Always negotiate your deadlines! (How to gain trust and prevent working overtime)
Successful engineers know how to negotiate within the constraints of the project management triangle: adjust the project scope, optimize the timeline, and allocate resources effectively
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We had the PRD (Product Requirements Document) ready. We had to release the feature in 3 weeks.
I had worked on the architecture for this feature for the entire year. It was my responsibility to come up with a plan to implement it.
I identified the workstreams: We needed 4 people working on this.
Then my manager looks at me and says: “You need to implement this by yourself. I can spare capacity from our senior engineer... But he has other responsibilities besides this project”
What would you do?
People a bit more shy may lower their gaze and try to do by themselves as much as possible, missing the deadline.
People with too much backbone would say that it’s impossible and they’d talk for a while about why it’s set for failure.
Solution-oriented people would negotiate.
I have never read a business book where two parties signed a deal with the first offer. There’s always room for negotiation, there’s room to work together on a solution we both like.
The project management triangle
The value of an engineer isn’t only in writing code. The interaction with management and product are great opportunities to make an impact.
Product Managers (PMs) define the scope of their requirements documents. Software Development Managers (SDMs) work with engineers to manage timelines and team capacity.
There’s something called the project management triangle.
Scope → What to do. That’s the PM territory.
Deadline → The deadline. Sometimes defined by leadership, sometimes communicated by the SDM.
Cost → How many engineers to dedicate to the project. Also SDM territory.
In my example from before, I had a deadline from leadership. I couldn’t change the costs as my team had other competing priorities.
So I negotiated the scope.
