In our experience, this situation happens quite frequently, which we find peculiar because most project managers are people that DO find a way to get things done and that was why they were named as project managers in the first place! In many instances, this is ignorance of what it takes to actually deliver the project; in others it truly is to see what the project team is capable of doing. In either instance, wise moves by the project manager can help appease the demanding sponsor, while not “sacrificing” the project team in the process. The key here is project history information.

Virtually every project management book or education course talks about the need to keep and archive accurate project records. Yet, at an organisational level, this is rarely done. The smart project manager will not wait for a corporate edict or process to be implemented to start this data archiving. Do it yourself! Substantive, factual data concerning past projects can be the most effective way to instil reason into the deadlines expected by senior management. A meaningful conversation can result between the aggressive sponsor and project manager when the PM has data that shows how long prior projects have taken to accomplish what is being requested in a project. The data can be broken down into major tasks, with variable and fixed length items listed separately. For instance, ordering products or services from another organisation requires a certain lead time that can’t always be avoided. (If so, you can ask the sponsor to support your escalation within the service provider’s organisation.) After this breakdown of major tasks is listed, and the number of hours the staff was working on a weekly basis to bring the prior project to conclusion is noted, key questions can be discussed with the aggressive sponsor. These questions include, but aren’t limited to:

• Do you expect a certain level of overtime to be demanded to achieve this project deadline?
• Given the importance of getting this project done on such an aggressive timeline (especially when compared to prior project deliveries), can you assist me with prioritisation of team members work so I can have them dedicated to this project during key intervals?
• Given the past history, without any different people (no substantial variance of skills) and the same processes and tools (assuming they have not changed) do you have any thoughts on what would change to allow us to deliver this project in a substantially shorter timeframe?
• If you do want us to be innovative to shorten the timeframe (reference the last question) can we have some additional funding to do research and/or ‘proof of concept’ testing on different techniques?

The result of this approach won’t guarantee you a more reasonable deadline, but it does often result in a more doable schedule expectation, and if not, at least it gives you a basis upon which you can discuss project schedule risks in future status discussions.

• Not knowing what challenges face the project team, or the sponsor is ‘pretending not to know’ those challenges

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