Configure Multi-Dimensional Capacity

When to use multi-dimensional capacity

Standard capacity tracking (capacityLoad) shows a single capacity bar per Plan column — it aggregates effort across the whole column regardless of which swimlane a work item sits in. This works well for high-level sprint totals, but it does not tell you whether one assignee is overloaded while another is idle. Multi-dimensional capacity (multiCapacityLoad) switches to per-swimlane capacity bars: every swimlane cell within a Plan column gets its own bar. Use it when:

You want to track remaining capacity per user (assignee swimlanes)
You have teams with different sprint commitments
You need to spot overallocation in a single glance during planning

Nextedy PLANNINGBOARD capacity load does not support multiple assignees on a single work item. Only the primary assignee is counted.
Planningboard does not calculate capacity from sub-item effort. Only direct estimates on the work item itself are used.
These are known gaps versus Nextedy GANTT’s capacity model. Plan accordingly.

Prerequisites

Capacity tracking (capacityLoad) must already be working at the basic level. If it is not, set it up first: see Configure Capacity Tracking.
The Teams Service must be configured and returning user capacity data. See Set Up Teams Service.
Swimlanes must be set to Users (Assignee) assignment type so the per-user capacity map has matching rows to render into.

How multi-dimensional capacity works

Plan column with per-swimlane capacity bars: Alex Seller's swimlane shows a card at 12h of 24h allocated, Carl User's swimlane shows a card at 18h of 20h allocated

The board builds a multiCapacity map keyed by resource identifier. When multiCapacityLoad is enabled, each swimlane cell looks up its own entry in that map and renders its own progress bar. The formula per user is:

Value	Calculation
`allocatedCapacity`	Sum of `remainingEstimate` (or custom capacity field) for all work items assigned to the user in this Plan
`totalCapacity`	User’s sprint capacity from the Teams Service calendar
`availableCapacity`	`totalCapacity − allocatedCapacity` (negative = overallocated)

Both allocatedCapacity and availableCapacity are rounded to one decimal place.

If a user has no entry in the Teams Service calendar for a given Plan period, their totalCapacity defaults to 0.0. Their swimlane shows a capacity bar with no available headroom. Add the user to the Teams Service to resolve this — see Set Up Teams Service.

Enable `capacityLoad` with the capacity field

Open your Planningboard widget parameters and confirm Capacity Field is set. This is the field used to calculate effort:

Leave it blank to use Polarion’s built-in remainingEstimate / initialEstimate time fields.
Set it to a custom field ID if your team tracks effort on a custom field.

Capacity configuration parameters are whitespace-sensitive. Do not add leading or trailing spaces around field IDs or property values — they will silently fail to match.

Enable `multiCapacityLoad`

In the Widget Parameters panel, locate Capacity settings and turn on Multi-Capacity Load (multiCapacityLoad). This switches the board from column-level capacity bars to per-swimlane cell capacity bars.Keep Capacity Load (capacityLoad) also enabled — multiCapacityLoad requires it to be active.

You can keep capacityLoad enabled alongside multiCapacityLoad. The column-level bar continues to show sprint totals, while each swimlane cell additionally shows its own bar.

Verify swimlane assignment type

Multi-dimensional capacity only produces meaningful bars when each swimlane corresponds to a distinct resource. Check that Assignment Type is set to Users (Assignee) in the Swimlanes (Rows) section of the widget parameters.If you use a different assignment type (for example, Enumeration Field), the capacity map may not find matching keys for your swimlane rows.

Confirm the Teams Service is active

The useTeamsService setting must be enabled. When active, the Teams Service provides:

Per-user total sprint capacity (from the team calendar)
Team membership (which users appear in the capacity calculation)

Without the Teams Service, totalCapacity for every user will be 0.0 and capacity bars will show only allocated effort with no baseline.See Track User Capacity and Track Team Capacity for Teams Service configuration steps.

Open the board and review capacity bars

Reload the Planningboard. In each Plan column, each user swimlane now shows its own capacity bar.

  Capacity bar states:

  Under capacity    ████████░░░░░░  (allocated < total, bar partially filled)
  At capacity       ██████████████  (allocated ≈ total, bar full)
  Overallocated     ████████████████████  (bar overflows, typically shown in red)

You should now see a separate capacity progress indicator inside each user swimlane cell for every Plan column. Hovering over a capacity bar displays the allocation breakdown: available (or overallocated), allocated, and total capacity for that user in that Plan.

The column tooltip template (columnTooltipTemplate) can be customized to show a per-user allocation breakdown, including overallocation highlighted in a warning color. See Customize Capacity Indicators.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause	Action
Capacity bars show `0 / 0` for all users	Teams Service not connected or no calendar entries	Verify Teams Service setup — see Set Up Teams Service
Some users have no capacity bar at all	User is not in the Teams Service for this Plan’s date range	Add user to the team calendar for the relevant period
Bars show allocated effort but no total headroom	`useTeamsService` is off or the user has no calendar entry for this sprint	Enable Teams Service and add calendar data
Capacity bar is visible but higher than expected	Sub-item estimates are not included; only direct estimates count	This is a current limitation — Planningboard does not aggregate sub-item effort
Board shows a single column-level bar instead of per-swimlane bars	`multiCapacityLoad` is not enabled	Enable it in widget parameters alongside `capacityLoad`

For additional capacity calculation issues, see Capacity Calculation Issues.

​When to use multi-dimensional capacity

​Prerequisites

​How multi-dimensional capacity works

​Troubleshooting

​See also

When to use multi-dimensional capacity

Prerequisites

How multi-dimensional capacity works

Troubleshooting

See also