---
sourceDocument: Australia Strategic Portfolio Management
sourceDocumentLink: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/it-business-management

 Release :

    - australia

ft:locale :

    - en-US

ft:publication_title :

    - Australia Strategic Portfolio Management

ft:clusterId :

    - itbm

bundleId :

    - itbm

workflow :

    - Technology


---

# Use Capacity Planning

# Using capacity planning in Portfolio Planning {#ariaid-title1}

Release version: Australia  
Updated March 12, 2026  
![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 3 minutes to read
Summarize  
![AI sparkle icon](https://servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ai-sparkle-icon) Summarized using AI  
This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete.  

## Summary of Using capacity planning in Portfolio Planning

Capacity planning in ServiceNow's Portfolio Planning enables resource managers to assess resource capacity, review existing allocations, and make informed decisions when assigning resources to prioritized planning items.
The tool provides detailed insights into resource availability, capacity allocation, and operational resource assignments to optimize workforce planning and forecasting.
Show full answer Show less  

## Manage Resource Capacity

The Manage Resource Capacity screen allows you to:

* Select a timeframe and primary resource attributes (such as groups, roles, or skills) to view the number of available resources.
* Filter resources based on specific capacity attributes and date ranges.
* Generate and save resource capacity details, with options to regenerate for the latest data from employee profile mappings.

This screen provides a monthly breakdown of total available resources, shows the most recent capacity generation date, and enables viewing of current resource availability.

## Capacity Planning Screen

The Capacity Planning screen offers a comprehensive view of resource efforts and capacity allocations for prioritized planning items within your portfolio. Key features include:

* Interactive Gantt chart displaying planning items and resource allocations.
* Color-coded legend indicating resource assignment status, such as no assignments, within capacity, or overallocation.
* Filters to view planning items by type, state, priority, and other attributes, with preferences saved across multiple views for consistent planning.
* Heatmap views to analyze total resource capacity and estimates.
* Visibility into operational work efforts and estimates outside of the portfolio.

## Operational Resource Assignments

Resource managers can create or migrate operational resource assignments to account for activities like meetings, training, and time off:

* Operational work (e.g., training) is reflected as a percentage of total capacity in the Operational Work line item.
* Time off reduces total available capacity but does not display as operational work.
* Example: A group with 2 full-time equivalents (FTEs) allocating 10% capacity to training shows 0.2 FTE in operational work; a 25% time off allocation reduces available capacity to 1.5 FTEs for that period.

The Operational Work line item is visually highlighted to distinguish these assignments.

## Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

This capacity planning functionality helps you:

* Accurately forecast resource needs and identify capacity constraints.
* Make data-driven decisions when assigning resources to portfolio items.
* Balance operational demands with project work to optimize workforce utilization.
* Maintain consistent views of resource data across various portfolio planning modules.  
Assess the resource capacity and review existing allocations, which help you to make informed decisions while working on assigning resources.

Use the [manage resource capacity](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/MGSdTdDj9aFN5pjpA_qKSg "Generate and view the total capacity of the resources with primary attributes. Capacity details helps Portfolio Managers to plan and manage planning items depending on the resource availability.") screen to generate resource capacity details.

Use the [Capacity Planning screen](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/IGG0v6qzCdgM~rJOSszJ4A "View and analyze the resource capacity for your portfolio to plan and re-forecast the resource assignments.") to view detailed information about the resource capacity mapping to a portfolio.

## Manage resource capacity {#using-cap-plan-pp__section_ulc_qcw_byb}

Figure 1. Manage resource capacity screen

Using Manage resource capacity, select a time frame and primary attributes to view number of available resources. Generated resource capacity details are saved. You can regenerate capacity to view latest changes in the resource
availability.

