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How to estimate team capacity for planned backlog?

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Riyadh Salih Saskatchewan, Canada
Planned backlog may not be ready to schedule due to various reasons such as timing associated with parts / materials availability, availability of special tools needed for the project, and environmental issues or concern.

As an example we have 10 person work crew with standard 40 hours per week plus 6% overtime allowed each week, we have planned backlog of 200 hours not ready for scheduled and 845 hours of ready work, two of team members scheduled to be on vacation for the week and one team assigned by functional manager to another department rest of team members are required to spend 2 hours per week on computer based training and to attend safety meeting on each Wednesday for 30 minutes from these numbers can you come with numbers for team capacity. capacity impacts and total capacity impacts.

I will compare my numbers with your numbers, thanks to take time to exercise this.
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Drew Craig Sr. Agile & Product Coach| Vanguard Philadelphia, Pa, United States
Wow, Riyadh. Quite the Sunday morning zinger :) Felt like I was sitting an exam!

I only look at capacity for the upcoming bucket of work, i.e. upcoming iteration (2,3,4 weeks). I look at development resources (Software) and multiply by a factor of 'work time', say 60% (meetings, lunch, coffee break, sidebar conversation)

For example
5 development team (devs and QA)
2-week sprint = 10 days
5*8*10=400
400*.60=240 hours of 'real' work time over the 2-week iteration.

Any vacation, training, etc. would be taken into consideration when calculating the above.
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Kiron Bondale Retired | Mentor| Retired Welland, Ontario, Canada
Riyadh -

Andrew's crunched the numbers already so the only thing I'll add is to check on the individual competencies of the crew members - are they fully interchangeable or are some of them only able to complete certain activities.

If they aren't fungible, then the calculations will get more complex...

Kiron
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Sante Delle-Vergini, PhD Senior Project Manager| Infosys Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
There's some variables we don't have Riyadh, such as the realistic work time; the one Andrew gave it 60%, and the other is any absences during the second week, third week etc?

Going on the information you provided, we can only calculate for week one. A 10 member crew, 3 of whom are away for "the week", leaves 7. So 7 (crew) x 8 hours (work per day) x 5 days (1 week) = 280 hours. Now you allow 6% overtime, so that's 296.8, call it 297 hours. Now Andrew proposed a 60% effective work time. I feel that's a little low, and usually calculate 70%. That leaves 30% downtime. Your computer based training falls within that.. So 70% of 297 is 207.9, call it 208. That's the capacity per week. For sure your numbers will never be equal to any of us posting here, unless you calculate the same downtime rate.
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Riyadh Salih Saskatchewan, Canada
Andrew, sorry if I caused zinger ;-) right usage of the word, Kiron and Sante thank you so much for all of you for participating on this one, now I am gonna throw my calculation and let me hear your feedback.
Crew capacity
straight time hours available 10 people X 40 HRS/Week = 400 Hours/week
Approved Overtime 6% =0.06x400Hrs/week = 24 hours/ week
Gross capacity 400 straight + 24 OT = 424 Hours/week
now Capacity Impact
vacation 2 members x 40 + 0.06 x 2 x 40 = 84.8Hours
One moved by FM (1x40) +(0.06x1memeber x40) = 42.4
Scheduled training 7x2 hours= 14hours
Safety meeting 7 x 0.5 hour = 3.5 hours
Weekly average consumption for emergency work = 46 hours
So Total Capacity Impact
84.8 hours+ 42.4 hours + 3.5 hours + 46 = 190.7 hours
crew capacity (net) = 424 h per week - 190.7 hours/week = 233.3 hours/week
Planned backlog (weeks) = (planned work + Ready work) / crew capacity
Planned backlog (weeks) = (200 hours + 845 hours) / 233.3 h/w
Planned backlog (weeks) = 1045 hours / 233.3
Now we have planned backlog = 4.48 weeks
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Drew Craig Sr. Agile & Product Coach| Vanguard Philadelphia, Pa, United States
Is the complexity warranted? The calculation's rigidity and assumptions do not account for any for delay's, non-productivity time, or unknowns. Would it be valuable to define a flexible and simplified formula to satisfy the estimation needs?
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1 reply by Riyadh Salih
Jul 23, 2018 4:24 PM
Riyadh Salih
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Andrew, it depends on the organization you perform your job, some like it complicated some don't but it is one way of doing such calculations.
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Sante Delle-Vergini, PhD Senior Project Manager| Infosys Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Somehow I thought you already had your own calculation ready lol. As Andrew alluded, it might be unnecessarily complicated.
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Riyadh Salih Saskatchewan, Canada
Jul 23, 2018 6:42 AM
Replying to Drew Craig
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Is the complexity warranted? The calculation's rigidity and assumptions do not account for any for delay's, non-productivity time, or unknowns. Would it be valuable to define a flexible and simplified formula to satisfy the estimation needs?
Andrew, it depends on the organization you perform your job, some like it complicated some don't but it is one way of doing such calculations.
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Riyadh Salih Saskatchewan, Canada
Sante, well this is the most used in manufacturing facilities where they really require complicated maintenance schedule.
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1 reply by Sante Delle-Vergini, PhD
Jul 23, 2018 5:51 PM
Sante Delle-Vergini, PhD
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Understood Riyadh, I might get a headache working in manufacturing then ;-)
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Riyadh Salih Saskatchewan, Canada
Andrew & Sante, thanks for your time to exercise with me on this one and your valued feedback.
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Sante Delle-Vergini, PhD Senior Project Manager| Infosys Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Jul 23, 2018 4:27 PM
Replying to Riyadh Salih
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Sante, well this is the most used in manufacturing facilities where they really require complicated maintenance schedule.
Understood Riyadh, I might get a headache working in manufacturing then ;-)
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1 reply by Riyadh Salih
Jul 23, 2018 6:58 PM
Riyadh Salih
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Sante, I was trying to compare which one has more headache LOL the project on new site or the manufacturing facility which has MRO and upgrade project ongoing.
I enjoy both
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