September 14, 2006

5 + 1 Safety Rules for Dangerous Deadlines: Finding Quality Time

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 10:09 am

The Now Infamous Deadline Post

power writing at work

It happens often. A delicious project, a dream idea, lands firmly on our desks. It’s something we could make truly outstanding. Just as we’re about to fall in love, we find out one last detail — the inevitable string attached.

“It’s due when?”

“The drop-dead date is somewhere between ridiculous and can’t be done.”

A deadline like that is a dangerous thing.

A deadline like that puts too much focus on schedule.

Quality and Schedule

The quiet conflict between quality and schedule can be a problem on almost any project. The problem stems from a basic reality.

Schedule is something that everyone can see.
Quality is something you have to judge.

Human nature makes us want to look good in places where people look.



If a project becomes schedule-driven, it’s that much harder to do our best work. If we know that going in, we can offset the pressure of a dangerous deadline by remembering 5 safety rules. They’re our key to getting quality time — time to put real quality in what we do.

5 Safety Rules for Dangerous Deadlines

    1. Define the process and jobs in detail. Be clear on every step, what every job role is, how communication will happen, and how long each step will take. Make sure everyone agrees on the definitions and the job roles — both out loud and on paper.

    If you’re working alone, do this thinking for yourself. This planning is invaluable to saving time, predicting problems, and knowing what the project is really about.

    2. Check that process against the deadline. You may find your process ending three months later than the deadline date. Trim where you can, with this caution: Do not give up an essential step in your work. If someone volunteers to do part of your job for you, graciously decline.

    3. Set up an early sample checkpoint. An early checkpoint meeting flushes out conflicting assumptions and uncommunicated information. You’ll save time, and the work moving forward will be work that counts.

    4. Stick loyally to the plan except when the plan doesn’t work. Then, find a solution and communicate fast. A possible bad choice risks everyone’s time and leaves no time to recover.

    5. Know the next guy’s job and how to work in his favor. Sometimes a choice you make means nothing to you and a whole lot of work to someone else. Knowing which option to choose makes more time for everyone to spend on getting things done well.

    PLUS ONE: Bring in help. You need it. Get help to keep your work organized or to do lower level tasks. You need your mind free to focus on where you add quality, not on things that take your time. Thinking we’re the only ones who can do everything is the way we cut our value. Let others spend time doing the things that they are actually better at.

    Those 5 safety rules won’t make time where there isn’t any, but they will make the most of the time we have. In that way, they help us take our eyes off the schedule and put them back on our work.

    Project Over Deadline Passed

    We recover from that project, and the irony is that the work is like that schedule . . . people don’t see how long or hard we worked. . . . They see the finished project and whether it’s done well.

    Work that is unremarkable, rushed, or just plain stinky will be unremarkable, rushed or stinky forever.
    Quality work lasts and lasts too.
    It’s human nature to want to be the one who worked on quality.

    Deadlines don’t make quality projects happen. People who invest quality time in their work do.

    –ME ‘Liz” Strauss
    If you think Liz can help with a problem you’re having with your writing, check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

    Related articles:
    4 Writing Tips I Learned from Peter Gabriel
    Great Find: Is Your Design C.R.A.P.?
    The 9 Rights of Every Writer — Peer Pressure Is for Jr. High School
    Content or Copy: Ignore the Difference at Your Own Risk


    Filed under Basics, Content, Design, Productivity, Successful Blog |



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    17 Comments to “5 + 1 Safety Rules for Dangerous Deadlines: Finding Quality Time”

    1. September 14th, 2006 at 11:27 am
      TechZ said

      Deadlines, my blogging enemy! I have so much to blog, but so little time managed effectively to do so, atleast with some planning that I learned off blogs I’m getting to a point I can blog + meet deadlines properly.

    2. September 14th, 2006 at 11:35 am
      ME Strauss said

      Hi Techz!
      The key is to not let the deadlines be more important than what you write. It sounds like you have that under control. :)

    3. September 14th, 2006 at 11:54 am
      Scot Herrick said

      Hi Liz,

      This is a very thoughtful post and don’t think I’ve ever seen ’schedule’ as what people see and ‘quality’ as what people need to judge put together like that. Even though it’s true, of course!

      The writing tips have really been a great series.

      Thanks…Scot

    4. September 14th, 2006 at 11:58 am
      ME Strauss said

      Hi Scott,
      i used to tell my favorite boss that I could screw up his company and I’d be gone for 18 month before he figured it out — because quality, especially in intellectual property, is something that you don’t see until you take the time to use the product, not something you see when you put it in a catalogue.

      There are people in publishing on the product side who made their career by moving ahead of their product being “found out.” :)

    5. September 14th, 2006 at 3:54 pm
      Whitney said

      I would have written “Make sure everyone agrees on the definitions and the job roles — both out loud and on paper” in red, 54pt letters. I can’t count the number of times that crunch-time projects were jeopardized because the team leader didn’t heed that advice — and then spent too much time dealing with all manner of fallout.

