You’re working on an aerospace engineering project and a deadline suddenly changes. What do you do next?

1 Assess the impact

The first thing you need to do when you face a deadline change is to assess the impact on your project scope, schedule, budget, quality, and risks. How much time do you have left to complete your tasks? What are the deliverables and milestones that are affected? How will the change affect your resources, costs, and quality standards? How will the change affect your stakeholders, customers, and end-users? You need to answer these questions as objectively and accurately as possible, and document the results in a change request form or a project update report.

2 Communicate the change

The next thing you need to do is to communicate the change to your project team, manager, sponsor, and other relevant stakeholders. You need to explain the reason for the change, the impact on the project, and the proposed actions to mitigate the negative effects. You also need to solicit feedback, suggestions, and concerns from your team and stakeholders, and address them promptly and respectfully. Communication is key to maintain trust, collaboration, and alignment among all parties involved in the project.

3 Adjust your plan

The third thing you need to do is to adjust your project plan according to the new deadline and the feedback you received. You may need to revise your work breakdown structure, schedule, budget, quality plan, risk register, and other project documents to reflect the current situation. You may also need to negotiate new expectations, priorities, and trade-offs with your team and stakeholders. For example, you may need to reduce the scope, increase the budget, or lower the quality of some deliverables to meet the new deadline. You need to make sure that everyone agrees on the revised plan and signs off on it.

4 Execute your plan

The fourth thing you need to do is to execute your revised plan with diligence, efficiency, and professionalism. You need to monitor your progress, track your performance, control your changes, and report your status regularly. You also need to manage your team, resources, quality, and risks effectively. You need to identify and resolve any issues, conflicts, or problems that may arise along the way. You need to deliver your project outputs according to the agreed specifications, standards, and deadlines.

5 Learn from the experience

The fifth thing you need to do is to learn from the experience of dealing with a deadline change. You need to conduct a lessons learned session with your team and stakeholders at the end or after the completion of the project. You need to review what went well, what went wrong, and what can be improved in the future. You need to document the lessons learned and share them with your organization and peers. You need to apply the lessons learned to your next project and enhance your skills and knowledge as an aerospace engineer.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?