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Re: Important Stuff They Don't Teach In Tech Writing School Was Re: School vs experience...
Subject:Re: Important Stuff They Don't Teach In Tech Writing School Was Re: School vs experience... From:TechComm Dood <techcommdood -at- gmail -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 26 Aug 2004 13:32:33 -0400
> "Deadlines are not movable targets. You're a
> professional, not a hobbyist. You made a commitment --
> keep your word."
>
> Tony Markos responds:
>
> Does this mean that quantity Of work and/or quality of
> work are then always open to compromise? If not, get
> ready for a ton of (free) overtime; which, whether we
> choose to admit it or not here, has real limits.
>
> Just as in politics, seeing things as black and white
> (no grey fuzzy stuff allowed) gets us in trouble. The
> essential key to true Project Management is moving
> away from dictates and towards open and honest
> communications.
Regardless of the essential key to project management, the statement
"deadlines are not movable targets" is dead-on correct. Open
communication is indeed key, but that doesn't mean a deadline is a
movable target. You can't just pick it up and move it out 3 weeks.
Nearly every deadline has a dependency. Sure, you can push out the
deadline, but something else suffers (pissed off customers, loss of
revenue for the quarter, etc.). You can also reel it in or leave it as
is, but if the scope of work doesn't change then you have a different
problem, which I think you were getting at. But, the solution isn't
always to move the deadline. Sometimes the solution is to change the
scope, or throw more people at the issue, or remove some of the tasks
leading up to the deadline. But, deadlines should never move unless
the move is planned.
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