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Issue 17.4 ('100th Issue')
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COLUMN

Managing Deadlines

Clear, Concise Communication with Consequences

Issue: 17.4 (July/August 2019)
Author: Susan Fennema
Author Bio: Susan is the Chaos Eradicating Officer (CEO) of Beyond the Chaos (www.beyondthechaos.biz), a consultancy helping small business owners gain control of their lives through better processes, organization, and structure of their projects and business operations. As a graduate of Texas A&M University with a BA in journalism from Texas A&M University, she has over 30 years' experience in the software development, creative, marketing, and advertising industries. In 2016 and 2018, she spoke at XDC and she enjoys being part of the Xojo community.
Article Description: No description available.
Article Length (in bytes): 5,703
Starting Page Number: 68
Article Number: 17410
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Excerpt of article text...

When managing deadlines on a large project, sometimes you discover that the reason deadlines are being missed or pushed is because you, as the developer, couldn't say "no" when a client asked for additional items.

How can you avoid this altruistic problem? It rarely results in goodwill from your clients, as they tend to forget these little requests when deadlines are missed. Rather, the client is frustrated, if not outright angry, while you try to explain that the end date will not be met. Regardless of your explanations for doing what he asked, he voices a reasonable concern that boils down to this: he didn't understand that what he asked for would take longer or cost more.

It only takes a few occurrences with a confused client to realize that being altruistic can come back to bite you. Combine that with a failure to communicate and you are headed toward a mess.

Change Management

So, how do you protect your project in these types of situations, while still protecting the client's best interests?

First, make sure you are putting on your project manager hat when new requests come in the door.

...End of Excerpt. Please purchase the magazine to read the full article.