Tell me about a time where you delivered a project late.

When was the last time you were unable to deliver within the timeframe originally specified?

What happens when you realize you will be unable to deliver by the set deadline?

Situation:

In this example, I am suppose to migrate a small application from the data center to AWS. This application is mostly used by an internal team.

Problem:

Since I have migrated a couple of products in the past. I figured I would take a shorter time. So, then the Project Manager requested for a dateline. I provided an underestimated timeline. As I started working on the project, I realized that the team that I am working with does not have docker experience. So, they do not know how to contanerize their application. This is awhile ago - and this team were only used to building monolithic applications.

Solution:

I ended up having to learn about their application, teaching them about docker and providing sample docker files. This wasn't enough. I also had to actuallly write their docker files - including create a small testing suite using docker compose. All this ultimately cost a lot of time and effor and I missed the dateline.

Lesson:

From this experience, I have learned not to be optimistic about setting dateline. I admit I was wrong and I should have communicated with the product team, understand their needs and technology shortcomings. Communication was key, and overconfidence can be detrimental. Going forward, I spent a lot more time understanding the product workflow, technology debt of the team I am working with and setting up realistic timelines. I rather be honest than provide a superficial timeline. Without a realistic deadline, the team can feel burnout and deliver subpar work.

Impact:

So the impact from this experience is that, most of my future project have better dateline and I set better, more organized timeline for myself and my team in general.