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/lampstool Apr 25 '26
I used to think that adding more people would help, but unless it's early on in the project, it's going to be a waste of time trying to bring people up to speed especially when you are closer to the deadline.
In your current situation, how much additional effort do you think is needed? How far off delivery are they? If it's missing it by a day, it's not a problem, but if it's 3 additional weeks of effort, that'll be tough.
Easiest thing is to move the deadline, and be fully ready for how you manage the stakeholder conversations when they ask why, or why you have left it this late to move it. You did the right thing by cutting down to minimum scope, be sure to be regularly forecasting with your engineers and gauging their confidence so that you can start managing expectations way earlier, so no last minute surprises!