You're facing a vendor demanding quick timelines. Are you willing to jeopardize project success?
When a vendor pushes for quick timelines, it's crucial to safeguard the project's success without burning bridges. Here are strategies to maintain balance:
- Communicate your constraints and negotiate for realistic deadlines that ensure quality.
- Assess the urgency and explore whether additional resources could meet the expedited timeline.
- If necessary, prioritize tasks to focus on critical milestones, potentially compromising on less vital features.
How do you handle pressure from vendors for quick turnarounds without compromising on quality?
You're facing a vendor demanding quick timelines. Are you willing to jeopardize project success?
When a vendor pushes for quick timelines, it's crucial to safeguard the project's success without burning bridges. Here are strategies to maintain balance:
- Communicate your constraints and negotiate for realistic deadlines that ensure quality.
- Assess the urgency and explore whether additional resources could meet the expedited timeline.
- If necessary, prioritize tasks to focus on critical milestones, potentially compromising on less vital features.
How do you handle pressure from vendors for quick turnarounds without compromising on quality?
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Valeriana Colón, Ph.D.
Learning Scientist | Future-proofing orgs with IT process innovation
(edited)"Haste makes waste." In my experience, rushing to meet a vendor’s quick timelines can often jeopardize project success. For example, I once faced pressure from a vendor to speed up deployment, but I insisted on a more realistic timeline that allowed for thorough testing and quality assurance. One helpful strategy is negotiating a timeline that balances urgency with project integrity, ensuring all critical milestones are met without cutting corners. A common mistake is compromising quality to meet deadlines—this often leads to costly errors later. It's better to prioritize a well-executed project over short-term speed.
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When facing a vendor demanding quick timelines, it’s essential to balance urgency with the project's overall success. Rushing can compromise quality, leading to mistakes, rework, and unmet objectives. Instead of conceding to tight deadlines, I would prioritize a collaborative approach. Open dialogue with the vendor allows for a better understanding of constraints while setting realistic timelines. This ensures high standards are met without risking the project's integrity. Ultimately, the focus should be on delivering a successful outcome, not just a quick one, as quality directly impacts long-term results.
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Prioritisation is the answer. Remember, you can only get 2 out of the following three: Scope, Quality, Timeline. Out of these 3, you have to choose which 2 are most important for all the stake holders as of now. People might say you must never compromise on quality but in my perspective quality can be compromised if the requirement is urgent and very specific. You can strengthen the quality once the immediate requirement is met. So, you can choose to cut the scope, compromise the quality and meet the immediate deadline but remember to COMMUNICATE this. Otherwise, you have a whole new problem on your hand :)
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**First and foremost - understand WHY the vendor needs this timeline:** - Ask direct questions about their business drivers - Identify if their deadline is truly fixed or flexible - Uncover any hidden pressures or assumptions - This understanding shapes your entire negotiation strategy Supporting strategies: 1. Document risks: Outline quality/scope tradeoffs 2. Set clear expectations: - Define quality standards - Establish checkpoints - Go for phased rollout - Set up parallel workstreams By deeply understanding the vendor's position first, you can better align solutions with their actual needs while protecting project quality.
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Project success requires a strategic approach to maintain both timelines and quality. Explain vendor the project timeline and consequences of delays. Which will also impact on both parties. Identify bottlenecks that causing the vendor’s delay or demands and provide support or clarify expectations. If timelines are not achievable, negotiate adjustments that will allow project progress without compromising quality. Be clear about what is non-negotiable and what can be adjusted. Develop a backup plan to address potential risk. Document so there is no such surprises. By following these steps you can mitigate the risk of delays and maintain control over the project’s success.
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I think instead of agreeing to a tight deadline that could compromise quality, the approach should be to: 1. Negotiate a realistic timeline based on critical project milestones. 2. Discuss potential trade-offs to meet tighter deadlines, such as reducing project scope or allocating additional resources. 3. Set clear expectations with the vendor about the risks involved with an accelerated timeline. 4. Explore creative solutions to streamline workflows or automate processes to save time. It’s crucial to make decisions that prioritize long-term project success rather than just meeting short-term demands.
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Ideally, the PM should sync up the success criterion and timelines of the project with the vendor during the initiation phase. However, some differences may appear during the project's execution. In my opinion, a sustainable approach is to discuss with internal stakeholders to figure out possible impacts or challenges caused. Then make decisions based on that outcome before starting further negotiations with vendors. Project manager should also investigate reason for any delay within the team (e.g. infra setup) and best way to remove any blocker.
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i Ask the vendor to define what the quick timeline entails, including deliverables, and outline the risks associated with moving too fast. It's important to know if the quality, scope, or functionality might be compromised.Evaluate your team's readiness to meet the vendor's proposed timeline. Do you have the resources or flexibility to adjust? If not, express your concerns clearly.
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If a vendor is pushing for shorter timelines, it’s crucial to weigh the impact on the project’s overall success. While meeting deadlines is important, rushing may compromise quality, overlook key details, or lead to unforeseen issues down the line. I believe that timelines should be realistic and achievable without sacrificing essential project goals or outcomes. Instead of accepting an aggressive timeline outright, I’d discuss options with the vendor. We could explore phased delivery, prioritize core components, or negotiate a slightly extended timeline that ensures quality standards are met. My goal would be to balance speed with success, ensuring the project is completed effectively without jeopardizing its long-term value.
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It could be relevant to apply agile thinking and define a minimum viable product. In this way it is realistic eventually to both meet tight deadlines and provide a product with the demanded quality and features.
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