      A “plus one” suggestion for “project over, deadline passed” would be to gather the team over a breakfast or lunch meeting (if you offer food, they will come) and do a post-mortem on the project. What worked, what didn’t? What resources did you look for but didn’t find and had to improvise? What things from this project could be re-used? An afternoon spent searching for graphics or stock art (to no avail) might point to the need for a graphics library on your network. You might need boilerplate text to reduce the amount of NEW writing you do in a crunch. Did you discover players who are stars in crunch mode? If so, maybe create a triage team that can be called if (ahem…when) another last-minute project comes up.

      Post-mortems are effective at helping you find way to shave time off the next project, whether you’re shaving off a half-hour, a half of a day, or a half of a week. Not only it will it help you for last-minute projects, it will yield results that can help ALL projects.

    6. September 14th, 2006 at 5:42 pm
      Chris @ Martial Development said

      The “quality vs. schedule” tradeoff is a familiar one to software developers. From our point of view, your advice is sound.

      For a thorough examination of the topic, I recommend the book “Rapid Application Development”. Don’t worry; it’s written for managers, not programmers.

    7. September 14th, 2006 at 8:01 pm
      ME Strauss said

      Hi Whitney!
      I’m right with you on that “get those definitions down or die with the deadline.” People think because we say the same words that we mean the same thing. That’s just not so. That’s just no so. No. no. no.

      Post mortems are a great idea when done by a person who knows how to do one. They’re deadly when the folk who get step one wrong try to do them. :)

      I love your reasoning for post mortems. It proves you know the hows and whys of them. Especially nice is the identifying the stars of the project who will be useful and valuable the next time around. :)

    8. September 14th, 2006 at 8:04 pm
      ME Strauss said

      Chris @ M. D.
      Welcome!
      Thanks for pointing out the correlation. It doesn’t surprise me. My work with oniine product tells me that’s what I would expect. Though you should be glad that you don’t have linear book folks around to ask questions . . . . ;) That gets a bit dicey when the project isn’t one that can be explained linearly.

      I’ll be over to check out your link. Thanks for including it. I love the title!

      You’re not a stranger anymore. You’re a friend now.

    9. September 14th, 2006 at 10:00 pm
      cat said

      Liz, excellent post. It is spot on for the design industry. The problem is that clients do not realise how long things take (even when you lay it out for them). And no matter the turnaround they ALWAYS send in unnecessary edits late in the game, making sure the ever-tightening deadline is in danger.

      Quality suffers. It’s noticed immediately as graphics are like that (print and web). Sadly, the timeline is not taken into account when the criticisms come in. Blame is shifted down the line to the design team (even though the client was aware when they signed off).

    10. September 14th, 2006 at 10:08 pm
      ME Strauss said

      Hi Cat,
      It seems that those of us who’ve been there recognize the problems that defined the solutions that wrote this post. :)

      For step one I have actually sat around a table and passed a sheet of paper through the entire process — every step of editorial and design of an entire four color book, with client sign off at all stages, and stopping to add new elements in the middle.

      I over-exaggerated the number of sign offs and changes to show how late the project would be. Once it actually worked well enough to scare the client’s pants off such that in every design meeting, we made a pact that there was no leaving until all changes were final and signed off and agreed.

    11. September 15th, 2006 at 5:17 am
      Rico said

      I guess the drawback to maintaining a blog or two (or even more!) is that you gain an additional commitment. I myself try to do my best to write the best posts I can (for my personal and pro blog) and that’s why I find myself rushing against my own and others’ deadline (1x a day for personal, 2x a day for pro). :( Guess that’s the price to pay for passion! :)

    12. September 15th, 2006 at 5:31 am
      ME Strauss said

      Yeah, Rico,
      I do know what you mean. Whenever I get in a time crunch of sorts, I stop and wonder if one more thing piles on what will I give up? I have a conversation with myself each time that justifies the life of each of my blogs . . . it would be something sad to give one up.

      It would be even sadder to let one go downhill slowly because I let them get driven by time.

      I know you know what I mean.

    13. September 15th, 2006 at 7:08 am
      Rico said

      That’s why I don’t know how you create so much wonderful writing, day in and day out! Is that the rewards of experience? :-o

    14. September 15th, 2006 at 7:16 am
      ME Strauss said

      Hi Rico,
      I think that experience helps make it easier in that I know how to respond when things aren’t working. I’ve made friends with my process and know how to use it. . . .

      That being said, I would say that the most important thing is that I always take time before I write to reflect/think. I leave the world of what’s around me and move inside my head. I access the writer in me before I try to write.

      For me, that’s the key to getting my words on paper, finding my voice first, they trying to say things.

    15. September 15th, 2006 at 8:23 am
      Rico said

      Ah yes… more wisdom to print out and place on my bulletin board! :) Thanks Liz!

    16. September 15th, 2006 at 8:25 am
      ME Strauss said

      Wisdom . . . what a lovely word. If I ever have wisdom you are welcome to all of it. :)

    17. September 26th, 2006 at 12:46 pm
      Successful Blog - Help! I Need an Editor — Too Many Choices and Only One Manuscript said

      [...] When you’ve made a match, use the procees in this post 5 + 1 Safety Rules for Dangerous Deadlines: Finding Quality Time to make sure that your work and your relstionship go smoothly and in the right direction. [...]

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