You're torn between code quality and project deadlines. How do you navigate conflicting stakeholder demands?

My agile teams recently deployed a bug free project very successfully after months of work that had a strict deadline. What we did not compromise on was code quality and intense validation. What we did incredibly well was to constantly communicate and document and leave zero room for assumptions and surprises. What was absolutely key was to look at all needs and determine if they were really important and hence helped us narrow down scope to what was must have. We also had an extreme bias for action and stayed away from long opinionated conversations that had no practical application. The triple constraint of project management is still valid. Keep the focus on true customer needs and outcomes and use that principle to execute effectively.

Executar o framework Scrum de forma simples. Montar um planejamento das atividades envolvendo os stakeholder, que seja factível, agressivo e desafiador. Agora, seguir os passos: 1- Definir o objetivo do produto e de cada Sprint. 2- Deixar claro para time estes objetivos e garantir o comprometimento nas entregas. 3- Blindar o time, retirar todos os impedimentos com rapidez e executar simplesmente os 3 pilares do Scrum diariamente: A inspe??o diária vai garantir a qualidade do código. A Adapta??o vai garantir a entrega na data comprometida pelo time. A transparência evita atritos entre o time e os stakeholders. As métricas podem ser acompanhadas por um RoldMap, kanban e burndown chart.

All these points are essential. If we follow the above point we can achieve the needs of stakeholders. However to achieve the code quality we need one another work FTR (Formal Technical Review). This gives me code quality as well as what stakeholders need.

Anyone in charge of software development needs to ensure that processes and tools guarantee quality. We make this a priority in our projects to build trust with our clients and foster successful, long-term partnerships. Well-written code isn’t just about reducing bugs—it’s about creating software that’s easy to maintain, scalable, and delivers a great user experience, benefiting everyone involved. When issues arise and deadlines are tight, having a partner with strong standards in place can make all the difference. We can quickly integrate new developers to address technical debt before it snowballs, ensuring potential problems are tackled early—because the sooner you act, the better the outcome.

To effectively balance code quality and deadlines, adopt an agile mindset by using iterative development and frequent releases. Prioritise critical features, implement automated testing and code reviews, and utilize time-boxing to maintain quality within tight schedules. Maintain transparent communication with stakeholders and your team to build trust and address challenges collaboratively. Focus on continuous improvement through post-mortem analyses and professional development. Leverage DevOps practices and project management tools to streamline processes, ensuring steady progress and sustained code quality, leading to better stakeholder satisfaction.

When working under tight deadlines, you may find yourself accruing technical debt more frequently than you'd prefer. This can be a risky scenario because as soon as one deadline is met, another one with new deliverables quickly follows. It can be challenging to convince business stakeholders that addressing technical debt is more important than focusing solely on new deliverables. Before cutting corners and creating technical debt, make sure to inform stakeholders. It's crucial that resolving the technical debt becomes a priority and is placed at the top of the backlog to be addressed in the next sprint.

I have found the best way to address this kind of conflict is to get everyone in the room. When the Business, Product and Technology all layout their needs they should be addressed by the group classifying the business priority, addressing technical issues and weighted into a ranking system. When everyone has had input there are far fewer disagreements and much better alignment. WSJF is a framework that can help with this process.

Prioritizing tasks is essential for balancing code quality with deadlines because it helps you focus on what truly matters for project success. Without clear prioritization, you might spend valuable time on less important tasks, jeopardizing both the overall quality and timely delivery of the project. By identifying and concentrating on critical features that directly impact the project's goals, you ensure that key elements are delivered on time and at a high standard. This approach not only supports better time management but also ensures that essential functionality is robust, while less critical tasks can be refined later.

Generally developers create good code at the start of the project. 1. Understand important & critical module/part of project. 2. Categories modules into 3 levels on the basis of importance & complexity. 3. Most imp & most complex part first, after that most imp & less complex part. In this way we can priorities our work. At the end when you will be in hurry, you will have easy & small tasks in your to do list. 4. If deadline is near then develop a code and have a session with peer to enhance the quality and testing. This will divide the work & you will get some validation as well. 5. If it is really hard to manage deadline & quality then request for more days.

In such a situation, It’s vital to clearly communicate to stakeholders and be open and honest about it. If there are challenges with code quality, that need to take precedence over deadline as the cost of dealing with defects and potential outages post production deployment is much much higher and not to mention losing client confidence. Having said that make sure you have clearly defined engineering KPIs and processes related to measuring quality of code for ex - % of code coverage via unit tests, automation coverage %, defect density, ensuing code review processes are in place, paying attention to any known technical debt and making sure you raise awareness to stakeholders and proactively plan to fix.

Communication plays most important role while working on any requirement. We have to communicate properly between stakeholders regarding the timelines and proper builds.

In our project, clear communication was our cornerstone. We implemented a robust system of regular updates, informing all stakeholders about our progress, challenges, and potential trade-offs. We held frequent, concise meetings where we discussed our sprint goals, achievements, and any obstacles. When we faced tough decisions between features and deadlines, we involved key stakeholders, explaining the implications of each option. Don't assume – always communicate.

