Capacity Planning

Overview

This skill defines how to forecast and plan for resource capacity. Proactive capacity planning prevents resource shortages, avoids emergency procurement, and ensures systems and teams can handle planned workloads.

When to Use

• Before starting work that needs significant resources (compute, storage, personnel)
• When current resources are approaching capacity limits
• When planning new features expected to increase load
• Before committing to delivery timelines that depend on resource availability
• When evaluating cost estimates for new projects
• Don't use when: Resource needs are trivial and well within current capacity

Core Procedures

Step 1: Inventory Current Capacity

Document what you have:

• Compute: Available cores, memory, concurrent processing capacity
• Storage: Available disk, database space, file storage
• Network: Bandwidth, connection limits, API rate limits
• Personnel: Available agents, their skills, current workload
• Budget: Available budget for the planning period
• Time: Hours or sessions available before deadline

Step 2: Estimate Requirements

For the planned work:

• What resources are needed? (compute, storage, personnel, time, budget)
• How much of each? (quantified estimates)
• When are they needed? (timing over planning period)
• What are the peak requirements? (maximum concurrent usage)
• What is the growth curve? (linear, exponential, seasonal)

Step 3: Identify Capacity Gaps

For each resource:

CAPACITY GAP
============
Resource: [what resource]
Current capacity: [what you have]
Planned requirement: [what you need]
Gap: [deficit or surplus]
Timeline: [when the gap occurs]
Impact if gap not filled: [what happens]

Step 4: Plan Responses

For each gap, choose a response:

• Add Capacity: Procure more resources (costs money, takes time)
• Reduce Demand: Scope down, phase delivery, defer features
• Optimize Usage: Get more from existing resources (efficiency gains)
• Accept Risk: Proceed knowing capacity may be insufficient (document risk)

Step 5: Monitor and Adjust

• Track actual usage against projections
• Alert when usage approaches capacity threshold (80%)
• Re-estimate if requirements change
• Update plan quarterly or at major milestones

Quality Checklist

• Current capacity documented with actual numbers
• Requirements estimated with reasoning
• Capacity gaps identified with impact analysis
• Response plan for each gap
• Monitoring thresholds set for key resources
• Plan reviewed and approved by stakeholders

Error Handling

• Error: Capacity gap identified but no budget to add capacity Response: Reduce demand (scope down) or optimize usage; escalate if neither possible
• Error: Actual usage much higher than estimated Response: Re-estimate immediately, activate response plan for new gap, notify stakeholders
• Error: Capacity emergency (near exhaustion) Response: Add emergency capacity immediately, then investigate why planning failed

Cross-Team Integration

Related Skills: risk-assessment, cost-optimization, status-reporting, incident-response Used By: CEOs, Infrastructure agents (Orchestrator, Database, Compute), project managers, finance agents