3 tips for anticipating challenges that can lead to missed project deadlines
If you’ve worked on projects where deadlines are present you’ve likely
been tripped up and frustrated by the sometimes unexpected curve balls
that can cause you to miss your deadline. Certainly, there are a myriad
of reasons why the completion of a project might miss its intended
target date. The key is to anticipate some of the more likely things
that can go wrong.
With that in mind, here are three potential scenarios to be on the
lookout for so that you can stay ahead and be consistent in meeting
deadlines:
Meeting Deadlines: Miscalculating the scope of the project.
Let’s say the boss has asked you to create a report summarizing the
sales results of the Midwest region for the month of May, and you need
to have the report completed in 2 days. No problem, right? Except that
you forgot that the Midwest region was actually doubled in size 4 months
ago when a whole new division was added. The bottom line is, before
beginning a project take a close look at the project as a whole –
ensuring yourself that you’ve covered all the possible bases before
moving toward meeting your deadline.
Meeting Deadlines: Relying on the timeliness of other people.
In completing the sample project above, you may need to depend on
someone else to provide some information. For example, maybe a sales
administrator needs to give you the latest numbers for the total sales
of a particular product, and you’ve asked them to supply the information
within hours...which is not an unreasonable request since all the data
is already in their computer. The point here is: always keep in mind
that although for the most part you can typically count on co-workers to
respond to your needs, they may not be as time-motivated as you because
the project is not their ultimate responsibility. Tip: in an email, be
sure to reiterate the time-sensitive nature of your request, and ask
them to reply back that they indeed will meet your two-hour turnaround.
Meeting Deadlines: Forgetting that there will be revisions and
corrections. Almost no project goes through completely unscathed,
with zero changes or updates. Build the time needed to make the
revisions and corrections into the completion time for your project.
Remember, your boss will probably not differentiate between the first
draft of a project and its final version...he or she is really only
interested in when the project is finished, revisions and all.
