Deadline Calculator

Check whether a deadline is achievable given remaining work and capacity.

About Deadline Calculator

Deadline feasibility is a capacity comparison, using productive hours rather than contracted ones. Adding a scope growth allowance reflects that remaining work is systematically underestimated. Adding people late in a project rarely recovers a shortfall, because onboarding consumes the capacity of those already productive.

Formula

Deadline

Capacity = team × productive hours per day × working days remaining

productive hours: Hours genuinely available after meetings and overhead
scope growth allowance: Recognition that remaining work is usually underestimated

Worked example

With the default values below, Deadline Calculator returns Available Capacity of 363.0. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Remaining effortminimum 0 h: 320 h
Working days until the deadlineaccepts 0–2,000 days: 22 days
Team sizeminimum 0: 3
Productive hours per person per dayaccepts 0–24 h: 5.5 h
Allowance for scope growthaccepts 0–100 %: 15 %

Results

Available Capacity: 363.0 h
Hours Required Including Scope Growth: 368.0 h
Surplus or Shortfall: -5.0 h
Additional People Needed: 0.04
Verdict: Not achievable at current capacity — add people, cut scope or move the date

Step by step

1Values used
2Deadline
3Available Capacity= 363.0 h
4Hours Required Including Scope Growth= 368.0 h
5Surplus or Shortfall= -5.0 h
6Additional People Needed= 0.04
7Verdict= Not achievable at current capacity — add people, cut scope or move the date

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 5 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is Deadline calculated?

Capacity = team × productive hours per day × working days remaining Deadline feasibility is a capacity comparison, using productive hours rather than contracted ones. Adding a scope growth allowance reflects that remaining work is systematically underestimated.

Why does Deadline matter?

Adding people late in a project rarely recovers a shortfall, because onboarding consumes the capacity of those already productive.

What values do I need to enter?

This calculator takes 5 inputs: Remaining effort, Working days until the deadline, Team size, Productive hours per person per day, Allowance for scope growth. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.