Projects often end up having unreasonable deadlines because there are added requirements that occur after the planning stage (scope creep) and also because sometimes the time it takes to complete certain steps in a project are underestimated and unfortunaly make the project deadline unreasonable. A project manager should try to stick to the original goals of the project plan and not let the dealine change this.
Continuing off of what Joe said, there are some other reasons for why projects have unreasonable deadlines. These include the approach of the holiday season, the chance at winning a proposal with a low bid, or a funding opportunity. These often pressure project managers to promise systems before they are realistically able to deliver them. In order to deliver a successful, reliable system project managers should not try to rush (anymore than they have to) to deliver a system. Project managers need to assess the amount of work that needs to be accomplished and then build a project plan according to that. A project plan includes: choosing a development methodology, estimating a time frame for each phase, a list of tasks for each phase is developed, staffing needs are determined, and then the project manager coordinates the team throughout the project. He/she monitors the project and adjusts estimations as work on the system continues.
Take Steve Jobs as an example, he often proposed unreasonable deadlines, some that had never been accomplished by anyone before. Steve Jobs used unreasonable deadlines as a way to motivate his teams to accomplish unheard of goals and beat the rest of the market. Ofcourse this did not always pan out and Steve was occasionally left angry and depressed, though he often pulled off these crazy deadlines. In this case a good project manager would need to motivate the team, setting an unreasonable deadline is actually a demotivator, negatively effecting performance. Reassessment of the project and timeline, especially with others included in the discussion, will enable the team to project a much more reasonable deadline and allow for quality work.
Ily, I like your example of Steve Job and how you explained that Steve would set “unreasonable deadlines in order to motivate his team to accomplish unheard of goals and beat the rest of the market.” This makes me think of when we had to read the book about Steve Jobs and how his employees explained that if someone wanted to get an idea to Steve Jobs they would bring it up around him (he would disregard them and the idea), and then a couple days later he would “come up with this idea” and tell everyone. I think the way that Steve would randomly come up with tasks and new ideas probably did not help the timeline and would create an even more unreasonable time line for himself and his team.
Jasmine, I totally agree! Thanks for commenting on my post, your elaboration about steve jobs is helpful for me to cement the concepts of this question in my mind. Good luck studying for the test thursday!
Great comments everyone. Quite often unrealistic project deadlines get set out of necessatity as a new business need occurs. I've been in situations at work where something changed in how our business operates or a new oppurtunity opens and we had to develop a new system as quickly as possible. It can be frustrating to build a system essentially overnight, but it's also a good feeling to get something done quickly. Having been in this situation on several occassions, I've learned that the best thing a manager can do is make sure to distribute the work load as evenly as possible, get their hands dirty and help out, and be positive about getting the project done. If the manager loses their cool under pressure, the people below them will follow suite.
Unreasonable deadlines usually occur because more steps are added or needed to complete the project after the planning phase has been gone through. This could be extra steps added from an employee or upper corporate office in order to get things done right. To prevent this unreasonable deadlines managers should make sure that all steps are taken care of before presenting the project and/or keep the normal steps the the project without adding such major changes that could change the deadline to unreasonable.
Projects often end up having unreasonable deadlines because there are added requirements that occur after the planning stage (scope creep) and also because sometimes the time it takes to complete certain steps in a project are underestimated and unfortunaly make the project deadline unreasonable. A project manager should try to stick to the original goals of the project plan and not let the dealine change this.
ReplyDeleteContinuing off of what Joe said, there are some other reasons for why projects have unreasonable deadlines. These include the approach of the holiday season, the chance at winning a proposal with a low bid, or a funding opportunity. These often pressure project managers to promise systems before they are realistically able to deliver them. In order to deliver a successful, reliable system project managers should not try to rush (anymore than they have to) to deliver a system. Project managers need to assess the amount of work that needs to be accomplished and then build a project plan according to that. A project plan includes: choosing a development methodology, estimating a time frame for each phase, a list of tasks for each phase is developed, staffing needs are determined, and then the project manager coordinates the team throughout the project. He/she monitors the project and adjusts estimations as work on the system continues.
ReplyDeleteTake Steve Jobs as an example, he often proposed unreasonable deadlines, some that had never been accomplished by anyone before. Steve Jobs used unreasonable deadlines as a way to motivate his teams to accomplish unheard of goals and beat the rest of the market. Ofcourse this did not always pan out and Steve was occasionally left angry and depressed, though he often pulled off these crazy deadlines. In this case a good project manager would need to motivate the team, setting an unreasonable deadline is actually a demotivator, negatively effecting performance. Reassessment of the project and timeline, especially with others included in the discussion, will enable the team to project a much more reasonable deadline and allow for quality work.
ReplyDeleteIly,
DeleteI like your example of Steve Job and how you explained that Steve would set “unreasonable deadlines in order to motivate his team to accomplish unheard of goals and beat the rest of the market.” This makes me think of when we had to read the book about Steve Jobs and how his employees explained that if someone wanted to get an idea to Steve Jobs they would bring it up around him (he would disregard them and the idea), and then a couple days later he would “come up with this idea” and tell everyone. I think the way that Steve would randomly come up with tasks and new ideas probably did not help the timeline and would create an even more unreasonable time line for himself and his team.
Jasmine,
DeleteI totally agree! Thanks for commenting on my post, your elaboration about steve jobs is helpful for me to cement the concepts of this question in my mind.
Good luck studying for the test thursday!
Great comments everyone. Quite often unrealistic project deadlines get set out of necessatity as a new business need occurs. I've been in situations at work where something changed in how our business operates or a new oppurtunity opens and we had to develop a new system as quickly as possible. It can be frustrating to build a system essentially overnight, but it's also a good feeling to get something done quickly. Having been in this situation on several occassions, I've learned that the best thing a manager can do is make sure to distribute the work load as evenly as possible, get their hands dirty and help out, and be positive about getting the project done. If the manager loses their cool under pressure, the people below them will follow suite.
ReplyDeleteUnreasonable deadlines usually occur because more steps are added or needed to complete the project after the planning phase has been gone through. This could be extra steps added from an employee or upper corporate office in order to get things done right. To prevent this unreasonable deadlines managers should make sure that all steps are taken care of before presenting the project and/or keep the normal steps the the project without adding such major changes that could change the deadline to unreasonable.
ReplyDelete