Your team is rushing through project tasks. How can you ensure quality isn't sacrificed for speed?
When your team is racing against the clock, maintaining high standards can be tricky. To ensure quality isn't compromised, consider these strategies:
What strategies have worked for your team to balance speed and quality?
Your team is rushing through project tasks. How can you ensure quality isn't sacrificed for speed?
When your team is racing against the clock, maintaining high standards can be tricky. To ensure quality isn't compromised, consider these strategies:
What strategies have worked for your team to balance speed and quality?
-
When your team rushes through tasks, emphasize the importance of balancing speed with quality. Start by clearly communicating the project’s goals and the value of delivering high-standard outcomes. Break tasks into smaller milestones with realistic deadlines, allowing time for review and corrections. Encourage open communication so team members feel comfortable flagging issues or requesting support. Foster a culture where quality is prioritized by rewarding thorough, thoughtful work rather than just quick completions. Use tools like checklists or quality control processes to catch errors early. Regularly review progress as a team to ensure alignment. This approach maintains productivity without compromising excellence.
-
To manage tension caused by unrealistic client demands, focus on understanding their perspective and maintaining open, respectful communication. Address their needs empathetically while clearly explaining the limitations your team faces and the potential impact on quality. Offer alternative solutions that balance their priorities with realistic expectations, fostering a collaborative relationship. Internally, support your team by addressing concerns and maintaining their morale, ensuring they remain motivated to deliver their best work. The goal is to align everyone’s efforts toward shared success without compromising professionalism or quality.
-
Quality Control: I have personally been in these positions. It would be best if you worked next to the team, racing against the clock to ensure high quality. Only have achievable goals because not only will you get sloppy work, but you will not hit the deadline, and if you do, by the end of Production, there will be, below standards, mass confusion between team members. So, working next to the team and being a team player will get quality, and everybody will appreciate teamwork. Your team's morale is high because they met the goal and know that they produced high-quality standards.
-
A great device for short-circuiting these situations is an unexpected one: ask the question, "Are the deadlines reasonable and necessary?" Too often, I've seen demands for deliveries of nice-to-haves that the customers crave but then don't use of for weeks after receiving them. I've also seen fast deliveries on projects where requirements weren't clear, so deliverables were best guesses and didn't meet the needs. We can talk about multiple checkpoints by neutral parties so that quality is preserved. And about staggered deliveries allowing requesters to review the first parts while the last parts are still in process. But the bigger bang for your buck as managers is to question *why* everyone is scrambling around in the first place.
-
In my experience, I would set milestones, so no one is rushing but taking a very constructive approach to completing the tasks needed. I would also have each team member provide an update subsequent to reaching each milestone. The goal being to ensure quality control, engagement and accountability. Last, I would also model what an exemplary finished project looks like that benefitted our company based on the revenue generated, quality of engagement and appropriate timeline for completion.
Rate this article
More relevant reading
-
Project ManagementWhat do you do if your decision-making abilities as a project manager lack confidence?
-
Product R&DWhat are the most common conflicts in Product R&D and how can you resolve them?
-
Project ManagementHere's how you can identify if a project manager is over-delegating tasks.
-
Product R&DWhat do you do if your Product R&D professionals clash with project managers?