Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

Our project timelines run the gambit. I haven't been able to nail down what is better, so fast you can't keep track or so slow that you can't remember when the project actually started. They both have pros and cons and in the end it is hard to tell what is just right.

Recently a few projects have come in that moved so fast we couldn't apply our standard process (whole other post) and although it's not ideal there are some positives. You move so fast that no one has time to over think and overspend, but it does leave room for late nights and missing things. Missing things doesn't mean they get swept under the rug, it means really late nights with multiple people working on a project...and a then a blown budget. But they aren't all bad, if you get a good scope document and everyone involved from the get go, it can run really smoothly. Enough budget and resources can make anything run smooth, even if the schedule is start to finish 2 weeks.

On the other side of the spectrum I have had a few that run slower than molasses in January. They seem like a dream, and that's exactly what they are. Things move so slow in snippets of time it is hard to remember what happened from week to week. The possibility of knowledge transfer becoming fuzzy is high and team turnover can happen. The group that kicked the project off might not have the bandwidth in 4 months time when things come around to them and in some cases might not be around anymore. However, if you have your original team and manage not to procrastinate you can execute some well strategized thoughts without

Timelines are like organic chemistry and each property, structure and reaction changes the compound. I don't know what the perfect timeline is. But if I had to guess it is anywhere from 1 week to 1 year.