Create more realistic plans
Establish an integrated capacity planning workflow. Product management starts in Aha! Roadmaps by capturing an initial estimate for new functionality based on input from engineering. This early-stage collaboration is critical for balancing the needs of the business with the team's workload — so everyone can commit to the roadmap with confidence.
Estimate effort accurately
Define technical requirements in Aha! Develop, adding detailed estimates as you go. Data automatically rolls up from underlying requirements to the associated feature and epic. Product management immediately sees this information in Aha! Roadmaps — enabling them to compare initial and detailed estimates, and adjust the timing or scope of the work as needed.
Manage sprint capacity
Make each sprint as productive as possible. Calculate sprint capacity based on the availability and velocity of each team member. As you assign features, each person's planned and available capacity updates in real time. This rolls up to the program increment level, giving you an accurate understanding of how much work people can take on — so you can set achievable goals.
Track actual effort
Log progress as work gets underway to track what has been completed for each feature and how much remains. The sprint burndown chart shows how the team is progressing against the total amount of estimated work. Now you have more visibility into what is happening, so product management and engineering can better predict if features will ship on time.
Refine future planning
Compare the difference between your initial, detailed, and actual estimates. This provides valuable insights into how much effort it actually took to do the work — so you can improve your capacity planning process. Ultimately, optimizing the team's workload in this way is fundamental to efficiently delivering new functionality and sustaining team happiness.