Establishing a schedule during planning and getting agreement from all parties is an important part of any project. Once the schedule is accepted, maintaining it during production goes a long way to prevent issues that can jeopardize a project’s success.

Momentum
A great deal of effort is consumed during the start-up of any activity. Having stops and starts in production is costly and can ruin a budget very quickly. When a project is moving along smoothly and work is getting completed, effort is directed to the resources doing the work while administration is minimal.

Continuity
Continuity is an essential part of any creative process. Once a designer, or programmer is in their “zone” they are very productive and the quality of work is at its peak. After a long break, it may be impossible for a designer to get back into the same mind-set to finish their work as intended. Technical people also loose their perspective and have to spend time and effort to pick up where they left off.

Risk
The longer a project takes to complete the higher the probability of failure. This risk is often overlooked, especially by the client, since it’s the supplier’s responsibility to complete the project successfully. Business needs, creative direction, financials, technology, and resources change over time. The project may be affected by any of these changes and require a change in scope.

Cash Flow
Delays affect cash flow in several ways. Billing may be delayed if it’s contingent on milestones, or deliverables and expenses my be higher because of availability, or market rates. Available funding may no longer be available.

Take Precautions

Although work stoppages may not be preventable, there are some ways to plan and create incentives to keep a project on schedule, or minimize the impact they have:

• Have clauses in your contract that address how delays will be handled.

• Do not have your billing contingent on deliverables or milestones. Get paid on schedule even though work may be stopped.

• Only guarantee rates and/or expenses for a specific time period.

• Designate desirable stopping points at milestones so productive stretches in the schedule won’t be interrupted unnecessarily.

• Check resource availability for worst case scenarios, have back-ups and include this extra expense in the project cost.

• Don’t begin work until the schedule is agreed upon.

• Work in short cycles that naturally create stopping points.