How to Do Capacity Planning: Step-by-Step Guide 2026

Introduction: Why Do Capacity Planning?

Capacity planning is an essential discipline for any IT organization that wants to optimize its resources, avoid team overload, and make informed decisions. If you're wondering how to do capacity planning, this guide will walk you through step by step.

Whether you're an IT Director, project manager, or IT manager, you'll discover in this article a proven method to implement effective capacity planning in your organization.

What is Capacity Planning?

Capacity planning is the process of:

• Assessing available capacity of your IT teams (time, skills, resources)
• Identifying needs current and future resource needs
• Intelligently allocating resources to projects
• Monitoring and adjusting continuously to optimize utilization

The objective is simple: maximize efficiency while avoiding overload and guaranteeing quality.

Step 1: Identify and List Your Resources

The first step to do capacity planning is to inventory all your IT resources.

1.1. List team members

Create a complete inventory of all your IT team members:

• Name and function
• Experience level (Junior, Mid, Senior, Expert)
• Technical skills (languages, frameworks, tools)
• Availability (full-time, part-time, leave days)
• Current load (ongoing projects, allocation)

1.2. Define each member's capacity

For each member, calculate their available capacity:

• Theoretical capacity: Number of working days per year (e.g., 220 days)
• Real capacity: Theoretical capacity - leave - training - recurring meetings
• Allocated capacity: Time already committed to projects
• Available capacity: Real capacity - Allocated capacity

Step 2: Identify Resource Needs

The second step is to inventory all projects and resource needs.

2.1. List ongoing projects

For each project, identify:

• Name and description
• Period (start and end dates)
• Required resources (roles, skills, number of days)
• Priority (Critical, High, Medium, Low)
• Allocation type (Hard, Soft, Tentative)

2.2. List future projects

Don't forget upcoming projects:

• Projects planned for next quarters
• Requests pending validation
• Recurring projects (maintenance, support)

Step 3: Calculate Available Capacity

Now that you've listed your resources and needs, calculate available capacity.

3.1. Create a capacity table

Create a table with:

• In rows: Team members
• In columns: Periods (months, quarters)
• In cells: Available capacity (in days or %)

3.2. Identify gaps

Compare needs with available capacity to identify:

• Overload: Needs > Available capacity
• Underutilization: Available capacity > Needs
• Balance: Needs ≈ Available capacity

Step 4: Allocate Resources

Resource allocation is the most critical step in capacity planning.

4.1. Prioritize projects

Rank your projects by priority:

1. Critical projects: Major business impact, tight deadlines
2. Strategic projects: Aligned with business objectives
3. Operational projects: Maintenance, support
4. Improvement projects: Optimizations, refactoring

4.2. Match skills

For each project, match required skills with available members:

• Identify members with necessary skills
• Check their availability
• Calculate compatibility score (skills + availability)
• Allocate the most suitable resource

4.3. Detect conflicts

Check that there are no allocation conflicts:

• Same member allocated to multiple projects in the same period
• Total allocated capacity > Available capacity
• Projects requiring the same rare skills

Step 5: Use a Capacity Planning Tool

Doing capacity planning manually with Excel quickly becomes unmanageable. Use a dedicated capacity planning tool like Workload to:

5.1. Automate calculations

• Automatic calculation of available capacity
• Automatic conflict detection
• AI suggestions for allocation
• Alerts in case of overload

5.2. Visualize in real-time

• Dashboard with overview
• Load charts per member
• Project timeline
• View by skill

5.3. Integrate with your existing tools

• Import from Jira, Azure DevOps, Toggl
• Automatic synchronization of actual times
• Export to Excel/PDF for reporting

Step 6: Monitor and Adjust

Capacity planning is not a one-time exercise, but a continuous process.

6.1. Review regularly

Plan regular reviews:

• Weekly: Minor adjustments, new requests
• Monthly: Complete review, gap analysis
• Quarterly: Strategic planning, forecasts

6.2. Analyze gaps

Compare planned vs actual to identify:

• Projects that took more time than expected
• Overloaded or underutilized members
• Missing skills identified

6.3. Adjust planning

According to gaps, adjust:

• Time estimates
• Resource allocations
• Project priorities
• Recruitment needs

Best Practices for Effective Capacity Planning

1. Centralize management

Use a single tool to centralize all information: teams, projects, allocations. Avoid scattered spreadsheets.

2. Involve teams

Team members should be able to:

• See their own workload
• Report overloads
• Update their availability

3. Use real data

Integrate your timesheet tools to use real data rather than estimates.

4. Anticipate future needs

Don't plan only the present, but also the next 3-6 months to anticipate recruitment and training.

5. Communicate with stakeholders

Regularly share capacity vision with:

• Leadership (executive reporting)
• Project managers (availability)
• Teams (workload)

Common Mistakes to Avoid

1. Underestimate time needed

Estimates are often too optimistic. Add a 20-30% buffer for unforeseen events.

2. Ignore leave and absences

Don't forget to take into account: leave, training, recurring meetings, sick leave.

3. Not reviewing regularly

A frozen capacity planning quickly becomes obsolete. Review it regularly.

4. Allocate at 100%

Never allocate a member at 100% of their capacity. Keep a 10-20% margin for unforeseen events and flexibility.

5. Ignore skills

Don't consider only availability, but also required skills. A Java developer cannot replace a Python developer on all projects.

Recommended Tools for Capacity Planning

Workload - Specialized Solution

Workload is a SaaS solution specialized in capacity planning for IT Directors:

• ✅ Real-time IT Director dashboard
• ✅ AI suggestions for allocation
• ✅ Automatic conflict detection
• ✅ Timesheet integrations (Jira, Azure DevOps, Toggl)
• ✅ Executive reporting
• ✅ 14-day free trial

Excel - Basic Solution

Excel can suffice for very small teams (< 5 people), but quickly becomes unmanageable beyond that.

Conclusion

Doing effective capacity planning requires:

1. A structured method (the 6 steps above)
2. An adapted tool (like Workload)
3. A regular review (weekly/monthly)
4. Team involvement and communication

Ready to start? Try Workload free for 14 days. No credit card required. Our team supports you in setting up your capacity planning.

To go further, consult our complete capacity planning guide for IT Directors and our page on capacity planning solutions.