What are the capacity challenges of an IT department of 100 to 500 people?
From 100 people up, an IT department manages several divisions, often several sites, and a mix of employees and contractors. The challenges become governance (who decides assignments), multi-team consolidation, integration with the existing ecosystem (SSO, Jira, Azure DevOps), and regular reporting for the executive committee.
Capacity planning for an IT department of 100 to 500 people
Govern the capacity of several teams, sites, and contractors.
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Challenges at this size
- Several teams, domains, and sometimes entities sharing scarce skills.
- A structured PMO and regular portfolio committees.
- Security requirements: SSO, fine-grained permissions, traceability.
- Contractors to include in the workload plan and the budget.
What matters when choosing a tool
- Governance: roles, permissions, approval workflows.
- Integrations with the delivery and time tools already in place.
- Showback per business unit and budget tracking.
- Portfolio arbitration backed by scenarios.
Indicators to track
| Indicator | Definition |
|---|---|
| Allocation rate per domain | Planned workload ÷ capacity of each domain. |
| Employees / contractors split | Share of work done externally. |
| Planned vs actual variance | Reliability of workload plans across IT. |
| IT cost per business unit | Showback of resources consumed. |
Typical rollout
- Structure teams, domains, and roles, then configure permissions.
- Enable SSO and, depending on your plan, user provisioning.
- Connect time from your delivery tools.
- Set up the capacity committee with a monthly pack.
FAQ
Does Workload handle SSO and SCIM?
Yes: SSO (SAML, Azure AD, Google Workspace) depending on plan, just-in-time (JIT) provisioning from the Business plan, and SCIM on the Enterprise plan.
Do you need a PPM at this size?
It depends on the need for financial and demand governance. For capacity and trade-offs, a capacity layer may suffice or complement a PPM.
Can you manage several entities?
Yes, with multi-entity management for groups with several subsidiaries.
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