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What does “capacity” mean on the Planningboard?

Capacity refers to the total effort available for a Plan or swimlane compared with the effort already allocated to work items within it. Planningboard visualizes this as a capacity bar per swimlane, giving planners an at-a-glance indicator of how loaded each resource or team is. When allocated effort approaches or exceeds total capacity, the bar signals overallocation.

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How do I enable the capacity bar?

Enable the capacityLoad widget parameter in the Parameters for Plans (Columns) section. Set Show Capacity Load to true. Once enabled, a capacity bar appears for each Plan column showing the load relative to available capacity.
See the Reference for the full list of capacity-related parameters.

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How is allocated capacity calculated?

Allocated capacity is the sum of the remainingEstimate values (or initialEstimate if remaining is not set) of work items assigned to a given user or swimlane within a Plan. If you configure a custom capacityField (for example, story points), Planningboard uses that field’s values instead of time-based estimates. Resolved items are treated as fully done: their effortDone equals the full estimate and effortTodo equals zero.

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What is the difference between capacityLoad and multiCapacityLoad?

capacityLoad shows a single capacity bar per Plan column — useful when all swimlanes share the same total capacity budget. multiCapacityLoad enables per-swimlane (per-resource) capacity bars, so each row shows its own allocated vs. available capacity independently. Use multiCapacityLoad when different team members or resources have different capacities within the same Plan.

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What is userCapacityLoad and when should I use it?

userCapacityLoad enables per-user capacity tracking when the Teams Service integration is active (useTeamsService = true). In this mode, total capacity comes from the team calendar rather than a fixed configuration, so each user’s available hours reflect their actual calendar availability for the Plan period. Users without a calendar or team entry default to 0.0 total capacity.

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Can I see capacity for individual users in a Plan?

Yes, when userCapacityLoad is enabled together with useTeamsService, the board computes a per-user capacity breakdown for each Plan. Each user entry shows:
Per-user capacity breakdown table for a Plan showing Allocated, Total, and Available hours for three users, with Dana Lead's negative Available value flagged as overallocated
Values are rounded to one decimal place. A negative availableCapacity is a warning of overallocation — the capacity bar will visually exceed its maximum.

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What is normalization, and how does it affect capacity display?

Normalization adjusts how capacity is presented when Plans have different durations (for example, a two-week sprint vs. a one-week sprint). With normalization enabled, effort values are scaled proportionally so that Plans are visually comparable side by side. See the Normalization option under Parameters for Plans (Columns) in the widget parameters panel.
When to enable normalizationEnable normalization if your board shows Plans of different lengths and you want capacity bars to be comparable across columns rather than reflecting raw hours.

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Does Planningboard support multi-assignee capacity tracking?

Not currently. Capacity load is calculated per single assignee. If a work item has multiple assignees, the effort is not automatically distributed across them. This is a known gap relative to Nextedy GANTT, which supports multi-assignee effort distribution.
Known limitationMulti-assignee capacity distribution is not supported in the current release. Workaround: assign each work item to a single primary assignee for accurate capacity accounting.
For related information see Multiple Assignees.

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Why does a user show 0.0 total capacity?

A total capacity of 0.0 means the user has no calendar entry in the Teams Service for the current Plan period, or useTeamsService is disabled. Verify that:
  1. useTeamsService = true is set in the widget parameters.
  2. The user is a member of the selected team (selectedTeam parameter).
  3. The team calendar has an entry covering the Plan’s date range.
Users without a calendar entry fall back to 0.0 by design (see the zero-fallback behavior in NPT-1211).

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How does the hoursPerDay parameter affect capacity?

hoursPerDay (default 8) converts time-based capacity values from hours to days and back. It is used when capacity is tracked in time units (remaining/initial estimates). If your team works a different number of hours per day, adjust this parameter to keep capacity calculations accurate.
Whitespace sensitivityCapacity configuration parameters including hoursPerDay and capacityField are whitespace-sensitive. Do not add leading or trailing spaces when entering values in the widget parameters panel.

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Where can I learn more?

  • Swimlanes FAQ — how swimlane assignment types affect capacity grouping
  • Configuration FAQ — general widget parameter setup
  • Reference — full parameter reference including all capacity properties
  • Guides — step-by-step capacity configuration guides