Ask These 3 Questions to Reality-Check Engineering Estimates

Are Your Engineers Nailing Project Estimates?

If not, here's what you can ask them to course-correct.

Engineers have admirable analytical skills, but they tend to minimize the importance of project elements that aren’t related to the code itself. That’s why it’s your job as the executive to reality-check the project timeline estimate once it’s delivered to your desk.

Otherwise, you risk down-the-line disruptions, headaches, broken agreements, revenue loss, and developing a negative business reputation.

My approach is as simple as asking your engineers these three questions and knowing how to dig deeper until you’re confident in the plan:

• Have you considered the time we’ll need to integrate with partners? Healthcare SaaS solutions are much less valuable in isolation. They need to connect to the entire ecosystem to be functional for the end user. What I often see is that engineers think in terms of code, forgetting that it takes time to connect with EHRs, health plans, clearinghouses, PBMs, and other partners.
• Do you have a thorough launch and testing plan? The project should begin with a precise itinerary, even though it might change based on different circumstances. Without a structured approach, a delayed launch is the least of your concerns — we’ve seen legal overlooks that can pause company operations for up to a year.
• Did you outline all the risks and ways we can deal with them? Perfect planning for every possible scenario is impossible, but it pays to try to predict potential pitfalls. Get your team to document all conceivable risks and reasons the release might be delayed, and then devise ways to prevent or fix these issues.