How-to Guide

Set Team Size

How to Set Team Size

OrgPulse uses your team size to calculate work-in-progress thresholds and establish performance baselines. This guide shows you how to view and adjust your team size setting.

View your current team size

  1. In your OrgPulse dashboard, click Settings in the top-right corner.
  2. Scroll to the Team Size card (the third card on the Settings page).
  3. You’ll see:
    • Your current team size (displayed as a large number)
    • A label showing the size category (e.g. “5–8 members”)
    • A source indicator: either “Auto-detected” or “Manual override”
    • Optionally, the date when the size was last auto-detected

Auto-detected means OrgPulse counted the number of unique assignees across your sprints and calculated the median. Manual override means a team lead has set the size explicitly.

To return to the dashboard, click ← Back to Dashboard at the top of the Settings page.

Set a manual team size

If you need to correct an inaccurate team size or configure the size immediately (before auto-detection has enough data):

  1. Open Settings and scroll to the Team Size card.
  2. In the input field labelled “Enter team size”, type a whole number between 1 and 100 representing your team’s actual headcount.
  3. Click the Set Override button.
  4. Your change is saved immediately. The source indicator updates to “Manual override”.

Important: Enter a whole number within the valid range (1–100). If the Set Override button appears unresponsive after clicking, check that your entry is a valid whole number within this range.

You have now set a manual override that will remain active until you clear it.

When to override team size

You should set a manual override in these scenarios:

Your team is newly formed

OrgPulse’s auto-detection requires at least two sprints with assignee data before it can calculate a reliable team size. If your team is brand new, auto-detection will show no size yet. Setting a manual override immediately activates the correct WIP threshold.

Your team size changed significantly

If your team was recently reorganised, expanded, or contracted, auto-detection may lag behind reality for several sprints (because it uses the median across recent history). A manual override immediately reflects your current team headcount.

Auto-detected size is inaccurate

Sometimes the auto-detected size does not match your actual team. This can happen if:

  • Contractors or external contributors are regularly assigned work but are not permanent team members
  • Cross-functional team members inflate the assignee count
  • You want to measure metrics against a different reference size

In these cases, override the auto-detected value with your actual team size.

Clear a manual override

If you have set a manual override and your team has now accumulated sufficient sprint data, you can revert to auto-detection:

  1. Open Settings and scroll to the Team Size card.
  2. Click the Clear Override button. This button is only visible when an override is currently active.
  3. OrgPulse immediately reverts to auto-detection. The source indicator updates to “Auto-detected” (or shows no size if insufficient sprint data exists yet).

After clearing an override, the team size adjusts to whatever auto-detection currently calculates. If you have fewer than two sprints of data, the team size may reset to zero until auto-detection produces a result.

Understand the effect on WIP alarms

Your team size determines the absolute threshold for work-in-progress (WIP) alarms. The formula is:

WIP limit = team size × 3

For example:

  • A team of 5 people has a WIP limit of 15 items
  • A team of 12 people has a WIP limit of 36 items

If your team’s active work exceeds this limit in any sprint, OrgPulse raises a Critical alarm regardless of your historical baseline. This catches cases of extreme overload that fragment focus and harm productivity.

An incorrect team size can cause false alarms:

  • Too small: A team size lower than your actual headcount makes the WIP limit too strict, triggering unnecessary Critical alarms
  • Too large: A team size higher than your actual headcount raises the WIP limit, potentially allowing genuine overload to go undetected

Set your team size accurately to ensure WIP alarms are meaningful.

See also