To optimize workflow, start by analyzing current processes to identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies. Streamline tasks by eliminating unnecessary steps and automating repetitive activities. Implement tools and technologies that enhance productivity and facilitate better communication. Encourage team collaboration and establish clear roles and responsibilities to avoid duplication of effort. Regularly review and adjust workflows based on feedback and performance metrics. By continuously refining processes and adopting best practices, you can improve efficiency, reduce delays, and achieve better project outcomes.

Continuous Integration (CI)- Implement CI to automatically build and test code changes. This ensures that integration issues are caught early and resolved quickly. Use CI to maintain a stable codebase, reducing the risk of last-minute problems before release. Automated Testing- Develop a comprehensive suite of automated tests, including unit, integration, and end-to-end tests. This helps catch bugs early and ensures code reliability. Regularly update and maintain the test suite to cover new features. Code Reviews- Establish a robust code review process where peers review each other's code. This promotes knowledge sharing an ensures adherence to coding standards. Use code reviews to identify potential issues early, improving code quality.

Optimizing the team's workflow is crucial for balancing deadlines with code quality. For example, in a recent project, I implemented continuous integration and automated testing, which streamlined our development process and reduced the chances of late-stage issues. I also emphasized the importance of regular code reviews, ensuring that potential problems were identified and addressed early on when they were easier to fix. By refining our workflow with these best practices, the team was able to work more efficiently while consistently maintaining high standards of code quality.

Enhancing your team's workflow can significantly boost your ability to meet deadlines without compromising code quality. Implementing best practices like continuous integration and automated testing can streamline development processes. Code reviews are also crucial for maintaining quality; they help identify issues early when they are easier to fix. By refining your workflow, you ensure your team operates efficiently and upholds high standards.

Optimizing your team’s workflow is key to meeting deadlines without compromising code quality. Implementing best practices such as continuous integration and automated testing can greatly streamline development, catching issues early and reducing the need for rework. Regular code reviews are also crucial, as they help maintain quality by identifying potential problems before they escalate. By refining your workflow, you enable your team to work more efficiently while upholding high standards, ensuring that both deadlines and quality are met.

This is a very hard one. It's very easy to ignore the trade-offs' long-term effects, which should also be considered as they're essential. This is evident from FTGO's structure in the book Microservices Patterns by Chris Richardson. It highlights how the engineering team made huge mistakes in trading quality for time and making huge mistakes in the architecture. In summary, trade-offs are inevitable but a rigorous analysis should be done to avoid mistakes that affect the Future.

It's all about providing value to customers. It's not much more complicated than that. You can backtrack from this, and assess your tactical and "micro" decisions regarding deadlines and code quality. Will the customer care if you sacrifice some code quality now? What will you have to do to "fix that" in the future? How much is it gonna cost? Is it gonna conflict with other things that will need to be done? How much value would it bring to the business if you manage to deliver on some ambitious deadlines you might have? How "core" is the piece of code you're working on? How much time would it save you in the long run if you build it "right", vs scrappy and to be refactored later?

My most recent take on this is different and is influenced by a systems thinking course I took: you never lower code quality. Not even for a deadline. A missing feature is way better than a broken feature. In what world have we ever concluded that delivering a subpar product is acceptable. That's how things like the crowdstrike incident happen. The only thing that should ever be balanced with a deadline is the set of delivered features. Not the quality.

This is very hard to read after digesting some very recent and very public missteps that resulted in a number of company Presidents testifying to Congress over technical debt accrued because “not growing faster” was viewed as a more existential threat than slowing down to speed up. “Time to CNN” was a term that was used in a recent meeting I attended - so, ask yourself “if this was on CNN, would it result in our executives facing a cranky government agency?”

Review Outcomes: Assess what worked well and what didn’t after completing tasks or projects. Gather Feedback: Seek input from stakeholders and team members for different perspectives. Identify Lessons Learned: Pinpoint key takeaways to improve future performance. Be Open to Change: Stay flexible and willing to adjust strategies based on new insights. Implement Improvements: Apply lessons learned to optimize processes or approaches. Monitor Progress: Regularly evaluate the effectiveness of changes and refine as necessary. Create a Feedback Loop: Make reflection and adaptation an ongoing part of the workflow.

This is the most important step of the entire process. While we will always have some customers (employers) who think pushing harder will give better results; we need to think of ways we can communicate better estimates up front eliminating some of the issue altogether (or helping you know when to walk away). Furthermore, in this time of reflection you can consider alternative development techniques that build quality in up front like test driven development so on the next job you can start off on a better foot

While at it, don't forget to always document or maintain a knowledge base of lessons learnt for future reference. Regularly update project documentation to reflect new insights, ensuring that future projects benefit from past experiences.

After completing a major release at our company, we conducted a retrospective to understand the balance between code quality and deadlines. We gathered feedback from the team and stakeholders, tracked key metrics, and used these insights to refine our strategies. This iterative learning process has continuously improved our ability to deliver high-quality code on time. Reflecting and adapting ensures continuous improvement, helping you better balance code quality and project deadlines over time.

Going back and addressing those TODOs, making sure the “nice to haves” get implemented, and adding in those unit and integration tests we’re “saving for later” are so crucial. We’ll probably never get true “slow days” since things are always changing and breaking, so it is worth addressing these things that will reduce huge pain points down the line.