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A technology project can be well funded, well planned and still start slipping.
The cloud architect you expected to hire has not joined. Your cybersecurity specialist is supporting three projects at once. Development is moving, but there is not enough QA capacity to test what is being built. Or a key person leaves halfway through implementation and suddenly the entire timeline depends on finding a replacement.
These are staffing problems, but by the time they become visible, they often look like project problems.
First, work out whether the delay is actually a talent problem
Adding more people to a delayed project does not automatically make it move faster.
If the underlying issue is unclear scope, slow decision-making, poor governance or changing business requirements, another developer will not fix it. But if critical work is waiting because the necessary skill is missing or the existing team is stretched too thin, staffing may be exactly where the problem sits.
A useful first step is to ask:
- Which deliverables are currently waiting for a particular person or skill?
- Are senior employees doing work that should sit with another role?
- Is one specialist becoming a bottleneck across several workstreams?
- Will the missing capability be needed permanently or only for one phase?
- Is the delay caused by headcount, expertise or both?
These questions help separate a recruitment need from a broader project-management problem.
That is particularly relevant for larger organizations. Statistics Canada reported that in the second quarter of 2026, 39.1% of businesses with 100 or more employees expected recruiting skilled employees to be an obstacle, while 30.1% expected challenges retaining skilled employees.
When technology delivery depends on specialist skills, those workforce pressures can quickly reach the project plan.
Staff the project by phase, not just by headcount
One of the easiest mistakes is deciding that a project needs “five more IT people” without asking when and why they are required.
Technology projects rarely need the same mix of skills from beginning to end.
A modernization project, for example, might require a solution architect and senior business analyst heavily during discovery. Development increases later, followed by QA, security testing, migration support and change-management resources closer to launch.
Hiring the full team at the beginning may be expensive. Waiting until each shortage becomes urgent can create delays. The better approach is to map talent against project milestones.
Consider a cloud migration:
Planning: cloud architect, business analyst, security specialist
Build and migration: cloud engineers, DevOps, infrastructure specialists
Testing: QA, cybersecurity and integration resources
Go-live: support, incident management and application specialists
The exact roles will vary, but the principle is useful: bring expertise in when the work requires it.
Know when contract talent makes more sense
Not every skills gap needs a permanent hire.
If you need an experienced cybersecurity professional for a six-month remediation project, or additional developers during a major system implementation, waiting several months to make permanent hires may not fit the business need.
Contract staffing can be useful when:
- a project has a defined start and end point
- a specialist capability is required temporarily
- workload has increased for a particular phase
- an unexpected vacancy is putting a deadline at risk
- you need capacity while a permanent search continues
Permanent recruitment makes more sense when the capability will remain important after the project is complete.
The question should not be contract or permanent, which is better?
It should be which model fits the work we are trying to deliver?
Get the Right IT Talent Before Project Delays Begin
Do not wait until the project is already behind
A common pattern is to begin recruiting only after everyone agrees that existing resources cannot cope.
By then, there may already be weeks of lost momentum.
Workforce planning should happen alongside project planning. When project leaders map milestones, dependencies and risks, they should also identify the capabilities needed at each stage and compare them with the internal team.
This becomes increasingly important as companies adopt new technology. Statistics Canada found that 80.4% of businesses with 100 or more employees had adopted new technologies during the previous three years. Among large organizations taking action to address skills gaps, 43.1% recruited people with specific qualifications, skills or competencies.
New technology often creates new skills requirements. The workforce plan needs to keep up with the technology roadmap.
Protect your core team from becoming the backup plan
When a project becomes understaffed, existing employees usually absorb the difference first.
A senior engineer takes on implementation work. The project manager begins handling business-analysis tasks. Developers work around an understaffed testing function. For a short period, that may be manageable.
For six months, it usually is not.
Apart from workload concerns, this can become expensive because highly skilled employees spend time on activities that do not require their level of expertise. It can also create another risk: if one overloaded specialist leaves, the project loses even more knowledge.
Strategic staffing should protect critical internal capability, not continually stretch it.
Faster hiring still needs proper screening
Urgency is not a reason to lower the bar.
Someone joining midway through a technology initiative needs to understand the environment quickly and contribute without creating additional rework. That makes relevant experience particularly important.
For example, if a financial institution is implementing a new payment platform, a candidate who has already worked in regulated banking environments may understand the security, documentation and stakeholder expectations much faster than someone learning the industry at the same time as the technology.
This is one area where a specialist staffing partner can help. Bevertec’s workforce solutions include both permanent and contract staffing, allowing employers to match the engagement model to the role, project and business requirement rather than treating every skills gap in the same way.
Build staffing checkpoints into the project
A simple way to stay ahead is to review talent requirements at the same time you review project progress.
At each major milestone, ask whether the next phase has the people and skills it needs.
You may discover that development is on schedule but QA needs to scale sooner than planned. Or that an upcoming integration requires expertise nobody on the current team has.
Catching that six weeks before the work begins is very different from discovering it six days before.
Smart staffing does not guarantee that a technology project will never be delayed. Staffing is only one part of delivery.
But it can prevent an avoidable skills shortage from becoming the reason a good project falls behind.
If an upcoming technology initiative needs specialized or project-ready talent, Bevertec can help you determine where contract or permanent staffing fits into the delivery plan.
Key Takeaways
- Before adding headcount, determine whether the delay is genuinely caused by a skills or capacity gap.
- Map staffing requirements to project phases rather than hiring the same team for the entire lifecycle.
- Contract talent can be useful for temporary skills gaps, project peaks and urgent specialist requirements.
- Review workforce needs before each major project stage, not after shortages begin affecting deadlines.
FAQs
Should we hire before a technology project is formally approved?
Not necessarily, but workforce planning should begin early. Identifying likely hard-to-fill skills in advance allows recruiters to understand the talent market and begin building a pipeline without committing to hires before the project is confirmed.
Can contractors join a project that is already underway?
Yes, although the role should be clearly defined. Experienced contractors are often brought into projects for particular phases or to solve specific capability gaps. Good documentation and a clear handover make integration much easier.
Does adding more IT professionals always shorten a project timeline?
No. If the problem is poor scope, dependencies or decision-making, additional staff may add complexity rather than speed. Staffing helps when the constraint is genuinely a lack of capacity or required expertise.
The Right People. The Right Opportunities.
Bevertec connects top talent with leading businesses through smarter staffing and workforce solutions.
