × Sprint length (days) × Working hours per day × (Focus time % ÷ 100)

• Team size – number of people contributing to the sprint (unit: people).
• Sprint length – number of working days in the sprint (unit: days). Exclude weekends and holidays.
• Working hours per day – contractual or typical hours each person works (unit: hours/day).
• Focus time – percentage of working hours actually spent on project work (unit: %). The rest goes to meetings, emails, support, training, etc.

Worked Example

Using the defaults: 5 people, 10-day sprint, 8 hours/day, 75% focus time.

1. Total raw hours = 5 × 10 × 8 = 400 person-hours.
2. Adjust for focus time: 400 × (75 ÷ 100) = 400 × 0.75 = 300 person-hours.
3. So the team can plan for about 300 person-hours of work in this sprint.

That matches the calculator’s output. If you have 6 people and a 2-week sprint (10 working days) with 7.5-hour days and 80% focus, you’d get 6 × 10 × 7.5 × 0.80 = 360 person-hours.

Why Capacity Differs from Velocity

Capacity is a forward-looking estimate of available hours; velocity is a backward-looking measure of how many story points (or hours) the team actually completed in past sprints. Capacity tells you how much time you have; velocity tells you how much work you typically finish in that time. Many teams use both: capacity to set an initial plan, velocity to sanity-check whether that plan is realistic. If your velocity is consistently lower than your capacity, your focus time assumption is probably too optimistic or your estimates are off.

How to Choose the Focus Percentage

The focus percentage is the most subjective input. A good starting point is to track how much time people actually spend on project work for a week or two. Common benchmarks:

• 80–90% – team has few meetings, little support duty, and works mostly on the sprint backlog.
• 60–75% – typical for teams with daily standups, sprint ceremonies, and some support or admin tasks.
• Below 50% – team is heavily interrupted (support, meetings, other projects); capacity will be low and you should consider reducing WIP or adding buffer.

If you don’t have data, start with 75% and adjust after the first sprint. It’s better to under-commit than to over-commit.

Common Mistakes and Pitfalls

• Including non-working days – count only actual working days in the sprint. A 2-week calendar sprint often has 10 working days, but if there’s a public holiday, it’s 9.
• Using 100% focus – nobody spends every minute on project work. Even a well-run team loses time to emails, hallway chats, and tooling.
• Ignoring part-time team members – if someone works 4 days a week, count their hours per day as 6.4 (8 × 0.8) or adjust team size to full-time equivalents.
• Confusing hours with story points – capacity is in hours; story points are relative. You can convert using your team’s average velocity per point, but don’t treat one point as one hour unless you’ve validated that.
• Not accounting for buffer – some teams add a 10–20% buffer for unexpected issues. You can do that by lowering the focus percentage or subtracting the buffer from the final capacity.

When to Use This Calculator

Use it at the start of every sprint planning session to get a quick number to compare against your backlog’s total estimated hours. It’s also useful for:

• Comparing capacity across sprints (e.g., if someone is on vacation).
• Explaining to stakeholders why the team can’t take on more work.
• Planning for a new team with no historical velocity.

It’s not a substitute for velocity tracking. If you have velocity data, use both: capacity gives you an upper bound, velocity gives you a realistic expectation. For a new team, capacity is your best starting point.

Limitations and Alternatives

This simple formula assumes everyone works the same hours and has the same focus. In reality, people differ. For a more precise calculation, you can do a per-person capacity: sum (individual hours × individual focus). Some teams use “ideal hours� (hours of pure work) instead of calendar hours. Others skip hours entirely and use story points with velocity. The calculator is a rough planning tool, not a precise measurement. Always leave slack for the unexpected.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is capacity different from velocity?

Capacity is the amount of time you have available (in hours). Velocity is the amount of work you actually completed in past sprints (in story points or hours). Capacity is prospective; velocity is retrospective. You use capacity to plan, and velocity to check if your plan is realistic.

Should I include the sprint planning meeting in the focus percentage?

Yes. Sprint planning, review, and retrospective are all non-project work that eat into your focus time. If your sprint is 10 days and you spend 2 hours in planning, that’s 2 hours per person that isn’t available for tasks. You can either lower the focus percentage or deduct those hours from the total capacity.

What if my team works different hours per day?

Use a weighted average. For example, if 3 people work 8 hours and 2 people work 6 hours, the average is (3×8 + 2×6) ÷ 5 = 7.2 hours/day. Or calculate capacity per person and sum them.

Can I use this for Kanban teams?

Yes, but Kanban often uses capacity in terms of work-in-progress limits rather than sprint hours. Still, knowing your team’s weekly capacity in hours can help you set WIP limits and forecast delivery dates. Just use the sprint length as 5 days for a weekly view.

What is a good focus percentage for a typical team?

Many agile coaches suggest 70–80% for a team with standard ceremonies and minimal interruptions. If your team has many meetings or support duties, 60% is more realistic. Track actual time for a sprint to calibrate.

How do I convert capacity to story points?

Divide your capacity hours by the average number of hours per story point your team has historically spent. For example, if your capacity is 300 hours and your team averages 5 hours per story point, you can plan for about 60 points. If you don’t have that data, start with a small number of points and adjust.

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in team | Team size | people | 5 | 1
in days | Sprint length | days | 10 | 1
in hours | Working hours per day | hours | 8 | 1
in focus | Focus time (project work) | % | 75 | 0
out capacity | Capacity | person-hours | team * days * hours * (focus / 100) | 0