The bottom line is that you and your company have to determine the importance of your documentation and then decide whether to spend more time and money to develope it, or to reduce the scope in order to meet the deadline. The plans you make determine the depth of the project and the decision you make about your documentation affects the plans you make and the resources you allocate for the project. These decisions ultimately affect your results. You can use this information to barter with your boss for more money, time, or other resources you need to turn out a quality documentation set. This is part three of a multi-part article that discusses project management issues, tips, techniques, definitions, and more that are essential for you or any technical writer to understand if you want to manage projects successfully.
Time is the scarcest resource.
Unless it is managed, nothing can be managed. The Rolling Stones were right when they sang about time in their song. Time keeps rolling along, regardless of whether you have a good handle on your project or not. Well, lest I sound too cryptic, let me explain what I mean by that statement. In some projects, your deadlines are firm because they are tied to other deadlines, and must be honored at all costs.