The longer you take, the longer it will take

The longer you take, the longer it will take

It may sound like a tautology, but the longer you take to complete a project, the longer it's going to take to complete it. Put another way, every day you add to the final launch of the project increases the odds that you'll add even more days to the project.

For example, suppose you're launching a new AMS and you set the go-live for six months from today. As you approach go-live, you decide there are a few more things you'd like to have before go-live, and so you push the go-live out another month.

One unintended consequence of pushing the date later is that the team working on the project starts to lose focus. And the longer the project goes, the more they lose focus, and the longer the project takes. It becomes a self-feeding cycle.

The key is to focus on a minimum viable product (MVP) and to get live as quickly as possible. What's the bare minimum that we need to go live? That's our target!

Because the longer you take to complete the project, the longer it will take to complete it.

Wes's Wednesday Wisdom Archives

Data doesn’t need to be perfect to be useful

March 4, 2026

Data doesn’t need to be perfect to be useful “Your data doesn’t have to be […]

Don’t just clean data, clean reports and queries

February 25, 2026

Don’t just clean data, clean reports and queries One of the reasons I exhort my […]

Don’t forget, your staff have day jobs…

February 18, 2026

Don’t forget, your staff have day jobs… The vast majority of my work is finite […]

Beware the automated “How did we do?” trap!

February 11, 2026

Beware the automated “How did we do?” trap! One of the downsides of technology is […]

Hindsight is 20/20

February 4, 2026

Hindsight is 20/20 I’m currently working with a client that is moving from their legacy […]

Cheaper now; costlier later.

January 28, 2026

Cheaper now; costlier later. Most of my clients are very cost-conscious, understandably. After all, who […]

The unified shopping cart: Dreams vs. reality

January 21, 2026

The unified shopping cart: Dreams vs. reality One of the more common requests I hear […]

Don’t forget to celebrate!

January 14, 2026

Don’t forget to celebrate! Truth be told, I’m not a big celebrator. (Maybe it’s because […]

Three thoughts on duplicate records

January 7, 2026

Three thoughts on duplicate records Duplicate records are a reality in any database of any size, […]

Please don’t do this…

December 17, 2025

Please don’t do this… I’ve noticed a trend among online retailers that I want to […]

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top