Managing projects with uncertain deadlines

Abstract In conventional project management, the project manager is given a deadline and is responsible for making decisions assuming this deadline will not change. But in reality, project deadlines frequently change. Conventional project management addresses unanticipated changes in the project deadline with external change control processes. If this external process changes the deadline, the manager will replace the original deadline with the modified deadline. The manager is still suppose to assume this modified deadline is fixed in making project decisions. As this paper will show, recognizing deadline uncertainty can substantially improve the value of the manager’s decisions. Deadline uncertainty could be formally addressed in project management by making dramatic changes in conventional project management. But given the widespread use of project management, making such dramatic changes might not be feasible. This paper presents a much more easily implemented approach to incorporating deadline uncertainty into managerial decision making which makes no changes to conventional project management procedures.