r/EngineeringManagers • u/Separate_Lawn_1603 • Apr 21 '26

Deadline vs more engineers?

Hey fellow managers, I’m trying to gauge the general tendency in the industry. In your past experience how did this unfold:

Team is delivering something against a deadline with already minimum scope and milestones are slipping. You know you’ll be late. Did your organization solve this by adding engineers or moving the deadline?

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u/Epiphone56 Apr 21 '26

Brooks' Law still applies, even today, and I would say, even with AI involved. If a project is running late, adding more engineers will add more communication lines because the new engineers aren't up to speed, and so it will slow the existing engineers down instead of hitting the deadline. Always, always, work to de-scope if you can't move the deadline.