Dealing with Pre-Determined Deadlines

Receiving a project assignment with a pre-determined deadline happens a lot in the business world. Bob McGannon has these tips for addressing this uncomfortable situation as a project manager.

Understand the source of the deadline. Government regulations, once-a-year marketing events, and other circumstances can necessitate deadlines. The best place to start is to understand the need for the deadline and what scope flexibility may exist. The deadline may represent a manager’s internal commitment or hope. A trade show or conference is a hard deadline that can’t be adjusted.

To support fact-based conversations about the project deadline, first investigate what it will take to deliver the requested scope. As project manager, ask your sponsors to treat you like their auto mechanics. You wouldn’t take your car to the mechanic and say, “You’ll charge me $120 and have the car ready by 2pm.” You ask about the likely charges and when it can be ready. Take the same approach with assigning projects; accept management’s aspirations but ask for the opportunity to validate them to determine if they are reasonable.

Perform your duty as a project manager. It’s irresponsible to say “I’ll do it” before you determine if the triple constraints of cost, scope and time are reasonable.  Although pushing back on unreasonable constraints is difficult, it’s easier than later justifying why you missed commitments.

A sponsoring manager may not be aware of the challenges your project team will face. Sharing those challenges and the pros and cons of addressing them can help you craft achievable project objectives. Responsible project management involves putting facts on the table and conducting conversations about what can be delivered and the circumstances in which you can perform that delivery. 

Conduct the proper research. While you may have a gut feel that a project deadline is unreasonable, management decisions are rarely made without facts. Look to prior projects for timeframes and the level of effort required to produce deliverables. Track the typical time your managers require to make project-related decisions.  Determine the staff you have available. Your most talented staff members might not be available, which could mean more risks will surface and/or your project will take longer to deliver. Use that data to explain why committing to the current project deadline may be high risk. 

Be prepared to negotiate. Forecasting project completion is a bit of an art. The science develops as the project progresses and you learn more. Discuss elements that can help you meet the target deadline, such as getting the best team members, hiring skilled contractors, or cutting scope items that may be difficult to produce. Discuss milestones in the project timeline where you can re-evaluate the project completion date and be prepared to share what will be required to bring that date forward.

For more about project constraints, check out my Project Management Foundations course.

The topic for this post came from a question asked in one of my LinkedIn Live sessions. If you have a question, post it as a comment. It could become the topic for a future post.

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