How to get a handle on a software project that feels out of control

Quite some time ago, your engineering team started working on a project, and it’s still not finished several months later. You have no idea when the the team is going to deliver, and it’s possible that you don’t even know exactly what they are going to deliver. Periodically you ask them for a “status update,” and maybe they give you an estimated timeline, but it seems like the promised date continues to slip more and more no matter how much you badger them.

A lot of us have been in this situation at some point, and it isn’t a great place to be. As a product manager or a founder, it makes you feel incompetent, and it puts a lot of strain on your relationship with the engineers. At this point things have clearly gotten out of control, but there are some things you can do to get things back on track.

1) Agree on a single shared goal

First of all, you need to make sure that your team has a shared goal. Out of control situations often crop up when there is a misalignment of expectations between engineering and the rest of the team. For example, the engineers could be focused on perfecting the technology, while leadership could be focused on getting out an end-to-end demo that they can show to customers. These two goals aren’t necessarily incompatible, but can…