Manage Team Scheduling and Workload
Team Scheduling displays workload allocation and distribution across teams assigned to selected projects or increments, allowing quick assessment of team capacity, work redistribution, and response to changing priorities.
Permission requirement: Viewing Team Scheduling requires read access to teams, projects, and increments. Reassigning work items between teams requires modify permissions on the work items. Enabling the Teams feature requires Administrator role. Configuring team capacity requires modify permissions on team settings.
Who Uses Team Scheduling
Team workload management supports capacity-based planning:
- Scrum Masters balance workload across team members, identify over-allocated individuals, and redistribute work to prevent burnout using drag-and-drop assignment.
- Product Owners identify cross-project resource conflicts before committing to release dates by reviewing competing commitments shown in dark blue bars.
- Team Leads monitor team member capacity allocations to ensure realistic commitments and raise concerns about overallocation during sprint planning.
- Release Managers plan capacity for major releases across multiple weeks, adjusting schedules when team members show red indicators during peak periods.
Key Capabilities
Team Scheduling provides:
- At-a-glance workload view: See how work is distributed across all teams
- Capacity visualization: Monitor each team's workload relative to capacity using progress bars
- Drag-and-drop assignment: Quickly reassign work items between teams
- Cross-project visibility: View team commitments across multiple projects (if Teams feature enabled)
How Team Scheduling Works
In Agile practice, backlog is assigned to teams, not to individual team members. The Team Scheduling page reflects this by showing:
- Work items grouped by assigned team
- Capacity indicators for each team
- Progress bars showing completed vs. remaining work
- Conflicting commitments from other projects (shown in dark blue)
Prerequisites
The Team Scheduling page is available only if the Teams feature is enabled in your instance.
To enable the Teams feature:
- Navigate to Admin > Features.
- Locate Teams in the features list.
- Enable the feature for your instance.
Result: The Team Scheduling page becomes available under Increment > Increment Scheduling.
Access Team Scheduling
To view team workload:
- Click the hamburger menu
> Increment > Increment Scheduling. - Select a project or increment from the Project Navigator.
- Click the Team Details tab to view team-level workload.
Result: The page displays all teams assigned to the increment with their respective workloads and capacity indicators.
Manage Team Workload
Use Team Scheduling to:
- Identify over-allocated teams: Look for orange striped bars indicating exceeded capacity
- Find available capacity: Look for white/gray striped bars showing room for more work
- Spot scheduling conflicts: Check for dark blue bars showing competing commitments from other projects
- Redistribute work: Drag work items from over-allocated teams to teams with available capacity
For detailed instructions on assigning work items to teams, see Assign Work Items to Teams.
Use Cases
Scrum Master Balancing Workload Across Two Concurrent Projects
A scrum master manages a team working on two concurrent projects: "Customer Portal" and "Mobile App". They open the Team Scheduling page and see team members listed with progress bars showing capacity allocation. Sarah shows a dark blue bar at 120% (overallocated), with 60% from Customer Portal and 60% from Mobile App. Mike shows 80% (green), and Emma shows 40% (green). The scrum master drags a 20-point story from Sarah's allocation in Mobile App and reassigns it to Emma, bringing Sarah to 100% and Emma to 60%. The visual capacity bars update immediately, showing balanced allocation. This prevents Sarah from being overwhelmed while ensuring Emma has sufficient work to stay productive.
Product Owner Identifying Cross-Project Resource Conflicts
A product owner reviews team capacity before committing to a release date. They open Team Scheduling and filter to show work scheduled across three releases in the current quarter. The page reveals that John is allocated 160% in Week 12, with commitments to "Payment System Upgrade" (80 hours) and "Security Enhancements" (80 hours) both requiring his database expertise that week. The dark blue conflicting commitments indicator alerts them to this issue. They meet with both project teams and decide to shift "Security Enhancements" start date by 2 weeks, resolving the conflict. John's allocation bar returns to green at 80% for Week 12, confirming the revised schedule is achievable.
Team Lead Using Teams Feature to Enable Team Scheduling
A team lead wants to use Team Scheduling but discovers it requires the Teams feature to be enabled. They navigate to Admin settings and enable Teams feature for their workspace. After enabling Teams, they create a "Web Development" team and add 6 developers as members. They return to Team Scheduling and now see all team members listed with their current capacity allocations from scheduled work. The page shows progress bars for each team member indicating percentage of capacity allocated. They configure team capacity settings (default 40 hours per week per person) and begin using the drag-and-drop interface to assign stories to team members, balancing workload across upcoming sprints.
Release Manager Planning Capacity for Major Release
A release manager prepares capacity planning for a major release spanning 12 weeks. They open Team Scheduling and filter to show only work scheduled to "Release 5.0". The page displays 15 team members with stacked progress bars showing weekly capacity usage. They notice three team members showing red indicators (over 100% capacity) in weeks 8-10, corresponding to integration testing phase. They identify 8 stories totaling 65 points scheduled to those team members during peak weeks. They drag 4 stories (35 points) to weeks 11-12 where capacity shows more availability, extending the testing phase by 1 week but ensuring realistic workload distribution. The adjusted schedule shows all team members at or below 100% capacity throughout the release.
Agility Administrator Troubleshooting Missing Team Scheduling Access
An agility administrator receives reports that team members cannot access Team Scheduling. They verify that the Teams feature is enabled in system settings and confirm teams are properly configured. They check user permissions and discover that "View Team Scheduling" permission is restricted to Scrum Masters and above. They create a permission set called "Team Members Plus" that includes "View Team Scheduling" and assign it to the development team. Team members can now view (but not edit) the Team Scheduling page, giving them visibility into workload distribution without the ability to reassign work. This transparency helps team members understand capacity constraints and proactively raise concerns about overallocation during sprint planning.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I enable Team Scheduling?
Team Scheduling requires the Teams feature to be enabled by an administrator. Navigate to Admin > Features and activate the Teams feature. Once enabled, create teams under Admin > Teams, add team members, and the Team Scheduling option appears under Increment > Increment Scheduling.
What do capacity bar colors mean?
Green bars indicate team members at or under 100% capacity. Yellow bars show allocation approaching capacity (90-100%). Dark blue bars indicate overallocation (over 100%) and highlight potential resource conflicts when work is allocated from multiple projects or increments during the same timeframe. Scan for dark blue to identify overallocated team members needing workload adjustment.
How is team member capacity calculated?
Capacity is calculated based on configured working hours per team member (default 40 hours per week) and work item estimates. If a team member is assigned 50 hours but their capacity is 40 hours, they show 125% allocation. Configure Target Velocity in team settings and ensure work items have estimates (points or hours) to see capacity indicators.
Can I reassign work using drag-and-drop?
Yes, if you have appropriate permissions. Click and hold a work item in one team member's allocation, drag it to another team member, and release to reassign. The capacity bars update immediately, and the "Owned By" field on the work item is updated.
How do I handle unestimated stories?
Unestimated stories don't contribute to capacity calculations, potentially causing inaccurate capacity views. Best practice: estimate all stories during backlog refinement before using Team Scheduling for capacity planning. For difficult-to-estimate stories, use t-shirt sizes or placeholder estimates to ensure capacity views reflect reality.