Book 5 of 16

Blowing a deadline

It will not be ready. Ways to say so that describe a problem rather than a failure, which is the only distinction that helps once the date has passed.

407 verses across 13 chapters

1. 1 I've reached the part I was dreading and it's as bad as I thought Unverifiable
2. 2 My notes from the kickoff describe a different project Not reassuring
3. 3 I've hit something I didn't budget for and it's eaten the buffer Plausible
4. 4 Every fix has uncovered a second thing Unverifiable
5. 5 I found the old version and the old version was better Concerning
6. 6 The spec is nine pages and four of them contradict each other Unverifiable
7. 7 I've been in the wrong document all week Concerning
8. 8 I've been given the wrong dataset and I've built on it Concerning
9. 9 There's a version of this in production nobody can account for Not reassuring
10. 10 The requirements arrived after the deadline was set Unverifiable
11. 11 I've had to stop and document something so the next person doesn't lose a week Unverifiable
12. 12 I need access I asked for in June Unverifiable
13. 13 There's a decision outstanding and everybody thinks somebody else is making it Unverifiable
14. 14 I built it against the old spec and the spec changed on Tuesday Unverifiable
15. 15 The last person to touch this left a note apologizing Not reassuring
16. 16 I underestimated it and I'd rather say that now than Friday Plausible
17. 17 I stopped because carrying on would have made it worse Unverifiable
18. 18 The test environment has been down since Monday Plausible