How is your Q4 planning impacting your IT org’s talent structure?
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Q4 Planning is a mix of multiple things. First and foremost, Q4 planning includes the next quarter's goals, agenda, and yearly plan and budget.
1. Attention and adjustment done to support Complaince and timeline-sensitive areas like Regulatory deadlines, Financial Quarter, and yearly closing. Escalation and bandwidth challenges are a Q4 trend, so organize the team and RACI so that it promotes close collaboration and teamwork. Increase shadowing as well due to increased festivities and time-offs.
2. A lot of upgrade and shutdown activity does occur during year-end, so plan for resourcing and availability accordingly. A multi-timezone team and support is a great help during these. I observed increased Utilization and demand, hence having backup is a great asset.
Demand, Capacity, Resources/Skills, and roles visibility and matrices help organise them.
3. Lof of Q4 spill over to next year's budget and goals, hence this visibility helps in planning next FY resources.
4. Tailor the team with a mix of full-time and contractors to provide the flexibility in need.
When it comes to upskilling, we don’t treat it as a “nice to have” it’s really part of our culture. We set aside about 10–15% of our team’s time each year for training, certifications, workshops, and just experimenting with new tools. It’s something we’re intentional about, because the more our people grow, the better we can serve clients and stay ahead in an industry that moves fast.