specrew-capacity-planning

name	specrew-capacity-planning
description	Analyze in-scope requirements, produce a taskable effort model, and make overcommit visible before the plan is approved.
domain	lifecycle-planning
confidence	high
source	Specrew governance pillar — planning ceremony helper

specrew-capacity-planning

Type: Planning Skill
Schema: v1
Status: Active planning method

Purpose

Analyze in-scope requirements, produce a taskable effort model, and make overcommit visible before the plan is approved.

When to Use

• During the Planning ceremony
• When re-planning after needs-rework or abandonment
• For deferral and what-if sequencing decisions

Inputs

Input	Type	Required	Description
spec_requirements	array	Yes	List of requirements to plan for this iteration
iteration_config	object	Yes	Config from .specrew/iteration-config.yml
iteration_config.capacity_per_iteration	number	Yes	Max effort units for this iteration
iteration_config.effort_unit	string	Yes	Unit of effort measurement
iteration_config.overcommit_threshold	float	Yes	Ratio for overcommit warning
role_assignments	array	Yes	Available roles from .specrew/role-assignments.yml
historical_velocity	number?	No	Average effort per iteration for calibration

Process

1. Break each requirement into executable work and enabling work
2. Estimate effort per task and by phase:
   • planning
   • discovery/spikes
   • implementation
   • review
   • expected rework
3. Assign tasks to role owners, not individual nicknames
4. Calculate total effort and compare it to configured capacity
5. If over capacity:
   • rank deferral candidates from the lowest-priority requirement slices first
   • identify the requirement impact of each deferral
   • surface whether approval is needed
6. Return a plan-ready task list plus a capacity narrative

Outputs

Output	Type	Description
tasks[]	array	Decomposed task list
tasks[].id	string	Task identifier
tasks[].title	string	Task description
tasks[].requirement_ref	string	Requirement this task implements
tasks[].effort	number	Estimated effort in the configured unit
tasks[].owner	string	Assigned role name
total_effort	number	Sum of all task efforts
capacity_status	enum: ok, warn, error	Capacity check result
capacity_message	string?	Warning or error message if not ok, including explicit defer guidance
suggested_deferrals[]	array?	Lowest-priority tasks/requirements to defer if overcommitted
phase_baseline[]	array	Planned effort by phase for retro comparison

Side Effects

None. This skill informs plan.md; it does not approve the plan.

Error Handling

• If iteration_config is missing: use defaults (capacity=20, unit=story_points)
• If role_assignments are missing: assign tasks to unassigned
• If the requirements array is empty: return an empty plan and capacity_status: ok

Review Standard

The output is only good enough for planning when it makes deferral choices, requirement-priority impact, and phase-level variance explicit.