Sprint Capacity Days Calculator
Estimate a team’s realistic sprint capacity in person-days from headcount, working days, time off and a focus factor.
How it works
capacity = (team × working days − time off) × focus factor · focus factor allows for meetings and overhead
Raw availability — everyone present, all day — overstates what a team can actually deliver, because ceremonies, support, email and context-switching eat into every day. Capacity planning starts from gross person-days (headcount times working days), subtracts known holidays and leave, then multiplies by a focus factor (commonly 60–80%) that captures the unavoidable overhead. The result is a realistic pool of person-days to commit against, which teams often convert to story points using their historical velocity.
Worked example
Five people over a 10-day sprint give 50 gross person-days. Two person-days of leave leave 48, and an 80% focus factor yields 38.4 person-days of effective capacity — about 7.7 days per person.
Frequently asked questions
What is a realistic focus factor?
Most teams land between 60% and 80%. New or heavily-interrupted teams sit lower; a stable team with few meetings can approach 80%. Track actual delivered work against capacity over a few sprints and tune the factor to match.
Is capacity the same as velocity?
No. Capacity is available time (person-days); velocity is the story points a team completes per sprint. Capacity helps you sanity-check whether a planned point commitment is achievable when the team is short-staffed or a sprint is holiday-heavy.
How do I count time off?
Add up every planned absence across the whole team in person-days — a person off the full sprint is 10 person-days, someone taking two days is 2. Enter that total here.
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This calculator is for educational purposes. Double-check important results before acting on them.