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Plan and Prepare Increments

Increment planning combines scheduling, capacity planning, and reporting to optimize delivery strategy and ensure teams commit to achievable work.

Permission requirement: Viewing increment plans requires read access to projects and increments. Modifying schedules requires modify permissions on the relevant projects and teams.

Who Plans and Prepares Increments​

Increment planning involves coordination across multiple roles:

  • Product Owners select work for increment periods, balance workload across teams, and use capacity indicators to avoid overcommitment.
  • Program Managers plan increment capacity across multiple teams and projects, identifying bottlenecks early and optimizing resource allocation.
  • Scrum Masters track team-level capacity, velocity trends, and workload to ensure realistic increment commitments during planning sessions.
  • Portfolio Managers review increment progress reports to make data-driven decisions about strategic priorities and risk management.

Overview​

Digital.ai Agility provides comprehensive tools for planning and preparing increments. The platform supports work selection for increment periods, team assignments, capacity planning, and progress tracking through detailed reports.

Increment scheduling​

The Increment Scheduling page supports work selection for increment periods. For a more granular view, team assignments can be determined for specific items in a particular increment.

Key activities:

  • Schedule work items into increments
  • Assign teams to work items
  • Balance workload across teams
  • View capacity and progress indicators

For details, see Increment Scheduling.

Increment capacity planning​

Plan increment capacity to identify bottlenecks early and commit only to work that can be successfully completed. View capacity at two levels:

For increments and projects:

  • Size of each increment compared to others
  • Progress made to date
  • When capacity is exceeded
  • Remaining capacity
  • Time left in the increment

For teams:

  • Current load vs. capacity
  • Work from other projects affecting capacity
  • Velocity trends and forecasts

For details, see Plan Increment Capacity.

Increment planning reports​

Use Increment Planning Reports to gain insights and optimize your increment strategy. These reports help you track progress, identify risks, and make data-driven decisions.

For details, see Increment Planning Reports.

Troubleshooting​

Why don't I see capacity indicators on the Increment Scheduling page?

Capacity indicators require configuration. Set Target Swag or Target Estimate values for projects and increments, and configure Team Target Velocity. See Plan Increment Capacity for configuration details.

Why can't I assign work items to increments?

Verify you have modify permissions on the project containing the work items. Also check that the increment exists and is not closed. Work items can only be scheduled to active increments.

Why doesn't my team's velocity appear in reports?

Velocity calculation requires completed work items with estimates in closed sprints. If your team is new or recently started estimating work, velocity data may be limited. Run several sprints with estimated work to establish velocity trends.

Can I plan increments without using portfolio items?

Yes. You can use tactical planning by scheduling individual backlog items directly to increments using Team Scheduling. This approach works well for teams that don't use portfolio item-level planning or prefer story-level increment planning.