Capacity planning software: see what your team can take on before you commit
When a project request lands, you need to be able to assign it quickly without being bogged down by outdated spreadsheets. Capacity planning software shows your team’s availability, including how much work they're already committed to. With Asana, you gain visibility into capacity planning through adaptable views and responsive adjustments, enabling data-driven decision-making.
Why capacity planning falls apart in a spreadsheet
Resource capacity planning sounds simple until project capacity changes. A spreadsheet helps to plan team capacity the first time, but it breaks down when new projects come in or current projects run long.
The spreadsheet is out of date the moment you build it
A capacity spreadsheet is a snapshot of assumptions on the day you build it. Projects slip, scopes change, new requests come up, people take leave, and none of these shifts flow back into the sheet. If the spreadsheet says a teammate has 40% of their capacity available next month, this is just a guess based on stale data.
Commitments are invisible across projects
Most people work on more than one project at a time, and no single spreadsheet view shows the total. So when three project leads each assign the same person a reasonable-looking workload, they unknowingly overallocate their team member’s schedule (and no one notices until the work is late).
You find out about the overload from the person, not the plan
Without a live view of capacity, the first signal of overallocation is a missed deadline or someone telling you they're drowning. When a team member flags burnout in a one-on-one, they’ve already been sitting at more than 100% for weeks. The cost of adjusting capacity when it’s too late is their trust, and sometimes loyalty to your company.
How Asana works as capacity planning software
Asana provides insight into your team’s capacity. You can spot who’s overloaded (or underutilized) and fix it before the deadline. Then you can plan the next quarter with real-time data.
See your team’s real capacity, calculated from real work
Assignments and effort estimates are stored on the tasks themselves. That means Workload calculates capacity based on the actual work in your projects. Asana updates capacity when your work moves and compares your team’s availability against their assignments. Add time tracking, and you can compare planned effort against what the work actually took, while the capacity view stays as up to date as the projects it's built from.
Spot overallocation across every project at once
With one view, you can see each team member’s total commitment across all the projects they're on. Asana automatically flags anyone over capacity. Portfolios then roll that view out across all teams, so overallocation shows up during team capacity planning before it leads to a missed deadline.
Rebalance before the deadline, not after
Reassign or reschedule work directly from the capacity view, and watch as everyone’s workload updates immediately. When you move the work, you can see its effect on your team’s capacity before anyone falls behind.
Plan the next quarter against what you can actually deliver
Asana models upcoming projects against your team’s obligations, allowing you to see if next quarter's plan fits your team’s availability before you commit. Use percentages or estimated time, whichever matches how your team views effort. Reach beyond day-to-day capacity planning tools with in-depth features, like viewing allocations by person or by project across several months and team-level capacity, to support your estimates.
Purpose-built for teams that plan people, not machines
Every team that uses resource capacity planning software to plan workloads looks a little different, but they all need real numbers indicating how much work their people can take on.
![[Team - Agency] Hero Image](https://assets.asana.biz/transform/bd8fb516-1527-40d9-a49d-1978e69c189e/-16_9-Hero-Agency-Lo-Fi?io=transform:fill,width:2560&format=webp)
See who has room before you scope the next client
Committing to a client project without knowing your team’s actual availability means either turning down revenue or overloading the team. With Asana, the capacity for every client project is in one view, so account leads can see who has room before scoping the next engagement with realistic deadlines. Say yes to the work you can deliver, and know why when you say no.
Blackboard’s design team quantifies work capacity with Asana.
Blackboard is a leading edtech company whose online learning tools fuel education across K-12 schools, secondary institutions, government learning, and corporate training. With Asana, the company’s design team took stock of their own work and capacity, allowing them to advocate for additional headcount where necessary.
![[case study]Blackboard-hero](https://assets.asana.biz/transform/5c3f75cc-5954-48c6-85f7-e488ad68a44f/Blackboard-hero-asana-customer?io=transform:fill,width:1680&format=webp)
Because design is a shared service at Blackboard, we’re at the whims of different business units’ priorities. Consolidating our work to see our designers’ active projects helps us understand their capacity and helps with resourcing.Joannie Wu
Design Manager, Blackboard
Know what your team can take on
More equally allocated team members. No more fractured capacity views. Use Asana to make the right capacity calls from the same numbers your team works from.
Frequently asked questions about capacity planning software
A capacity planning tool shows how much work a team is committed to and compares it against project requests or reassignments. Also known as capacity management software, these tools update as work progresses, keeping your team’s capacity view accurate.
Yes, you can plan team capacity in a spreadsheet. Plenty of teams start here, as spreadsheets work well for planning team capacity once. However, the spreadsheets start to fall short when work shifts, because none of the changes flow back in automatically. Software keeps the picture up to date without anyone needing to maintain it.
Capacity planning asks how much work your team can absorb, while resource planning asks who does which work, and when. When comparing capacity planning vs. resource planning debate, remember that they’re two halves of the same decision, and Asana supports both.
To calculate team capacity, start with each person's available hours and subtract known commitments, such as leave, meetings, and support work. Compare what’s left against the effort the upcoming work requires. Asana runs from the tasks themselves rather than a separate spreadsheet, so your view stays current even as the numbers change.
Capacity planning works better with estimates, but they don’t need to be perfect. A rough estimate of the effort on your team’s significant work is usually enough to reveal who's overloaded. Start with estimates, then refine them as you gain more relevant data.
Asana knows your team’s capacity from the work itself. Each assignment, due date, and anticipated effort rolls up for each person across all projects they’re assigned to, measured against the capacity you set for them. And since the data comes from live projects, the view shifts as the work changes.
Workload for a single project or portfolio is available starting with the Advanced plan, included under resource management. Organization-wide workload across every project and dedicated capacity planning is available on Enterprise plans. See Asana pricing for current details.
Yes. Since capacity rolls up across projects and portfolios, or organization-wide on Enterprise plans, you can view and adjust capacity across multiple teams and departments. This also makes it possible to efficiently move work between teams.