Managing Timelines

Scope

Covers

• Turning a deadline or target date into a clear commitment model (commit vs forecast vs target)
• Building a phase-based plan (Discovery → Solutioning → Build → Launch) with decision gates
• Creating a milestone tracker with simple RAG (red/amber/green) status and escalation triggers
• Protecting the team when a deadline is real (treat it like P0, reduce distractions, control scope)
• Setting a governance + comms cadence so stakeholders get early risk signals, not surprises
• Handling “fast demo, slow production” cadence (especially for AI/ML features) via explicit outer-loop work

When to use

• “We need to ship by . Create a timeline/milestone plan and status cadence.”
• “We have a launch date; convert this into phases, milestones, and a comms plan.”
• “Stakeholders keep asking for dates; define what we can actually commit to and when.”
• “The project feels off-track; set up RAG status + weekly exec review and escalation.”
• “We can demo quickly, but production will take longer—help set expectations and plan the outer loop.”