Adjusting Project Deadlines

An Agile project can make timely adjustments based on the burn-down and burn-up charts. When extrapolating that the burn-down doesn’t result in the desired date, one can decide to adjust the method used in the project. This usually happens during iteration evaluation. Either the deadline of the project is shifted, or the scope is adjusted. Sometimes the composition of the team changes. Many projects choose to expand the team.

After two iterations of a project, it had already become clear that the speed achieved was insufficient to meet the deadline. The team produced an average of 25 points per iteration, while 35 were needed. Extrapolation of the burn-down told us that the project needed three more iterations than was initially planned. Because Brooks Law does not apply this early in the project, the team was expanded with a tester and a middle-ware developer. This upscaling had a good result. The productivity of the team increased and the proposed deadline was achieved, albeit with higher costs.