3 Keys To Setting A Realistic Due-Date

A due-date separates a project from a goal.

A goal is something you’d like to accomplish. Once you put a due-date on it, it becomes a proejct. Once you put a due-date on it, you can begin to plan the steps necessary to accomplish that goal.

3 KEYS TO SETTING A DUE DATE
There are three keys to set a realistic due-date:

1) A well-defined process;
2) Clearly understood task durations and;
3) The availability of resources.

A Well-Defined Process
To set a due-date, the process for doing, delivering or accomplishing X needs to be clearly defined and well understood. This process is the framework or map, on which all the other project planning variables hang.

Task Durations
To set a realistic due-date in a planning project or planning process the duration, or length of time it takes to accomplish a particular task needs to be clearly defined and well understood.

Resource Availability
A third key variable in planning a project is that the resources, people power, skills and time will be available to perform the specific tasks needed on the particular days when they are needed.

HOW TO SET A DUE-DATE
These three key assumptions, a well-defined process, clearly understood durations and resource availability/performance, are the underpinnings of a project planning process.

(Not surprisingly, they are also the three key variables that change during a project and which can put a project at risk.)

Project managers, planners or task schedulers can work backward from a due-date. They can say if the project has to be done by X day, that means that these 5 (for example) particular tasks have to be done in a certain order and by such and such a time. Therefore, step 1 has to be done by this date, step 2 by that date, etc..

Alternatively, project managers, planners or schedulers can calculate a due-date by holding some of these variables constant and letting the due-date fall out from there.

For example, if you know you have a specific number of people and therefore a particular task will take X days to complete, you can use duration as your input, lay it out over defined process (which is your task list) and shazaam, out comes your estimated due date.

BENCHMARKS FOR SETTING DUE DATES
It can take a lot of background information and/or experience to know the right parameters to enter for each of these project performance variables. This is where a good project manager shines through. More generally, a large part of core management, planning and overall strategic or business management is about dealing with changes in these three performance variables.

There is a whole body of literature, project management theory and research which discuss these project performance variables, the three keys. This body of project management knowledge covers knowing how to monitor, control and deal with changes in these project performance factors.

There is also extensive research in certain fields and industries on project performance benchmarks for those industries. Unfortunately, though, this project management research is relatively small compared to the different kinds of businesses out there. And even if this body of project management research were larger, its value might be limited since companies and departments often do projects in different ways.

(One of the most researched and benchmarked areas in project management is IT and software development. For example, there are excellent comparisons of the performance of different project management methodologies, project planning approaches, programming languages, etc. on the overall effectiveness, quality and budget costs of software development projects. The U.S. Department of Defense’s Data and Analysis Center for Software (DACS) is a good source of this kind of information and other hard-core software project performance data.)

THE REALITY OF DUE-DATES
Project management theory and research is valuable and in the hand of a skilled practitioner can make a difference in the performance of projects.

But sometimes, even the most educated project management professional can get flustered by the challenges of delivering a project in the real world, particularly in a profit driven, resource constrained, business environment.

The practical art of project management, and management in general, shines through when there are constraints or limits on project performance variables -because you can’t always throw more people on a task (nor is it always a good idea) or you can’t always predict how long a task will take to get done.

Good project management and management in general, is knowing how to handle the curves in the road with finesse, how to manage changes in these key performance variables and still deliver the project (which is not always pretty).

Due-dates are often driven by larger, business goals and customer demands.

But due-dates can also be a helpful tool in project planning and on-going management. They can help project managers understand risks that may jeopardize the success or on-time delivery of their project.

          

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 2nd, 2006 at 3:01 pm and is filed under Workplace, Project Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.