Projects running late are a recurrent theme
in the press and in folklore. They can be late for many reasons, and I don’t wish
to belittle technical complications, cutting edge development, unforeseen
problems, but…
The best way I know of finishing on time is
to start on time. How can we judge when we should start? A simple rule is that
we should start “as late as necessary, then as early as possible”.
Late as necessary makes us think about
waiting till we have the right information ready, preceding tasks complete, the
environment or circumstances suitable.
As early a possible reminds us that it is
only when we really start a job that we find out how easy or hard it is, what
might be required, what the problems are. Starting early gives us more time to
sort all of that out. When we hit issues we can always try and throw money and
resources at it, but we can only with difficulty add more time (overtime, long
shifts, weekend working).
