Work Management

𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐨 𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐦 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦'𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐲? 𝐋𝐞𝐭’𝐬 𝐬𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠! ✅ 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠? Capacity planning in Scrum involves forecasting the amount of work a team can handle in a Sprint, considering available hours and potential challenges. It’s crucial for optimizing the team's workload and ensuring sustainable development pace. ✅ 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠? Here’s a streamlined guide to effective capacity planning: ◾ 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐀𝐯𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬: Start by determining the total hours available from each team member for the upcoming sprint, deducting time for meetings, breaks, and other non-development activities. ◾ 𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬: Recognize that not everyone works at the same pace or has the same skills. Adjust the capacity based on individual efficiencies and expertise areas. ◾ 𝐔𝐬𝐞 𝐇𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚: Look at past sprints to gauge how much work your team can realistically handle. This helps in setting more accurate future forecasts. ◾ 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐬: Always leave some buffer for unexpected challenges like sickness, technical debt, or scope changes. ✅ 𝐏𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐄𝐱𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞 Imagine your team is planning for a two-week sprint: ▪ Total hours available per member: 80 hours ▪ Meeting and non-development time: 10 hours ▪ Effective hours per member: 70 hours Assuming you have a team of 5, the total effective hours are 350. If your historical velocity shows that your team can handle 100 story points in 300 hours, you can plan for a slightly higher scope in the current sprint, but always keep a buffer. This systematic approach not only ensures that you don't overcommit but also helps in balancing the team's workload, leading to better productivity and less burnout. ➕ 𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐞? 𝐏𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬! ➕ 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐞 𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐦 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐤𝐢𝐭, 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐤: https://lnkd.in/gpS_qQ8r #scrum #scrummaster #agile #agilecoach

❓📍How do you calculate the capacity and velocity of a scrum team? Calculating the capacity and velocity of a Scrum team is essential to understand their productivity and plan future sprints effectively. 👉Here's a step-by-step guide: #️⃣CalculatingTeamCapacity Team capacity represents the total amount of work a team can handle during a sprint. To calculate team capacity, follow these steps: 1️⃣Estimate individual capacity: Ask each team member to estimate their available work hours for the upcoming sprint, considering factors like vacations, meetings, and other commitments. 2️⃣Calculate total available hours: Add up the individual available hours to get the total available hours for the team. 3️⃣Apply a utilization factor: Multiply the total available hours by a utilization factor (usually 0.6-0.8) to account for meetings, overhead, and unexpected tasks. This gives you the team's effective capacity. #️⃣CalculatingTeamVelocity Team velocity represents the amount of work a team can complete during a sprint. To calculate team velocity, follow these steps: 1️⃣Track historical data: Collect data on the team's past sprint performance, including the number of story points or hours completed. 2️⃣Calculate average velocity: Calculate the average velocity over the past 3-5 sprints. This helps smooth out variations and provides a stable baseline. 3️⃣Adjust for changes: If there have been significant changes to the team, such as new members or changes in process, you may need to adjust the velocity calculation accordingly. 👉Example Calculations Suppose we have a team of 5 members, each with 40 hours of available time for the sprint. #️⃣TeamCapacityCalculation: 🔸Total available hours: 5 members * 40 hours = 200 hours 🔸Utilization factor: 0.7 (assuming 30% of time is spent on meetings and overhead) 🔸Team capacity: 200 hours * 0.7 = 140 hours #️⃣TeamVelocityCalculation: 🔻Historical data: 🔸Sprint 1: 30 story points completed 🔸Sprint 2: 35 story points completed 🔸Sprint 3: 40 story points completed 🔻Average velocity: (30 + 35 + 40) / 3 = 35 story points per sprint 👉By calculating team capacity and velocity, you can better plan and manage your Scrum team's workload, ensuring they're working efficiently and effectively. #scrummaster #scrumframework

Resetting Utilisation Without Creating Burnout Utilisation patterns exist in waves. For example, in one organisation, managers were distributing work unevenly. There was also over-commitment from some teams and many teams were under-utilised. This created problems for teams that affected project delivery, team morale, and ultimately, revenue. When looking through the People Practice lens, we understand it's better to look at what behaviours we see; not just the data in the spreadsheet. Through this analysis, we were able to determine that: • Managers were assigning work to their teams in an uneven manner. • Teams were over-committing themselves because they had work assigned to them that had an unclear expectation. • The utilisation data was inaccurate because the teams were not updating their logs on a weekly basis. • Team members were over-utilised or under-utilised based on the skills that they had. We used this information to re-design how we looked at utilisation. In particular, we: • Rebuilt how we mapped roles to capabilities. • Established utilisation checkpoints every week. • Set an expectation that timesheets would be completed accurately every week and provided guidelines on how to comply with this expectation. • Balanced the workload of each team based on their skills. After 6 weeks of being implemented, teams could see the results: ✔ Teams felt much more in control of their workload. ✔ Teams had stabilised their workload. ✔ Teams were much better able to forecast revenue. ✔ Project Managers can commit to actual delivery on time. ✔ Burnout risk was significantly reduced. Utilisation is not just a spreadsheet. It is a behavioural and operational approach to improve utilisation within your organisation will have a knock-on effect across the entire organisation. #Utilization #OperationalEfficiency #COOFramework #DeliveryExcellence #ExecutionExcellence #PeopleOperations #StrategicHR #WorkforceOptimization #SustainablePerformance #OrganizationalEffectiveness #ChangeLeadership #LeadershipInAction #BusinessTransformation #CapacityPlanning #FutureOfWork

