Last updated on 2024年5月3日

What do you do if your project timelines are consistently inaccurate?

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Project timelines are the backbone of successful project management, yet they're notoriously difficult to get right. When you find that your project timelines are consistently missing the mark, it can cause a cascade of problems, including budget overruns, team frustration, and disappointed stakeholders. If this issue sounds familiar, you're not alone, and there are strategies you can employ to turn the tide and improve the accuracy of your project timelines.

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John Miller

THE STARTUP CFO | Follow for posts about financial focus, startup strategy and leadership
Rajiv Bhalotia

Driving Continuous Improvement for Organizations [Governance, Risk and Compliance]

1 Assess Causes

To address the root of the problem, you must first understand why your timelines are inaccurate. Start by reviewing past projects to identify common factors that led to delays. Was it overly optimistic planning, unclear project scope, or perhaps external dependencies that were overlooked? Engage with your team to gather their insights on what went wrong. This collective reflection is crucial in pinpointing the gaps between your planning and execution phases, and will guide you towards more realistic timelines in the future.

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John Miller

THE STARTUP CFO | Follow for posts about financial focus, startup strategy and leadership
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This is painful and difficult but is absolutely necessary. You can only know what was the cause and what are the solution if you first diagnose what happened Once you have distilled them down, I’ve found the best approach is to focus on two main categories - what should we do differently that is easy to implement… daily stand ups, weekly reviews, more admin support etc And what were the subjective things that seemed to cause the biggest drag. For example. Goals at the start differed to what was delivered due to scope creep. Or did the people involved have the right skill set? Or Did we manage delivery and under delivery effectively.

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2 Enhance Planning

Once you've identified the causes of inaccuracy, refine your planning process. Integrate more detailed work breakdown structures to capture all tasks and dependencies. Ensure that your team is involved in the planning phase; their on-the-ground experience is invaluable for setting realistic timeframes. Also, consider using project management methodologies like Agile or Scrum, which incorporate regular check-ins and adaptability, allowing for more accurate forecasting and timely adjustments.

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3 Allocate Buffer

Incorporating buffer time into your project schedule can provide a safety net for unforeseen delays. Determine an appropriate percentage of extra time based on the complexity and past performance of similar projects. This doesn't mean you should relax project deadlines, but rather acknowledge that some degree of uncertainty is inherent to most projects. Communicate to your team that these buffers are not extensions but contingencies to accommodate real-world challenges.

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4 Monitor Progress

Constant monitoring is key to keeping project timelines on track. Utilize project management software to track progress against your plan in real-time. Regularly check-in with your team to ensure tasks are on schedule and to quickly identify any bottlenecks. These progress reviews should be frequent enough to spot issues early, yet spaced out enough to allow significant work to be completed between them.

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Rajiv Bhalotia

Driving Continuous Improvement for Organizations [Governance, Risk and Compliance]
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Some of the ways Agile scrum teams can do this is via 1. Release burnup charts 2. Sprint burndown charts Almost all project management systems provide these graphs out of the box as a standard feature.

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5 Adjust Real-Time

When deviations from the planned timeline occur, be ready to adjust in real-time. This requires a flexible approach to project management and an openness to change course when necessary. If a task is taking longer than expected, analyze the situation and determine if additional resources are needed or if priorities need to be shifted. Timely decision-making can prevent one delay from derailing the entire project timeline.

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Rajiv Bhalotia

Driving Continuous Improvement for Organizations [Governance, Risk and Compliance]
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Sprint capacity planning is very crucial and needs to be monitored on a real time basis. This will help the team understand resource loading and optimal utilisation.

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6 Learn and Adapt

Finally, use every completed project as a learning opportunity. Conduct post-mortem meetings to discuss what went well and what didn't. Document these findings and incorporate them into your future planning processes. Over time, this continuous learning cycle will lead to more accurate project timelines and a more efficient project management approach.

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Rajiv Bhalotia

Driving Continuous Improvement for Organizations [Governance, Risk and Compliance]
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One key insight surfaced during our retrospective: the importance of having a well-refined sprint backlog for sprint success. We identified the lack of a refined requirement backlog before sprint planning as a significant hurdle. To tackle this issue, we implemented a metric called "backlog horizon" to gauge the availability of refined backlog. Our aim is to maintain a backlog visibility of at least two sprints ahead.

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7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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Med Marouane Ajraoui

Fostering a culture of agility and leveraging cutting-edge AI tools to drive innovation and efficiency
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Another effective way to be more predictable on timelines and on value to be delivered, is to split your project into a small well prioritised deliverable increments and to instaure cadence and discipline to deliver it. By cadence, we mean a constant period of time going from 1 to 4 weeks (it is commonly called a Sprint or an iteration) and the challenge would be to deliver a valuable increment of the project at the end of each sprint. This will allow you to anticipate risks and to ensure you are knowledgeable about project progress and better estimate when it could be ended. And most importantly, you could gather feedback at the end of each sprint to seek for improvements, to learn and adapt and ensure your project delivers value.

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What do you do if your project timelines are consistently inaccurate?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1 Assess Causes

2 Enhance Planning

3 Allocate Buffer

4 Monitor Progress

5 Adjust Real-Time

6 Learn and Adapt

7 Here’s what else to consider

Business Strategy

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What do you do if your project timelines are consistently inaccurate?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1 Assess Causes

2 Enhance Planning

3 Allocate Buffer

4 Monitor Progress

5 Adjust Real-Time

6 Learn and Adapt

7 Here’s what else to consider

Business Strategy

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