A plan is not perfect unless it plans for imperfections.
During both of my undergraduate degrees I have been a dependable student and team member. I turn in assignments on time, stay ahead of deadlines, and am usually the one to pick up the slack if another member drops off. For my final project, however, I might be the one who needs to ask for help.
Do to unavoidable circumstances earlier this week, members of my family were exposed to Covid-19 and now the whole family is sick including our son who just turned two. Now instead of diving into research for a new and exciting project, I’m spending most of my time comforting a screaming child and hoping his unvaccinated body doesn’t develop any serious complications.
Fortunately, I have excellent team members. During our first week together we laid out clear steps and procedures of not only how to tackle our project, but what to do when one of our members struggles to keep up. Through our established network of clear communication I was able to inform the team of my difficulty and the unexpected road block won’t derail our project or the next deadline.
Just as our code should be designed to handle errors and exceptions, a project plan needs to account for failures from even the most dependable of developers. Safety measures such as code reviews and planning to finish ahead of deadlines prevent mistakes and relieves pressure when disasters eventually happen. Regular, quality communication within a team ensures that everyone knows what is going on and is ready to jump in if coverage is needed.
Life happens to all of us. It is foolish to pretend otherwise and disastrous not to plan for disaster.