Pairing Velocity and Capacity Planning in Scrum Velocity is a common metric for sprint planning in Scrum. Teams typically use the average story points completed over the last several sprints to forecast future work. Let's set aside the "flaw of averages" (read my earlier post on using confidence intervals instead) and assume teams reading this post just use their average velocity. Relying solely on velocity can cause overcommitment when sprint durations fluctuate or team capacity changes. That's why capacity planning can complement velocity to improve planning accuracy. Pairing velocity with capacity planning creates a realistic, adaptable approach to sprint planning. Let's talk about why - and how - it works. Velocity Velocity measures the work a team delivers in a sprint, expressed in story points. It would be common for a team averaging 20 points to use that as a benchmark for future sprints. The risk is that velocity doesn’t adjust for sprint-specific factors like holidays or planned absences. That can lead to unrealistic commitments. Capacity (Availability) Capacity planning evaluates actual team availability for a specific sprint. It considers sprint length (e.g., 9 workdays instead of 10), planned absences (vacations, holidays, etc.), and working hours per developer. Team availability is converted into "developer-days." For example, a 5-person team working 8 hours daily for 10 days has 400 available hours max. Shorter sprints and absences reduce this capacity. Why Combine Velocity and Capacity? Realistic Commitments Velocity provides a stable benchmark, but capacity planning adjusts for unique sprint conditions. For example, if a team’s velocity is 20 points for a 10-day sprint, a 9-day sprint might lower this target by 10% to 18 points. Balanced Workloads Using velocity alone risks overcommitment. Using capacity alone risks underutilization. Combining them mitigates these risks and helps make commitments achievable. Adapting to Change Velocity anchors plans in proven performance (empiricism), but capacity planning accounts for variability (e.g., holidays, absences, onboarding, etc.). How to Pair Velocity with Capacity 1) Start with historical velocity as a baseline. 2) Calculate available developer-days, adjusting for holidays or absences within each sprint within the forecast timebox. 3) Scale back velocity to match capacity (e.g., if capacity is 90% of normal, reduce the velocity target by 10%). Benefits of Pairing Predictability: Commitments align with capacity for consistent delivery. Transparency: Stakeholders gain visibility into achievable goals. Flexibility: Teams adapt to sprint variations without risking outcomes. Deliver Predictably in Dynamic Conditions Velocity is a valuable metric but it doesn’t account for short-term variability. If calculating confidence intervals feels too complicated, then use capacity planning to fill the gap - creating a planning process that’s both empirical and adaptable.

I see agency owners who track 47 metrics across 6 different tools. They'll check Stripe, HubSpot, their project management software, Google Analytics, their CRM, and Slack notifications. By 10 AM, they've spent 90 minutes just figuring out where their business stands. I used to do the same thing. Then I built a CEO dashboard with 6 numbers. Here's what I track every single day: - Revenue collected this month - Number of active clients - Pipeline value (deals in progress) - Team capacity (who's at max, who has bandwidth) - Client satisfaction score (from monthly feedback forms) - Profit margin Takes me 3 minutes to review each morning. I know exactly where the business stands before my first coffee. If revenue is down, I look at pipeline and know whether it's a sales problem or a delivery problem. If client satisfaction drops, I check team capacity to see if we're overloaded. If profit margin shrinks, I know someone's pay structure needs adjustment or we're overspending on tools. Everything connects. Here's how to build your dashboard in the next 30 minutes: Step 1 - Open Google Sheets or Notion Create a single page with six boxes, one for each number. Step 2 - Pull your revenue number from Stripe Login to Stripe, go to reports, filter by current month, copy the total collected amount into your dashboard. Step 3 - Count your active clients Go to your CRM or project management tool, filter by active status, count them, add that number to your dashboard. Step 4 - Calculate your pipeline value Open your CRM, filter deals by "in progress" or "proposal sent," add up the total contract values, put that in your dashboard. Step 5 - Check team capacity Ask each team member what percentage of their workload they're currently at. 80% or higher means they're at max. Under 60% means they have bandwidth. Add this to your dashboard. Step 6 - Get your client satisfaction score Send a monthly TypeForm or Google Form asking clients to rate their satisfaction 1 to 10. Average the responses and add that number to your dashboard. Step 7 - Calculate profit margin Take your monthly revenue, subtract all expenses, divide by revenue, multiply by 100. That's your profit margin percentage. Add it to your dashboard. Now bookmark that page and open it every single morning. Update each number once per day or once per week depending on how fast your business moves. If a number drops, you know exactly where to focus. Everything other number is just a distraction.