Managing Deadlines Made Easy: The Unrivaled Guide to Delivering Projects on Time

Why Teams Miss Deadlines

The main reason why teams miss their deadlines is not that they are over-committing.

Teams miss their deadlines because they don’t recognize the importance of managing their work effectively.

Very often, the focus is on the actual end date, and if that deadline isn’t approaching soon enough, there is little to no attention to team efficiency or speed of delivery.

Here is the thing, managing deadlines effectively is a continuous process. It’s not something that has to be brought up once the end date starts to draw near.

Putting your finger on the pulse of the work, eliminating the obstacles that hinder your performance and enabling your team to do their job in the most efficient manner should be your highest priority from the very beginning when your project is initiated.

Now, let’s say you’ve committed to the 85th percentile and your goal is to deliver your project by Nov 21st. How do you stay on schedule to meet your deadline?

How to Manage Your Long-Term Deadlines

Now, your initial forecast is just that – an initial prediction you’ve made at the very beginning of your project. Don’t fall into the trap of assuming that everything will go as planned.

Knowledge work is complicated; a lot of unexpected and surprising things happen and you have to account for these changes as you are working on your project. In order to meet your long-term goals, your plan has to adjust as you collect new information.

Even if you resolve any obstacles along the way, your forecast will change as you deliver more work. Your delivery rate will vary based on any changes in your Kanban board, the scope of your project, your team or the efficiency of your workflow.

All these factors will affect the base you used to perform your initial prediction. That’s why continuous forecasting is essential – to be able to manage deadlines effectively and deliver on time, you have to reevaluate your initial project deadline.

Run Monte Carlo on a regular basis (ideally, every 2 to 4 weeks!) and adjust the course of action accordingly.

And even if it becomes obvious that you won’t make it on time, you’ll be able to communicate that to your customers and stakeholders early so they can react on time. Acts like this build credibility and shape our reputation as professionals.