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Missing Project Deadlines
The following is an excerpt from a book written by Sanjiv Purba and
Joseph Zucchero, published by McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2100 Powell Street,
10th Floor, Emeryville, California 94608 U.S.A. Sanjiv has over 20
years of experience managing large projects and many years engaged in
rescuing ailing projects.
"Project deadlines are always going to be missed for a multitude of
reasons that include poor planning, unforeseen events, and business
complexity. You can make the statement that deadlines must be met
because they are important- but you would be fooling yourself. However,
not sticking to a deadline, or continually pushing it off, results in
highly undesirable team behaviors. If your team is missing deadlines
repeatedly, what makes you think this behavior is going to change? Are
the problems typical of the entire project or are they limited to one
or more of the earlier phases only? Where's the accountability? Having
no deadline also shows a lack of discipline.
Always break
deliverables down so that something of value and something that is
measurable is produced within two-week increments - sooner if the risks
on the project are deemed to be very high. Manageable deliverables make
monitoring simpler and enable risk to be addressed on a consistent
basis."
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