We usually tend to perceive deadlines in a negative context, as something bad that looms over us, causing us to work late and on weekends. However, I recently realized that this is not the full picture. A deadline is also a tool that can and should be used beneficially.

In the last few development cycles, our team has started to pay more attention to deadlines and, consequently, to estimating how long a task will take. This way, we aim to improve the statistics in the equation “planned time” == “actual time taken.” We began to allocate more time for investigation, tech design, and task breakdown.

With clear estimates for tasks that take risks into account, we can outline a timeline for what we will complete and in what order. Then, we can follow the plan. Based on this, each task gets a deadline.

🕛 A deadline imposes a constraint on one important resource — time.

If the deadline is approaching and the team sees they are falling behind, there are several approaches to consider:

1. Reduce the scope of the task. Ask yourself: “Can we deliver just the main flow and deprioritize the rest to do later?”
2. Sacrifice quality of execution — do it quickly and poorly (but this is a no-go for us).
3. Involve additional engineers. This works best if there is a Tech Design and Task Decomposition at that point.

What deadline is:

1. A deadline is an opportunity to stop doing premature optimizations. Perfectly abstract code that covers all future use cases can be written indefinitely. With a deadline in mind, one can prioritize “must-have” aspects and postpone “good-to-have” features.
2. A deadline allows the team to deprioritize complex architectural changes. “Is it possible to refactor the service separately from the feature outside the scope of the current task?”
3. If you miss a deadline, you can draw conclusions. Why did it happen? Is there an issue with the estimates? Is the problem that we don’t know the system we’re working in, leading to unknown unknowns? Are there external dependencies?

Therefore, a deadline is not a limitation; it is an opportunity, an additional tool. If you’ve provided a time estimate and then fail to meet it, this is an opportunity to understand what went wrong and make conclusions. It is a chance to reduce the scope of the task according to the time available.

Use deadlines ✅