Capacity Accuracy
This metric measures the total issues or story points (both planned and unplanned) completed by your team in an sprint compared to the originally planned amount. This measure helps understand whether the work being planned is greater than or lower than the available engineering “bandwidth” and is independent of planning accuracy.
Computation of the metric
- Example 1 :
- Total Planned Work: 50
- Planned Work Completed: 40
- Unplanned Work Completed: 10 Total Completed Work = 40 + 10 = 50
Capacity Accuracy = (50/50)*100 = 100%
Interpretation : In this case, the team's capacity accuracy is 100%, indicating that the team completed exactly the amount of work that was planned, including unplanned work.
- Example 2 :
- Total Planned Work: 40
- Planned Work Completed: 40
- Unplanned Work Completed: 20 Total Completed Work = 40 + 20 = 60
Capacity Accuracy = (60/40)*100 = 150%
Interpretation : The team completed more work than was planned, which could indicate that they had more capacity than initially estimated, or unplanned work was effectively handled.
- Example 3 :
- Total Planned Work: 60
- Planned Work Completed: 40
- Unplanned Work Completed: 10 Total Completed Work = 40 + 10 = 50
Capacity Accuracy = (50/60)*100 = 83%
Interpretation : The team completed less work than planned, suggesting that the planning overestimated the team’s capacity.
Industry Benchmarks
The industry standard for Capacity Accuracy ranges between 90%-110%, indicating effective utilization of team capacity with room for handling unplanned tasks. Falling within this range helps balance workload while avoiding overcommitment or underutilization.
Dashboards where this metric is used
- Projects dashboard
Usecases for this metric
- Review the Capacity accuracy to check if the bandwidth of the team is closer to what was planned or does the team have more/lesser capacity that assumed during planning.
- Helps understand whether the work is planned to available bandwidth or the work is exceeding/below available bandwidth.
- This works for both issue count and story points.
Key Insights
- Balance Between Planned and Actual Work: This metric helps teams understand if their sprint planning is realistic compared to the actual work capacity.
- Adjustment for Future Sprints: If the capacity accuracy consistently deviates from 100%, it might indicate a need to adjust how work is planned relative to the team's actual bandwidth.