Piling in fresh people onto a late project is rarely the quick fix managers hope for.
Brooks’ Law is real: adding manpower to a late project makes it later.
When new people arrive, productivity usually plunges while the team absorbs them. Veterans spend time teaching instead of building, and team recovery is slow moving - if it does at all.
Hiring can help over the long haul, but as a fast remedy it’s a gamble. Often budgets won’t allow more staff, so the practical levers are scope, quality, and how the current team works together.
Focus first on cutting scope to the essentials, protecting your core builders, and improving practices that speed delivery. Treat hiring as a strategic, not a panic, move.
Discussions for your team
- What areas of scope cutting can we do to yield value in the shortest time?
- What onboarding tasks cause the biggest drag?
- Other than growing the team, what changes can we make to speed up value delivery?
- Under what conditions is adding staff worth the onboarding slowdown to the team?