The Real Reason Projects Struggle
If you’ve been part of a Workday programme, you’ve likely seen this before:
The team looks strong on paper.
The budget is approved.
The roadmap is clear.
And yet, delivery slows down.
Not because people aren’t capable. But because the capability shows up at the wrong time.
- Architects stay too long while execution stalls
- Build teams arrive late and create pressure downstream
- Testing is underpowered until it’s too late to recover
What looks like a hiring issue is usually a timing and structure problem.
The reality:
As organisations adopt skills-based workforce planning, the focus is shifting from headcount to capability. In pursuit of greater agility and resilience, 55% of businesses have already started their transition to a skills-based organisation, with a further 23% planning to do so within the next 12 months.
Hence, your Workday staffing strategy must be dynamic. It needs to evolve with the project lifecycle. When it doesn’t, even experienced teams struggle to deliver consistently.
Where Staffing Strategy Breaks Down
For most organisations, staffing still gets reduced to a simple question:
“How many people do we need?”
But for transformation programmes, that’s the wrong starting point.
A project staffing model is a combination of three decisions:
- Capability mix – What skills are needed at this stage
- Engagement model – Contract, permanent, or hybrid
- Timing and duration – When those capabilities are required, and for how long
When these aren’t aligned to the project phase, problems don’t appear immediately, but they build quietly.
That’s where most teams go wrong:
- Treating every phase the same
- Relying too heavily on one hiring model
- Hiring reactively instead of planning ahead
- Missing critical niche expertise at key moments
- Creating misalignment between internal and external teams
Project Lifecycle: Phases & Staffing Requirements
Workday implementations follow a predictable lifecycle, but staffing rarely does.
That mismatch is where delays and rework begin.
Phase 0: Pre-Signature (Strategy & Alignment)
Focus: Setting direction and viability
What’s happening:
Early decisions shape scope, governance, and expectations, often with incomplete information.
Key Capabilities:
- Strategic thinking aligned to business outcomes
- Stakeholder alignment and influence
- Governance design and risk evaluation
Right staffing model:
- Lean, high-impact team
- Senior SMEs and advisory consultants
- Limited duration, high-value engagement
Why this works:
Clarity matters more than capacity.
Common mistake:
Bringing in delivery teams too early, adding cost without progress.
Phase 1: Plan, Design & Architect (Future-State Design)
Focus: Translating business intent into a working blueprint
What’s happening:
Complexity surfaces with process gaps, integration challenges, and competing priorities.
Key Capabilities:
- Business process design
- Functional and technical architecture
- Cross-functional collaboration
Right staffing model:
- Small but structured team
- Core architects + experienced business analysts
- Early investment in permanent hires for continuity
Why this works:
Design decisions carry forward into every downstream phase.
Common mistake:
Underinvesting in design & planning to “move faster,” leading to rework later.
Phase 2: Configure & Prototype (System Build)
Focus: Converting design into execution
What’s happening:
Most resource-intensive phase, where Workstreams run parallel, and dependencies increase rapidly.
Key Capabilities:
- Functional configuration expertise
- Integration and data handling
- Strong delivery discipline
Right staffing model:
- Rapid scale-up
- Balanced mix of contractors (speed) and permanent staff (continuity)
- Clear ownership across modules
Why this works:
Execution requires volume, but also coordination.
Common mistake:
Scaling too slowly or unevenly, creating downstream bottlenecks.
Phase 3: Test & Deploy (Go-Live Readiness)
Focus: Ensuring the system works in real conditions
What’s happening:
Compressing risks by identifying earlier gaps that directly impact timelines.
Key Capabilities:
- Structured testing (UAT, system, regression)
- Data migration accuracy
- Change management and training
Right staffing model:
- Surge capacity model
- Short-term specialists for testing and migration
- Strong coordination and programme management roles
Why this works:
Precision and intensity matter more than scale.
Common mistake:
Underestimating testing complexity, leading to instability post go-live.
Phase X: Business as Usual (Optimisation & Adoption)
Focus: Realising long-term value
What’s happening:
The system is live, but adoption and ROI are still evolving.
Key Capabilities:
- Continuous improvement mindset
- Analytics and reporting
- User support and enablement
Right staffing model:
- Lean, stable internal team
- Focus on retention and knowledge transfer
- Selective external support for enhancements
Why this works:
Sustained value comes from ownership, not dependency.
Common mistake:
Scaling down too quickly, limiting platform adoption.
A Practical Framework to Choose the Right Staffing Model
For programme managers and HR leaders, the challenge isn’t just who to hire.
It’s how to make consistent, phase-aligned decisions under pressure.
This framework is designed to bring structure and predictability to that process.
Step 1: Identify Your Current Phase (With Precision)
This sounds simple, but it’s often where misalignment begins.
Projects don’t move cleanly from one phase to another. They overlap.
You may be:
- Designing one module while building another
- Testing early components while still configuring others
What to do:
- Map your project by workstream, not just overall phase
- Identify where the majority of effort sits today
Why it matters:
Staffing decisions should follow where the work is happening now, not where the plan says you should be.
Step 2: Define Phase-Specific Outcomes
Hiring without clarity on outcomes leads to generic roles and unclear accountability.
Instead, anchor hiring decisions to outcomes:
- What must be delivered in the next 8–12 weeks?
- What does success look like in measurable terms?
Examples:
- Design phase → Approved future-state processes with minimal rework
- Build phase → Configurations completed within sprint timelines
- Test phase → Defect rates within acceptable thresholds
Why it matters:
This shifts hiring from “filling roles” to enabling delivery milestones.
Step 3: Map Capabilities to Delivery Risk
Not all roles carry equal weight.
Focus on capabilities that directly influence risk:
- Critical capabilities → Delay here impacts timeline immediately
- Core capabilities → Ensure continuity and coordination
- Support capabilities → Important, but can scale later
What this solves:
- Prevents overhiring
- Highlights where specialist expertise is non-negotiable
For example:
Delaying a niche integration expert can stall multiple workstreams.
Step 4: Select the Right Engagement Model
Now decide how to bring in those capabilities.
Instead of defaulting to one approach, match hiring type to need:
- Contractors / consultants → Speed, niche expertise, short-term demand
- Permanent hires → Ownership, long-term stability, institutional knowledge
- Augmented teams → Flexibility during peak phases
What strong teams do differently:
They build a blended model, not driven by preference, but by phase requirements.
Step 5: Align Timing, Duration, and Scale
This is where execution either stabilises or becomes reactive.
Every role should answer three questions:
- When do we need this capability?
- How long will we need it?
- What’s the impact if it arrives late?
Practical approach:
- Build a rolling 8–12 week staffing view
- Align hiring timelines with delivery milestones
- Factor in onboarding and ramp-up time
Why it matters:
Most delays don’t come from lack of talent; they come from the late availability of the right talent.
Conclusion:
Build for the Phase, Not Just the Plan
There is no single “right staffing model.”
What works in design will fail in execution.
What works in go-live won’t sustain long-term value.
The most effective Workday staffing strategies evolve with:
- Project phase
- Delivery outcomes
- Timing and scale
If your hiring feels inefficient, the question isn’t:
“Do we need better people?”
It’s: “Do we have the right capabilities, at the right time, for this phase?”
Because when that alignment clicks… delivery becomes smoother, decisions become clearer, and teams perform the way they were meant to.
There’s no single staffing model that works for every Workday project.
What matters is knowing which capabilities you need, when you need them, and how to scale them throughout the project lifecycle.
If you’re interested in seeing how one organisation navigated these challenges and maintained delivery momentum, take a look at our latest case study.
