Given a project deadline and limited resources, what would you do to ensure that you complete the project successfully?

Question

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

When a project comes with stringent timelines and limited resources, we should
keep the following pointers in mind.
1. Business impact: Firstly we need to understand how the business will be
impacted by this feature and set the priority of the program accordingly with
all the stakeholders involved.
2. Program tracking: Considering the criticality of the program, the execution
should be monitored closely, to reduce any bottle neck situation and fix issues
in a lower TAT.
3. Appraise the Stakeholders: Send out program status reports on a daily basis
to appraise the stakeholders of the status, any critical blockers that would
require immediate attention.
4. Limited changes to scope: Avoid any critical change to the scope, to mitigate
derailment from the aligned plan.
5. Peer to Peer programming: Instead of following scrum based approach, we can
utilize the extreme program approach of the agile methodology. This will allow a
lot of the execution phase deliverables (like development, component testing,
etc) to happen in parallel and help in better management of the timelines.
6. Plan B: Have an alignment for backup resources, in case there are unplanned
leaves within the existing team.

Anonymous · Answer

Align on clear requirements, identify dependencies and stakeholders, secure
partner commits, track burndown, unblock teams, maintain risk inventory and key
decision logs. Trade off between resource, time or scope. Example, we wanted to
deliver for a pilot milestone with a hard deadline. The level of effort for the
P0 requirements was very high requiring 4 SDEs for 3 sprints but we had only 2
SDE resources to work with. We revised and reprioritized the P0s with our
product manager and delivered for the pilot in time.

Anonymous · Answer

Establish SMART goals and KPIs for the project with sponsor and stakeholders.
Prioritize requirements based on Reach, Impact, Confidence and Effort and drive
consensus on the MVP. Refine the task breakdown and high confidence effort
estimates. Develop a RAID log, communication plan and dashboards to track
progress and KPIs with stake holders. Track and clearly report progress  up,
down and sideways using an agreed reporting template with a clear executive
summary and structured details. For example, I recently led a project where we
launched a VR game from start to finish in working 10 days with establishing a
clear MVP which the 2 developers were able to deliver on time while the original
list of P0 items would have required 4 developers. We were able to adjust the
requirements to achieve much higher reuse from a previous project and reduce the
effort needed so the 2 developers could finish the task on time.

Anonymous · Answer

I’ll first review the project charter and project plan to identify the tasks
with higher priority along with their dependencies. After that I’ll find if
there is previous art that can be reused to speed up the execution of the
project like work done by other teams at the company or open source.
After that I’ll identify potential risks, mitigate them and communicate them
clearly to stakeholders and the teams contributing to the implementation to
ensure alignment. During the execution of the project I’ll keep adjusting the
execution plan as blockers are found, tasks become obsolete and new tasks are
added.
Ensuring that tasks in the critical path and high priority ones are completed
first allows for flexibility to still complete the project even when non
critical functionality is moved to future projects.
When I was managing the flutter security program we had a deadline of two years
to complete compliance with the SLSA security framework with two junior
resources. The program required the development of secure infrastructure but
instead of building everything with our resources the program was adjusted to
work in collaboration with the chromium team implementing only the  Github
integration and reusing Chromium infrastructure. Another challenge was that the
resources working in the project were software engineers with minimal knowledge
of security forcing a different approach for the program execution. Given the
challenges we focused during the first 6 months on low hanging fruit that
required mainly software engineering expertise while at the same time the
resources were getting security expertise in collaboration with google security
team and the open source security foundation. At the end the project was
finished on time even when the project execution plan was very dynamic changing
frequently based on the new learnings.

Anonymous · Answer

To handle a project with a tight deadline effectively, prioritize tasks based on
their urgency and importance. Break the project into smaller, manageable
segments, and focus on completing each one step by step. Ensure clear
communication with your team, delegate tasks efficiently, and don’t hesitate to
ask for help if needed. Stay focused, maintain a positive attitude, and remember
to take short breaks to keep your energy levels high.

Anonymous · Answer

I would utilize Agile framework for this kind of scenario which can provide
adaptability and flexibility. Using Jira and sprint planning and activiely
tracking team velocity. If any gaps, will try to find ways to upskill the
limited resources to increase sprint velocity at the same time conductive
retrospectives to understand what went well and what needs improvements. I will
also encourage team bonding activities to increase overall moral of the team.

Anonymous · Answer

I would make sure that the requirements and scope are defined very clearly
before kicking off the project, avoiding a scenario when a dependency is missed.
I would make sure that the capacity of the team can handle what has been defined
in the requirements and discuss trade offs to make sure that team’s capacity is
matching the necessary effort.

Anonymous · Answer

Align on clear requirements, identify dependencies and stakeholders, secure
partner commits, track burndown, unblock teams, maintain risk inventory and key
decision logs. Trade off between resource, time or scope.

Anonymous · Answer

jira agile methods, prioritization, phase the must needed tasks and release that
. 
put an effort estimate 
if I still can’t meet it, I would seek help from team members to see if we can
get some folks to be loaner for our project and can temporarily chime in and
contribute to the release

Anonymous · Answer

Must define what is the scope of project, have a clear and useful gantt chart,
allocate member to do multiple task without impact to critical path

Given a project deadline and limited resources, what would you do to ensure that you complete the project successfully?

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