Has a customer of yours ever forgotten to get back with you about a feature you were developing for them? They were hot to finish, but then weeks went by and no word. Maybe the feature was almost finished, and you just needed a little more information to complete it. One phone call or email and it would be finished.
But guess what happens when these delays occur?
All the feature nuances you kept in your head are now slipping… A week goes by… Two weeks… A month… By now you’ve forgotten some of the little details that made finishing the feature so simple. You’ll have to relearn some of those and get the feature back on track. What would have taken a short time to complete will now take four times as longs.
When this happens, you are essentially reallocating resources to complete the job. In some cases when too much time has elapsed, you might just as well restart the project and reschedule hours to come up to speed. All that admin scheduling take time too.
Moral of the story: Don’t let these little delays creep in in first place. Stay on top of your dependent resources so they don’t leave you with a long forgetful delay.