Should vs Could. Deadlines, Budget and the Small Dev Team

One thing small development teams should consider is the scope of work and how it pertains to meeting of deadlines, staying in budget and client relationship. No matter how good a development team is, resources play into the equation. The question needs to be asked, “With the resources on hand and the deadline in place, what should the requirements be?” Ask yourself, not could you build it a certain way, but should you build it that way. Tighter deadlines and smaller dev teams should be mindful of meeting expectations and deadline.

It is important to client relationships to make deadlines and provide a quality product. One way to provide that if your resources are limited, is to phase development. During discovery, analyze current team bandwidth. If you structure the deliverables correctly, features and capabilities can be phased in to match development resources.

I have been using the analogy of throwing a “hail mary pass” as trying to do everything all at once. From an account perspective, some account managers hold on to the thought of promising the world to the client. That is not a bad thing, unless it is all at once. In football, look at how often the “hail mary” works. Lots of risk, lots of reward, low percentage of completion. In development, it is the same way. We can get to the same result, by moving down the field in manageable blocks. And clients love to see that progress. The end result can be the same.

So, if you are a small development company with limited resources, don’t just ask yourself if “could you do something” but “should you do something.” It is an important question to ask. The important thing is to be able to do what you say and do it well.