This week in the pm-clinic discussion forum: Topic #54 – Winning at schedule chicken.

Dear pm-clinic,

My project team is one of three on a large project. We are currently in a big game of schedule chicken (each team thinks the other team is further behind schedule than they are). The result is escalation: none of the teams are backing down and are protective of their knowingly slipping schedules on the basis that the other projects are slipping worse.

As a leader of my part of the project, how do win this game for my team? Do I just try to get better at playing schedule chicken (how do I do that?) Or should I be looking for ways to defuse the game, and try to get my peers and superiors to replace it with a better game (how do I do that)?

– CSC (Chicken at schedule chicken)