Why your Team Misses their Deadlines

Deadlines; don’t we just love them? Well, then it should come as no surprise that 48% of projects do not finish within their initially scheduled timelines. But, this is no laughing matter as late delivery can result in increased costs and unhappy customers, which can only affect your business negatively.

So, what can be done about this epidemic in the workplace? Well, the first thing you can do is to be more pessimistic about how long it will take you to complete a task. It is unfortunately human nature to be overly optimistic about how long it will take to complete a task, even if it is something you have never done before and no matter how simple or complex it is. There even is a term for it; it is called ‘planning fallacy’.

We also assume that we will become more efficient at completing tasks that we have done before and underestimate the time it will take to complete such tasks, which again result in missed deadlines. Other causes of missed deadlines include, assuming that the project will go well, with no issues; failure to factor in resource constraints, such as holiday shutdowns.

So now that we know all the pitfalls that we can fall into, how do we create more realistic timelines? The key to this lies the data and analytics. Project management software is a great help when it comes to this.

If you do not have project management software, you can always rely on multi-point estimation techniques such as 3-point estimation, PERT analysis, or Monte Carlo simulation. All these techniques take multiple estimates and combine them to arrive at a more realistic timeline.

For example, the 3-point estimation technique requires that you estimate 3 different timelines, i.e. the most optimistic timeline, the most pessimistic timeline, and the amount of time you believe it will most likely take.

The second method you can utilise is to create a bottom-up approach whereby you start by estimating the time it will take for each individual task, then add them all up in the end. Obviously, this will take much longer to do, but the final result will also be much more accurate. Another plus point is that no task will be missed out and you can build more buy-in and belief in the timeline.

The third method you can apply is to build in reserves for both known and unknown risks. Essentially, there are 2 types of reserves whereby the first is a contingency reserve, which is for known risks. The second is a management reserve, which is for unknown risks, where you provide an estimate reserve for risks that you cannot estimate.

So, it is clear that missed deadlines are a huge issue, but the good news is that all the pitfalls that lead to it are avoidable. So, next time you start a project or task, try to implement these helpful tips to help you stay out of that 48% who miss their deadlines.