Sticky Schedule

 

Friday afternoon. The contract is signed, the statement of work has been accepted and you've just put the final touches on your project plan. All the tasks are sized, scheduled, assigned and prioritized. Your customer has reviewed and approved your plan. You feel comfortable you can deliver this project on time and according to specs. "This is going to be the best project yet!"

Monday morning. You get an early morning call from your customer. They need you to "adjust" your project schedule. They want it reduced by a third!

You know that there's no way you can cut your already aggressive project schedule by 33 percent. And scrubbing the requirements, throwing more people at the problem or relaxing your quality standards are not options. You've already done as much as you could to speed up this project schedule, and there is no way that you can further reduce it by a third.

What now? Do you (A) lie and pretend that the schedule can be accelerated, (B) flat out say "no" or (C) try to negotiate their 33 percent request to something more reasonable, like 15 or 20 percent?

Considering Your Options

Well, unless you're a true project mangler, "A" is definitely not an option. I've seen many manglers pick "A" either because they knew they wouldn't be around when the schedule slip would have to be reported, or simply because…

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