3 Reasons Your Project Team is Missing Deadlines

Posted by John Edward on December 30th, 2020

When it comes to meeting project deadlines, a little mindset shift can go a long way to make your team successful. For instance, when your team is far behind their schedule, it is easy for them to set unrealistic or vague deadlines. In situations like this, you’ll often hear your managers saying, “I want this done ASAP.” Needless to say, this type of urgency bias will only aggravate the situation.

So, how can you ensure meeting your project deadlines? The first step is to identify the root cause of the problem. Once you know the reasons for project delays, you can easily find a solution. For instance, if your team is having issues collaborating with remote team members, you might need to invest in project collaboration software. If you are looking to monitor progress in real-time, a Project tracking system could be the solution. Here some common reasons project teams miss deadlines.

1. Falling victim to the planning fallacy

The term, “planning fallacy” was first coined by the famous Israeli psychologist Daniel Kahneman and his associate Amos Tversky in 1979. It simply refers to the human tendency of overpromising and under-delivering. People are notorious for underestimating the time they think they need to complete a task. This often happens despite their past experiences of missing deadlines. If your team is regularly missing project deadlines, they may have fallen victim to the planning fallacy. One way to deal with this type of unrealistic optimism is to track your team’s past performance records and plan accordingly. You can also take an outside view of your forecast. This should help you make an unbiased estimate of your deadline. Thankfully, you can now use project collaboration software to keep track of your past performance records for more realistic planning.

2. Not tackling issues as they arise

From technical mishaps to last-minute changes, hiccups are common in project management. So, when planning your project deadline, consider keeping a buffer for unexpected delays. At the same time, your project team needs to resolve any issues as they arise. So, check if your team is tackling issues in a timely manner. When unaddressed, small issues can quickly snowball into big problems. Also, make sure your team members are always in the loop and can identify or report any issues as soon as they arise. To that end, consider improving team collaboration using a robust project tracking system and project collaboration software.

3. Failure to communicate in a timely manner

Timely communication is critical to a project’s overall success, including hitting deadlines. However, communication doesn’t only mean team communication. You may also need to keep your clients, consultants, and stakeholders updated on the current status of your project. If you are working with team members from different departments, consider using a cross-functional collaboration tool to centralize communication, monitor progress in real-time, and make your team members accountable for making deadlines. This also helps make sure your team members stay on top of any important updates without any delays in communication.