Before hiring to fix a project delay, check whether complete, prioritized work is waiting for qualified capacity. If requests are incomplete, approvals lack owners or projects keep interrupting each other, a different response may help first. Use the shared queue to distinguish these causes rather than treating workload as a staffing verdict.
Match the response to the observed wait#
Capacity is a plausible explanation when ready work persistently arrives faster than the relevant skill can process it. A short spike, an absence or a badly prepared request is a different situation. Review a period representative of the actual demand.
Priority changes make sense when the same specialist is spread across competing commitments. Better inputs make sense when requests repeatedly return for clarification. An authority change makes sense when work waits for a decision nobody owns.
Use TOC as a decision sequence#
Theory of Constraints encourages protecting the limiting step, changing surrounding work to support it, then adding capacity when needed. In practical terms, keep the scarce reviewer on ready, valuable work and stop flooding that queue with lower-priority starts.
This sequence is a way to test the need for investment, not a rule against hiring. If qualified capacity remains insufficient after avoidable demand and interruptions are addressed, a hire, training or another capacity option can be justified.
Worked example: the same queue suggests two decisions#
In a hypothetical portfolio, ten requests wait for technical review. Six are incomplete, two support a near-term customer commitment and two are optional internal changes. Treating all ten as ready demand exaggerates the immediate shortage.
Repair the incomplete requests and protect the customer work. Then examine whether ongoing ready demand can be handled. Keep a contingency plan if the customer commitment is too close to wait for a long experiment.
Ask for a decision brief, not another utilization percentage#
- Which commitment is exposed?
- What complete work is waiting, and since when?
- Which skill or decision is actually required?
- What work could be stopped, resequenced or prepared better?
- What does each option cost or defer?
- Which signal should change after the decision?
A busy calendar cannot answer these questions by itself. Keep the commercial consequence and the alternatives visible.
Review the evidence in Commandix#
Commandix brings together affected projects, tasks and bottleneck evidence. Use that context to prepare the options and track the selected action. Treat the analysis as support for judgment, with confidence and missing data stated explicitly.
Related guide: Build a staffing decision from ready demand.
Frequently asked questions#
Does TOC mean we should avoid hiring?#
No. Added capacity is appropriate when the evidence supports a persistent shortage at the step limiting the result. The method asks you to test other plausible causes first.
What if we cannot wait for more data?#
State the uncertainty, choose the least risky feasible response and define an early review. Urgency does not make the underlying diagnosis more certain.