Life in Balance: Amit D. Chaudhary’s Blog
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Chapter 29: Say No ‘or’(my alternative title) Say No to unrealistic schedules or deliverables

from My Job Went to India And All I Got Was This Lousy Book: 52 Ways to Save Your Job by Chad Fowler.

Excerpts from the chapter

• The quickest path to missing your commitments is to make commitments that you know you can’t meet. Saying “yes” is an addictive and destructive habit. There’s a big difference between a cando attitude and the misrepresentation of one’s capabilities.
• If I have a team member who has the strength to say “no” when that’s the truth, then I know that when they say “yes,” they really mean it.
• “I don’t know” is also a great thing to say when it’s appropriate. You might be responding to whether you can meet a date and need time to research the task before committing.
• Act on it: Keep a list of deliverables and dates promised and see how many did you meet. Do this for each project

My notes and comments

• Very useful advice. It is important to give realistic deadlines and meet them.
• My own guidelines for schedules:

1. Start with a range instead of a date and put a note and reminder saying when you will convert to specific date, this could be post design or in first week of development.

2. It is difficult to be accurate if the task is not broken down into small items, each being less than 4 days.

3. The chances of hitting the deadline increases if you have worked on the technology and area before.

4. Keep in mind other work\deliverables which are planned or might come up.

5. Sometimes one has to work to a schedule that they do not agree too, mention that to those in charge including probable delay and do your best.

6. Whenever possible, always do a complete reevaluation on a deadline miss and give it a new well thought of deadline instead of the tomorrow or monday morning deadline

Final verdict: Agree

Rest of Entries and Main Post: My Job Went to India, 52 Ways to Save Your Job: TOC, Notes and Comments