ITIL Capacity Management

Chapter 3. Understanding Capacity Demand

Chapter 2 looked at how to measure the capacity of existing components and services. This chapter approaches ITIL capacity management from the opposite direction by examining the ways to predict how much capacity will be needed. Every dynamic organization goes through periods of greater and lesser need for IT services, and these cycles determine the demand for IT capacity.

Predicting the future needs of the organization will never be an exact science. In this chapter, you look at several methods for formulating an estimate, and hopefully some combination of these will be effective for your organization.

Trend-Based Forecasts

Perhaps the most obvious way to forecast future need is to look at historical ...