Be Proactive When Managing Projects with Unrealistic Deadlines

If you are a project manager dealing with what you perceive to be an unrealistic deadline, the first thing you will want to do is discuss this with your sponsor to see if there are any factors that are driving the project deadline. For instance, there may be a business driver that is driving the deadline. There may be some event occurring that this project needs to support. On the other hand, sometimes managers set arbitrary end-dates just to provide what they consider to be stretch objectives. It does not necessarily make your challenge any easier, but you may find that by better understanding the reason for the deadline, you may have an easier time getting yourself and your team members motivated to achieve it.

Once you understand the motivation for the deadline date, there are project management techniques that can be utilized to increase the chances of success and better manage expectations.

• Try to increase resources All projects require some time and cost to create the deliverables agreed to in the project scope. If you find that the time constraint is not in alignment with cost and scope, talk to your manager about increasing the resources that are available for the project. Adding resources to the project makes the cost go up, but may allow you to hit the deadline.
• Reduce scope . Talk to your sponsor about reducing the project scope. See if there are features and functionality that they can live without for now so that you can deliver the project within the deadline specified
• Identify and manage the deadline as a project risk. Utilizing risk management will help better manage expectations early in the project and also be a way to gather input and ideas for ways that you might be able to hit the deadline.
• Manage scope with zero tolerance. On many projects, you start with an aggressive delivery date, and then the situation gets worse because the project manager does not effectively manage scope. If you are on a project with an unrealistic end-date to begin with, it is absolutely critical that you manage scope effectively and do not increase scope without an approved scope change request. Disciplined scope management will ensure that you only have to deliver what was originally promised, and that any approved changes are accompanied by a corresponding increase in budget and timeline.
• Manage the schedule aggressively. In many projects, you might get a little behind but have confidence that you can make up the time later. However, when you start a project with the deadline at risk, be sure to manage the schedule diligently. You have no margin for error. As you monitor the schedule, treat missed deadlines as problems and work hard to solve the reasons behind the slippage.
• Look for process improvement opportunities . Lastly, take an honest look at your schedule and your approach for executing the project. Talk to your team, clients, and manager about any ideas they may have for making the project go faster. This will get everyone thinking about being part of a solution. For instance, perhaps you could utilize a Joint Application Development (JAD) session to gather requirements more quickly than traditional interviewing techniques.

Although it appears that you are being held accountable for events and circumstances that are not within your control, you do have control over the processes you use to manage the project. First, see if you can balance the early deadline by increasing resources or reducing project scope. Second, proactively manage risk, scope and the schedule. Third, work with your manager, client and project team to uncover ideas and techniques that will allow you to deliver the project sooner that you might have first thought possible.