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CHAPTER 7 PROJECT SCHEDULING AND TRACKING 167

point of view of the person who sets the deadline. But common sense says that legit-
imacy must also be perceived by the people doing the work.

7.1.1 Comments on “Lateness”
Napoleon once said: "Any commander in chief who undertakes to carry out a plan
which he considers defective is at fault; he must put forth his reasons, insist on the
plan being changed, and finally tender his resignation rather than be the instrument
of his army's downfall." These are strong words that many software project man-
agers should ponder.
The estimation and risk analysis activities discussed in Chapters 5 and 6, and the
scheduling techniques described in this chapter are often implemented under the
“I love deadlines. I constraint of a defined deadline. If best estimates indicate that the deadline is unre-
like the whooshing alistic, a competent project manager should "protect his or her team from undue
sound they make as [schedule] pressure . . . [and] reflect the pressure back to its originators" [PAG85].
they fly by.”
To illustrate, assume that a software development group has been asked to build
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a real-time controller for a medical diagnostic instrument that is to be introduced to
the market in nine months. After careful estimation and risk analysis, the software
project manager comes to the conclusion that the software, as requested, will require
14 calendar months to create with available staff. How does the project manager
proceed?
It is unrealistic to march into the customer's office (in this case the likely customer
is marketing/sales) and demand that the delivery date be changed. External market
pressures have dictated the date, and the product must be released. It is equally fool-
hardy to refuse to undertake the work (from a career standpoint). So, what to do?
The following steps are recommended in this situation:

? What should 1. Perform a detailed estimate using historical data from past projects. Deter-
we do when
management mine the estimated effort and duration for the project.
demands that we 2. Using an incremental process model (Chapter 2), develop a software engi-
make a deadline neering strategy that will deliver critical functionality by the imposed dead-
that is line, but delay other functionality until later. Document the plan.
impossible?
3. Meet with the customer and (using the detailed estimate), explain why the
imposed deadline is unrealistic. Be certain to note that all estimates are
based on performance on past projects. Also be certain to indicate the per-
cent improvement that would be required to achieve the deadline as it cur-
2
rently exists. The following comment is appropriate:
"I think we may have a problem with the delivery date for the XYZ controller
software. I've given each of you an abbreviated breakdown of production

2 If the percent of improvement is 10 to 25 percent, it may actually be possible to get the job done.
But, more likely, the percent of improvement in team performance must be greater than 50 per-
cent. This is an unrealistic expectation.