Communication about risks
At some point in your career, you will miss a deadline either because the deadline was too short in the first place or unexpected events/requirements came along. As you become more and more senior, there are some expectations that you can better scope efforts, but more importantly that you can communicate well about risks.
For important deadlines (the ones where other work depends on – e.g. if there are external comms aligned with your launch), as soon as you think you (or your team) may missed the deadline, you should communicate about it for a few reasons:
- It informs people about the risk of your project slipping. They will be more receptive if you really end up missing the deadline.
- People who depend on your project can alter their timeline/roadmap – e.g. they may prioritize other work items first and delay the ones that depend on your launch
- Your leadership may be able to help with different levers – they may be able to allocate more staffing, trim down requirements for the initial launch etc.
Communication about risky deadlines is similar to escalation about outages – overcommunication is better than inadequate communication. No one will complain that they don’t need to hear that your project (and their dependency) may be delayed.
Early communication about risky deadlines can happen as soon as the deadline is being discussed. For example it is fair to pick a very aggressive timeline as long as you explicitly flag that it is a risky commitment – e.g. if you have no buffer at all, a single bad commit and a canceled push may put you beyond the deadline. The stakeholders have to understand the risk they are taking – and can’t expect your team to work 24/7 because they decided to pick a too aggressive deadline.
A shot of adrenaline can be fun once in a while but don’t abuse it – or you’ll eventually burn out..