Tight Deadline: I Need a Project Done Yesterday — Now What?

A good software project needs well-structured planning, a well-prepared team, and adequate time for development. However, there are situations when things don’t go according to plan and, even with a competent team, a tight deadline leads to delivery problems. So what can you do in these cases?

What to Do When the Deadline Is Too Short?

The year 2024 ends, and the company director realizes that the software meant to increase sales in 2025 hasn’t even left the drawing board. The problem? The results the manager wants to show their boss in the first half of the new year depend on this new system being up and running.

Faced with this urgency, the project manager shifts priorities and throws all resources into developing the software — despite the tight deadline. The dev team is asked to work overtime and pressured to deliver in half the necessary time.

As a result, the team gets exhausted and starts making mistakes due to lack of focus. Bugs begin to surface, requiring even more work. Some developers are pulled away from their tasks to fix these issues, which causes further delays.

If, instead, they rush to deliver without addressing the bugs, the result is a faulty system prone to failures — leading to downtime and missed business opportunities. Ultimately, the company loses the sales boost it was counting on, and the manager falls short on the results they were supposed to present.

See how “squeezing" the software development process into a tight timeframe just doesn’t work? However, as mentioned in the video, it is possible to reduce delivery time while still respecting the time needed for each phase of the project.

Reduce Project Scope According to the Deadline

If there isn’t enough time to develop the full project, focus only on what’s essential for the software to function. This isn’t the time to get stuck on small details that don’t affect usability — and definitely not the time to test new ideas!

Use Third-Party Tools to Stay on Schedule

Not every system integration has to be done right away! In some cases, external tools can temporarily serve your needs while internal configurations are still being developed. For instance, you might use a payment intermediary before integrating your own gateways.

Speed Up Development with Parallel Teams

If you divide the project into three parts and assign each to a different team, development can happen three times faster! You can either hire a provider with multiple teams or contract multiple vendors — just make sure communication flows smoothly between them, as this is key to success and meeting deadlines.

Why a Committed Team Is Critical

It’s important to remember that there will still be pending tasks even after the system is deployed in production. This means your team must continue working until everything is finished.

In other words: when we talk about a “tight deadline,” we’re referring to the minimum viable version being ready for use. Developers will still need time and focus to complete the remaining parts — so your team must stay committed to the very end. Otherwise, all your efforts to meet deadlines and maintain quality will go to waste.

This approach may require more work and cost more upfront, but it solves the issue of tight deadlines without sacrificing quality. So if your company is facing a project that’s urgently needed “yesterday,” consider applying the strategies we’ve recommended above!

And if you need help developing your company’s software, count on Visie!

By Joana Kerr