Capacify Product Wiki

Overview

Capacify is a desktop application for capacity-driven planning that syncs with Jira while keeping planning data on your machine. The platform ensures sprint and release commitments match the realities of team availability, PTO, and overhead before any changes hit Jira. Iterate quickly offline, explore scenarios, validate against Jira, and only push when you are confident.

Who It Helps

• Teams managing complex backlogs who need fast, local planning.
• Organizations balancing PTO, meetings, and capacity constraints.
• Managers overseeing multiple Jira projects with different constraints.
• Stakeholders evaluating multiple scenarios before committing to Jira.

Core Concepts

• Capacity-First Planning: Start with availability, contribution buffers, and PTO so commitments stay realistic.
• Local-First Editing: Experiment freely without touching live Jira data until you are ready to sync.
• Scenarios & Validation: Run multiple what-if simulations and validate them against Jira before pushing.
• Batch Operations: Perform large edits instantly and commit everything in one go.

End-to-End User Flow

Sign Up & Install

• Create an account on Capacify.ca and start the 7-day Pro trial.
• Download and install the desktop app for Windows or macOS.

Connect to Jira

• Enter your Jira site URL and API key (no OAuth required).
  • What it is: An API token is a Jira-generated key that acts like a password for apps you authorize. It can only access data in line with your Jira permissions.
  • How to get it: Visit https://id.atlassian.com/manage-profile/security/api-tokens, click Create API token, name it (e.g., "Capacify"), and copy the token.
  • Keep it safe: Store it securely—Capacify keeps the token local on your device and never sends it to external servers.
• Capacify syncs issues, sprints, epics, releases, and team members locally.

Prepare Team Capacity

• Mark PTO or non-working days.
• Adjust contribution ratios (e.g., 80%) to account for meetings and unplanned work.
• Assign tags to people to facilate filtering and grouping.
• Create Teams to easily group people and plan for them.

Create a Scenario

• Clone your baseline plan or start from scratch to model alternatives.
• Assign scope, adjust timelines, and explore headcount changes safely.
• Compare scenario metrics (capacity, load, velocity) before selecting a path forward.
• Diff (edits) from the source of truth (Jira) are highlighted in yellow.

Plan Sprints & Releases

• Add a planner panel (Sprint or Release)
• Use backlog, sprint, and release panels to arrange issues while watching capacity indicators.
• Create fictional contributors (Pro) to model headcount changes.
• Track carry-over items and maintain balanced workloads.

Validate Changes

• Run pre-commit validation against Jira rules for fields, workflows, and dependencies.
• Review detailed validation reports and resolve warnings or errors.

Commit or Iterate

• Push vetted changes back to Jira in a single batch.
• Keep alternative scenarios for stakeholder review or future iterations.

Feature Reference

Jira Integration

• Simple API key authentication; no complex OAuth flow.
• Fast local sync for issues, sprints, epics, and releases.
• Bidirectional editing (Pro) with dry-run validation and batch commits.

Capacity Planning

• Automatic capacity calculations based on working days.
• PTO-aware scheduling with real-time individual load monitoring.
• Contribution ratio buffers prevent overallocation.
• Fictional people (Pro) simulate future hires or contractors.

Sprint & Release Planning

• Multi-sprint views help balance releases across time.
• Carry-over tracking and capacity-based sprint sizing.
• Scenario copies for what-if analysis and stakeholder alignment.

Spreadsheet-Style Editing

• Inline editing, copy/paste, and revert controls in a familiar grid.
• Change tracking with highlights, tooltips, and side-by-side comparison.

Validation System

• Dry-run validation before pushing to Jira.
• Checks required fields, workflow transitions, and dependencies.
• Issue-level status with error and warning categorization.
• Partial commit support for validated subsets.

Backlog Management

• Central backlog with sorting, and filtering.
• Unified planning panel shows backlog next to planning panels.
• Export options for external analysis. (Future update)

Multi-Project Support

• Basic: 1 Jira project (read-only) for solo planners.
• Pro: Up to 5 projects with full read/write sync.

Interface Walkthrough

Backlog View (Synced data)

The synced backlog is read-only until you open or create a scenario. Switch into a scenario to edit any field, reassign work, or stage changes without touching live Jira data.

Sprint Panel

Add sprint panels to either the synced (read-only) workspace or to an editable scenario. Use them to validate future plans against real-time capacity before committing anything to Jira.

Release Panel

Release panels (often called Fix Versions in Jira) mirror sprint panels but track work across multi-sprint or long-range windows. Use them to balance multi-release capacity before syncing back to Jira.

Create Work View

Draft new stories, bugs, and tasks directly inside Capacify. Capture required fields, assign preliminary owners, and keep work local until you are ready to push it to Jira.

• Supports Jira-aware field templates and validation hints.
• Batch-create multiple issues before committing to a scenario.
• Review differences in the change tracker prior to syncing.

Fictional People View

Create placeholder teammates who exist only inside Capacify scenarios. Model capacity shifts, upcoming hires, or contractor rotations without touching Jira.

• Add role, capacity, and availability details for hypothetical contributors.
• Tag fictional people so stakeholders know they are scenario-only resources.
• Assign work in the scenario to fictional people.

Team Members Panel

Manage roster details, PTO calendars, contribution ratios, and active assignments. Filter by team or tags to focus on specific groups.

Read-Only Mode vs Scenario Mode

Capacify operates in two primary modes that determine how your local plan interacts with Jira. Understanding the distinction helps you control when changes affect your source of truth.

Security & Data Management

• Planning data lives locally in encrypted SQLite; no third-party servers hold your Jira data.
• Jira credentials remain on the client and are never transmitted to Capacify servers.
• Works offline and within corporate firewalls for added control.
• Supabase handles licensing only; no planning data leaves your device.
• Batch commits keep Jira clean until you intentionally sync changes.

Roadmap Highlights

• Enhanced PTO integrations (e.g., hiBob) for automatic sync.
• Scenario export to PDF/Excel and stakeholder dashboards.
• Advanced filtering with Jira Query Language and saved views.
• Commit history, change logs, and rollback tooling.
• Dashboard overview for cross-scenario monitoring.

Resources