Many companies plan their products carefully but plan their teams almost by reaction. A new project is approved, a key person resigns or a deadline gets closer, and suddenly there is an urgent need to hire. Because good engineers take time to find, the team ends up behind from the start.
Planning the team a year ahead does not need to be complicated. A simple, regular exercise can make hiring calmer, decisions better and delivery more predictable. Mid-year, before budgets for the following year are set, is a good moment to do it.
Start from the goals, not the headcount
The first question is not “how many people do we need?” but “what do we need to achieve?”. List the main goals for the next twelve months: products to launch, systems to replace, markets to enter, quality or reliability improvements, and ongoing maintenance.
For each goal, think about the kind of work it involves and roughly how much effort it will take. This turns a vague sense of being short of people into a clearer picture of where capacity is needed.
Map the skills you have
Next, look at the current team. Which skills and experience do you already have, and where are they concentrated? Consider:
- Technical areas: back end, front end, mobile, data, infrastructure, testing.
- Seniority: who can lead, mentor and make architectural decisions.
- Knowledge of critical systems: who understands the most important parts.
- Availability: planned leave, people likely to move into other roles, contracts that end.
Comparing this with the goals often reveals specific gaps, such as a missing skill, too few senior people or a single point of knowledge, rather than a general need for more engineers.
Plan for departures
Every team loses people over a year, through resignations, internal moves or changing circumstances. It is unrealistic to assume the team will stay exactly as it is. Without assuming the worst, consider which departures would cause the most disruption and how you would respond. Spreading knowledge and documenting critical areas reduces the impact.
Decide what kind of capacity you need
Not every need should be met the same way. A useful distinction:
- Long-term, core needs are often best met with stable team members, whether employees or a dedicated team through a partner.
- Temporary peaks may suit extending the team for a defined period.
- Specialist skills needed only occasionally may be better covered by targeted support than by a permanent hire.
- Strategic growth, such as building a significant team in a new location, may justify a longer-term model like your own delivery hub.
Mixing these models gives both stability and flexibility.
Time your hiring
Hiring takes time: defining the role, searching, interviewing, notice periods and onboarding. For experienced engineers, the time from starting a search to having a productive team member is often measured in months. Work backwards from when you need the person to be effective, and start early enough.
It also helps to spread hiring over the year. Bringing in many people at once places a heavy load on the existing team and makes integration harder.
Keep the plan flexible
Plans change. Priorities shift, budgets move and opportunities appear. A good team plan is not a fixed list of hires, but a view of likely needs that is reviewed regularly. Revisiting it every quarter, alongside product plans, keeps it useful.
Involve the right people
Team planning works best when it brings together engineering leadership, product owners and finance. Engineering knows the skills and the effort, product knows the priorities, and finance knows the constraints. Planning in isolation usually leads to surprises later.
A simple outcome
At the end of the exercise, you should have a short document that answers a few questions: what the team needs to achieve, which skills are missing, which roles to fill and when, how they will be filled, and what the main risks are. That is enough to guide decisions for the year.
How we can help
At Boomit, we help companies plan and build their software teams from Portugal and Brazil, through team extension, dedicated teams, delivery hubs and Precision Hiring. If you are thinking about your team for the year ahead, we would be glad to talk it through. You can reach us at boomit.pt.