Arbitrary deadlines, here we go again.

[GB9]

I've project managed a few developments and in the past when i was naive and tried to force developers to meet a deadline that was unrealistic, they would finish the work on the deadline date.

But the work would be bug ridden and pretty piss poor. The client would then lack of confidence in the dev team etc...

If you have committed people they will do a good job. Some truth in the saying it will be ready when it's ready.

I've worked to dev dates and still been given carp.

By nature people build contingency into their own estimates. And the number of times I have heard the phrase "under promise, over deliver". Not a fat lot of use when you are part of a team!

[woohoo]

oh relax.

All projects start with a wide degree of uncertainty. They don't all end that way.

You must be a project manager.

[woohoo]

Speaking with my old delivery manager hat on, if you put the tasks into a schedule, added the effort and worked to the resulting date, nothing would ever get delivered.

Young people these days......Bah. .....

I've project managed a few developments and in the past when i was naive and tried to force developers to meet a deadline that was unrealistic, they would finish the work on the deadline date.

But the work would be bug ridden and pretty piss poor. The client would then lack of confidence in the dev team etc...

If you have committed people they will do a good job. Some truth in the saying it will be ready when it's ready.

[tomtomagain]

oh relax.

All projects start with a wide degree of uncertainty. They don't all end that way.

[scooterscot]

Don't know why I think of this...

[woohoo]

I think the owner has guessed a date, the pm has agreed with this and now will do his best to cram things in.

I've pointed out the number of working days to the deadline. I've also asked if the deadline is a guess and will be revised. No reply yet.

I've also said that we don't understand the requirements.


Get this, the deadline is the day I leave for my hols.

So I'm going to attempt to manage the PM.

Also, in the email from the PM he said "touchbase". Should I point this out to him and ask him not to do it again?

[Old Greg]

Popular delivery dates / can't move end dates.

31/12 and 01/01
Now + 3 months or now + 6 months
Company year end / financial year end
Pointy haired boss's birthday

These deadlines usually have nothing to do with requirements, required effort or anything tangible.

I get given fixed dates to plan around fairly often - I'm working with one now. I just need to tell them how much they can have by the deadline.

[WTFH]

We already have a target deadline with only a partial understanding of requirements.

Perfect!


"We need something delivered by this date"


"No problem, we'll deliver something. Might not be what you expected/wanted, but you didn't define it so we delivered what we could in the time given, therefore from our side it is a successful project. The failure is in the project management."

[DimPrawn]

Popular delivery dates / can't move end dates.

31/12 and 01/01
Now + 3 months or now + 6 months
Company year end / financial year end
Pointy haired boss's birthday

These deadlines usually have nothing to do with requirements, required effort or anything tangible.

[GB9]

Speaking with my old delivery manager hat on, if you put the tasks into a schedule, added the effort and worked to the resulting date, nothing would ever get delivered.

Young people these days......Bah. .....

[vetran]

New project manager, new project. We already have a target deadline with only a partial understanding of requirements. Obviously, the project deadline is a guess but will be perceived as a failure if not met.

And relax....

is there any other way?

currently burning through 200 resource hours because the PM guessed. I will probably work 100

4 more of these projects to do so I'm going to have an easy year from these.

[LondonManc]

New project manager, new project. We already have a target deadline with only a partial understanding of requirements. Obviously, the project deadline is a guess but will be perceived as a failure if not met.

And relax....

How have they picked the deadline?

Have they started with the start date, put the tasks in a project plan with dependencies and seen what finish date there is? Or have they made up a date and tried to cram everything in based on that?

NLUK's right about the level of project managers about these days.

[BrilloPad]

New project manager, new project. We already have a target deadline with only a partial understanding of requirements. Obviously, the project deadline is a guess but will be perceived as a failure if not met.

And relax and invoice....

FTFY

[woohoo]

New project manager, new project. We already have a target deadline with only a partial understanding of requirements. Obviously, the project deadline is a guess but will be perceived as a failure if not met.

And relax....