Customizing Capacity Planning for Team Members and Epics

[Eva25]

I am setting up capacity planning for my team and have a few questions:

1. Can I add team members names in the capacity planning tool? Currently the default configuration is Group, Role, & Skill.
2. Can the dropdown be customized to show the epics and the team members working on each epic underneath? Or can it be configured to show each team member and the epics they are working on underneath?

I have attached mock examples of what I am trying to create in the system.

[Namita Mishra · Accepted solution]

Hi @Eva25 ,

Thanks for checking with the community.

Before I answer the above two points, I would like to focus on the

1) capacity planning (aka capacity management) concept and

2) capacity planning vs resource management 

Capacity Planning: 

Capacity planning is meant to focus on the amount of work that can be done within a specific period (e.g., sprint, project, or quarter) rather than on individual team members. It’s more effective to plan around roles and skill sets rather than individual names, as roles are more flexible and can be filled by any team member who possesses the required skills.

In the capacity planning, mainly the focus is to measure the demand (i.e. what's needed) vs. the capacity (what's available).

It is NOT about managing the resources. 

Capacity planning vs Resource management:

	Capacity Planning	Resource Management
Strategic vs Tactical	Strategic planning for future needs.	Tactical, operational management of resources.
Focus Area	Forecasting & ensuring the availability of capacity.	Allocation, tracking, and optimization of resources.
Timeframe	Long-term or future-oriented (months, quarters, or years).	Generally short-term or operational (days, weeks, or months).
Scope	Looks at overall capacity needs across the organization.	Focuses on the actual deployment of resources to specific tasks or projects.

Just to summarize:

• Capacity Planning is about predicting and ensuring that enough capacity is available to meet future demand (e.g., over the next 6 months).
• Resource Management is about optimizing the use of available resources in the present (e.g., managing tasks in a 2-week sprint or for a current project or its tasks).

Having shared the above information, I would strongly suggest that team members should NOT be part of capacity planning. 

At the time of capacity planning (for future planning), one does not even know who will work on which entity (project \ product \ demand etc) however they do know about the skills \ teams \roles which will be required for the future work.

For point #2: "Can the dropdown be customized to show the epics and the team members working on each epic underneath? Or can it be configured to show each team member and the epics they are working on underneath?" -> 

This information by team members and their allocations can be seen in the resource management workspace.

Hope this answers the question, if it does please mark it as correct answer to help me and community.

Thank You!

Namita Mishra

[Eva25]

Hi Namita, thank you for your response! I have a follow-up question about the Resource Management Workspace. In this workspace, I can view resources and planning items, such as assigned epics under each resource. However, I want to view all my planning items first and then see the assigned resources under each planning item. Is this possible in the Resource Management Workspace, or should I use a different workspace in ServiceNow?