Resource capacity screen helps you to view the following data.  
* Resource availability for generated capacity.
* Total number of available resources in a monthly breakdown view.
* Latest date of generating the capacity details.
* Option to regenerate and fetch the latest capacity details from the employee profile mappings.
{#using-cap-plan-pp__ul_dm3_n34_byb}  
On the Manage resource capacity screen, you can:

* Filter resources with specific capacity attributes for a required date range to view the number of available resources.
* Regenerate capacity details to view the latest details from the resource employee profile mapping.
{#using-cap-plan-pp__ul_v1l_m1x_byb}

## Select resource criteria {#using-cap-plan-pp__section_qtd_k3z_gdc}

* Select a primary attribute to automatically view the available groups, roles, or skills from the resource assignments of the prioritized planning items.
* Switch between Auto-select and Manual-select option to view the allocated resource efforts for all planning items or to view a custom data, respectively.
* Define resource criteria to view the available groups, roles, or skills from the resource assignments of the prioritized planning items.

## Capacity Planning {#using-cap-plan-pp__section_hrg_ddw_byb}

Capacity Planning screen displays the resource efforts from the prioritized planning items.

* Comprehensive overview of resource capacity and allocations.
* Current resource capacity allocation.
* Interactive Gantt chat to view prioritized planning items in the bottom tray to analyze and plan work.
{#using-cap-plan-pp__ul_xfs_c2w_byb}

Understanding the Capacity Planning screen.{#using-cap-plan-pp__table_y52_y3h_2dc__entry__2}

| Color | Description |
|-|-|
| Yellow (Gantt bar) | Planning item with no resource assignments. |
| Blue (Gantt bar) | Resource estimates for Planning items are within the resource capacity. |
| Red (Cells and Gantt bar) | Overallocation in resource estimates. |
| Green (Cells) | Resource estimates within the resource capacity. |
[Table 1. Capacity Planning legend]

{#using-cap-plan-pp__table_y52_y3h_2dc}  
Using Capacity Planning, you can:

* View the capacity allocations of prioritized planning items for your current portfolio and better forecast your future resource requirements.
* Use the filter option (![Capacity planning filter button.]()) to view planning items by their type, state, priority or any by any required attributes to create capacity plans.

  Quick filters help you filter the data shown in the List, Kanban, and Hierarchy views of
  Prioritization, Timeline and Kanban views of Roadmap, and Capacity Planning. These filters are saved as your preferences. This way, you can view the same data across all views for a tab, helping you seamlessly plan, prioritize
  and roadmap work.  
  Note:  
  Default filter is set to display prioritized planning items only.
* View the updated resource capacity based on the assigned operational resource assignments.
* View the total resource capacity in the heatmap view.

* View total resource capacity and total estimates.
* View the efforts for operational work and efforts for estimates outside of portfolio in the Additional items list.
* Redefine the workforce criteria by selecting Resource criteria (![Resource criteria button.]())
{#using-cap-plan-pp__ul_fzq_xgx_byb}  

## Calculation of Operational Resource Assignment in Capacity Planning {#using-cap-plan-pp__example_qdv_z15_hbc}

As a Resource Manager, you can [create operation resource assignments](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/09P2B_npIzkFTK93WBQrJQ "Create operational resource assignments to allocate a portion of team or resource capacity for operational work such as administration work, meetings, trainings, and so on.") or [migrate existing operational resource plans](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/slFKawahZV~G_4x6XWsMbg "Migrate the required Operational resource plans to attribute-based Operational resource assignments.") of your employees to handle the required meetings, trainings, time off and so on to meet your work requirements.

Consider a group with
capacity of 2 FTE and resource manager creates a Group type operation resource assignment for 10% of the capacity for training. This operational assignment can be viewed in the Operational work line item in
the top-tray of the Capacity Planning screen. The value of the Operational work line item will be 0.2, which is 10% of total capacity of the group.

When a resource manager creates a Group type operation
resource assignment for time off, this doesn't update the Operational work line item but reduces the total available capacity.

Consider the same group with operation resource assignment for 25% of the
capacity for time off from April to June. The total available capacity of the group for the quarter April to June will be 1.5 FTE, which is 75% of the total capacity.  
0.5 FTE, which is 25% of total capacity of the group will be reduced.  
Note:  
The Operational work line item is highlighted in gray color.