How to meet and manage project deadlines? 4 best ways to meet your project deadlines.
What makes a software development company a leader in the current technology-driven market?
- A team of well-experienced developers
- A clear understanding of the mission and vision of a project or company
- Having a clear roadmap and planning things ahead
- Adapting to technological changes and
- Delivering projects on time regardless of the disruptions
A company equipped with all the above qualities will become a leader in its niche. And, it is more like a well-made watch ensuring, each segment is working well and on the same page. – said Sunil Kodi, Delivery Manager, Amzur Technologies
But, due to dynamic technology evolutions and unforeseen disruptions, most of the product-based companies struggle to develop a project, meet project deadlines, and delight their clients — he further added.
If you have similar challenges in meeting software project deadlines and management, you can get an hour of free consultation with our experts to discuss and strategize your project development process.
Significance of meeting project deadlines: Steer your business growth with the right deliverables
Meeting project deadlines is more like hunting a gold mine that everyone would want to achieve nevertheless of the situation. Comparatively, companies that can meet project deadlines on time will have a competitive advantage over others. It further helps in building trust and reputation and could lead to getting more business opportunities.
Why is it important to set project deadlines?
- It is easy to forget or procrastinate the work without any agreed deliverable date. Hence, a project deadline ensures there are no delays further.
- Deadlines help companies to work collaboratively in achieving the common goal by sharing and organizing the complex operations across various divisions.
- You can have total control over the project and can have a sense of accomplishment. It further helps in prioritizing deliverables.
Amzur’s project management:
Khameleon Software is one of our privileged clients and has been working with us for the past ten years. With our proven expertise in understanding the business and technology challenges, we proposed to use a dedicated and extended team model to bring Khameleon’s products onto an N-Tier range of applications. Our top-notch project management strategies ensured project requirements were met with timely delivery, pin-point technology expertise, and optimized costs.
The cost of missing software project deadlines:
Working with a sense of accomplishment is always crucial in software project management. Missing project deadlines will have a compound impact on overall project development and deployment. When your team misses a deadline for an IT project, it is likely to go over-budget and complicate the overall process. Furthermore, it will hurt projects in the pipeline.
Meeting a deadline is a key performance indicator of a development team and project manager. Whereas, missed deadlines in IT project management constitute the following challenges.
- Hurts your company reputation
- You will lose trust
- Plummeting employee performance and morale
- Your employees wear multiple hats that can pressurize them
- Losing opportunity for business growth
Regardless of the size, every company dreams of completing its projects on time and delivering the best outcomes at optimal budgets. And, a company that plans a roadmap and works in line with the deliverables will gain a competitive advantage over others. Perhaps achieving that milestone is not easy for most companies due to a plethora of reasons.
According to PMI research, just 42% of organizations are well-organized and have a perfect project strategy to chase the goals and deliver on time.
As a CTO or project manager, you have to ensure all your technology resources and stakeholders are on the same page and have clear communication throughout the organization. Understanding the project value and bringing all synergies together is the key to success.
PMI reports demonstrate that 77% of high-performing companies understand the value of project management.
What drives missed deadlines? 10 reasons you should know:
Here are the top 10 reasons why most startups and SMEs miss project deadlines.
- Lack of technology resources/ skilled team
- Limited budgets
- Time and Planning
- Random changes in project requirements
- Lack of senior management involvement
- Project Manager’s inexperience
- Lack of agility in planning and development
- Fail to leverage modern project management software/ tools
- Lack of tracking individual’s metrics
- Lack of communication
Companies with the above challenges fail to drive bottom-line efficiency and meet their client expectations. Further jeopardizing business growth opportunities.
Key benefits of meeting your project delivery deadlines:
The size of the company doesn’t matter unless you have the right strategy and project management process in place. Here are the top benefits of meeting project deadlines at work.
- You can save money for your organization and your clients
- You can gain trust and confidence within your team and across the organization
- You create a culture where people believe in their achievable targets
- Work quality increases
- You can have a cohesive culture where everyone wants to be part of it.
Top 4 best practices to limit the damage of missing a project deadline:
Although missing a project deadline is something we want to avoid at all costs, it does happen sometimes. Even today’s large enterprises were a victim of missed project deliverables during their initial days. If it happens to you, it is better to have the right process in place rather than bogging down.
In a study, Geneca found that 75 percent of business and IT executives surveyed admitted that their projects were either always or usually doomed right from the start.
Let us have a look at how others overcome the challenges of missing deadlines regularly.
1. Lack of technology resources
Finding and hiring resources with some specific skills is a growing challenge for many startups and SMEs. Having a project in hand and struggling with resource hiring will be a major roadblock for your growth.
Solution:
If you have a limited internal HR team and limited access to the talent pool, you can rely on a trusted IT staffing and recruitment solutions provider that can evaluate resources and help you in getting the right team quickly. It will save you time to hire and ensure you have the best resources on board.
2. Limited budgets
For startups and mid-size companies, attracting top talent and hiring them is a costly affair. Therefore, hiring managers fall short in talent acquisition goals. However, you don’t need to hire a few resources full-time as you do for traditional or regular resources.
As reported by Fundera, about 82 percent of start-ups fall flat due to budget and cash flow plights.
Solution:
If you hinge on a limited budget, you can either outsource a small chunk of the project or hire an external dedicated development team within your budget. The external dedicated development or remote teams are inherited with the required skills and can start your project development immediately. It will save your time and budget in terms of hiring and training resources.
3. Time and planning
Things won’t happen as we think and plan. There are a plethora of reasons for delays in project development and meeting deadlines. Lack of planning and failure to set time limits for every task is a growing challenge for companies. Sometimes, companies try to chase unrealistic project goals without setting priorities and the right tools in hand. Undoubtedly, this will impact your project deliverables and meeting deadlines.
As per the report posted by the Project Management Institute, Only 41% of organizations with an enterprise-wide project management office (EPMO) report that it is highly aligned to the organization’s strategy.
Solution:
If you are struggling with project management and lack a perfect business backup plan, technology partners like Amzur can help you in strategizing and developing projects by understanding your project scope and business objectives.
4. Random changes in project requirements
Client requirements and expectations are changing with the evolution of technology. For example: If you are developing mobile applications for your client, he might need VR features to delight his customers like Lenskart and IKEA. What if you don’t have expertise in developing VR features and fail to convince your client? Undoubtedly, you will lose trust and further business opportunities.
Solution:
To avoid this kind of challenges and delays in project delivery, companies can hire resources on a contract basis — contract-to-hire (CTH) is a well-known strategy for startups and SMEs to engage resources for a while or on a project basis. As the resources have proven expertise in developing applications, you can use them as plug-and-play services to avoid missing project deadlines.
Want to know how IT staffing can be your perfect recruitment solution in the current talent-deprived market?
With more than 15 years of industry experience in IT staffing and project development, Amzur evolved with client’s requirements and delivered bespoke solutions that align with our client’s vision.
Unlike other staffing companies, Amzur has proven expertise in providing in-demand tech skills on a permanent or temporary basis. Apart from regular IT staffing engagement models, we provide flexible staffing solutions that can help you scale your team easily as per project needs.
Check out the link to know more about how Amzur helped “Khameleon Software” in developing and meeting project deadlines.
You can also download a whitepaper for free.
Source: Amzur
