How does a SaaS company plan engineering capacity?
A SaaS company plans engineering capacity by splitting each squad's time between product roadmap, technical debt, maintenance, and incidents, then comparing that capacity with roadmap commitments. Protecting a share of capacity for debt and run work prevents the roadmap from consuming all available time.
Capacity planning for software vendors and SaaS companies
Balance roadmap, technical debt, and incidents with limited engineering capacity.
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Sector-specific constraints
- An ambitious roadmap and sales demand that exceed capacity.
- Production incidents interrupting squads.
- Technical debt to arbitrate against features.
- Key people shared across several product teams.
Capacity use cases
- Create projects dedicated to technical debt and support, and assign a share of capacity to them.
- Check roadmap feasibility over the quarter.
- Spot key people shared across squads.
- Compare planned and actual to make commitments more reliable.
Useful indicators
| Indicator | Definition |
|---|---|
| Roadmap / debt / support split | Share of each squad's capacity spent on each type of work. |
| Capacity vs roadmap commitments | Gap between net capacity and workload committed for the quarter. |
| Incident-driven interruptions | Time diverted to production incidents. |
| Delivery predictability | Share of quarterly commitments actually met. |
Typical workflow
- Model squads and their members, including shared people.
- Create projects dedicated to technical debt and support, and assign time to them.
- Compare remaining capacity with roadmap commitments.
- Adjust the roadmap or capacity, then track planned vs actual.
FAQ
Does Workload replace Jira or Linear?
No. The backlog and ticket tracking stay in your delivery tool. Workload is the capacity and allocation layer.
How do you handle technical debt?
Create a dedicated project to which a share of capacity is assigned, then compare actual with planned.
Is it suited to a small company?
Under about 15 people, a spreadsheet may suffice. Beyond that, several squads sharing people justify a dedicated tool.
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