Contingency: Planning for the Unexpected

Kirk: “How long to re-fit?”
Scotty: “Eight weeks. But you don’t have eight weeks, so I’ll do it for you in two.”
Kirk: “Do you always multiply your repair estimates by a factor of four?”
Scotty: “How else to maintain my reputation as a miracle worker?”

Star Trek III: The Search For Spock

I’m feeling distinctly under the weather today, so I’m going to keep this brief…

When planning your time, or if you’re asked for an estimate for your delivery, it’s well worth including ‘contingency’ time, just in case. This is in addition to the length of time it’ll take for you to actually physically do the work and includes:

• Feedback time allowance – for the client to get back to you with feedback on initial, intermediate and final drafts before they sign off on the project and it’s officially completed, phone calls, meetings, replying to emails etc etc
• Planning, research and development time – if it’s reasonable within the timescale of the production, it’s really great to actually get pencil and paper to brainstorm possible creative directions, to plan and schedule your time, and to create a sound design palette that may form the basis for your composition.
• Illness – such as, for example, today: I’ve a shocking cold, I didn’t get enough sleep, I’m all achey so it might even be flu (cue sympathy 😉 ), so it’s much better for me to take one day off to really kick this bug in the nuts and get shut. My other alternative is to drug up on paracetamol or some such flu remedies and work. However, in my experience, this plan of action has two drawbacks:
  1. Because of the medication and the underlying illness, my work is less likely to be up to standard.
  2. Because the body is working on detoxifying from the medication, it really does take at least twice as long to get better from the actual cold or flu, and so the cycle continues.

     It also helps that the method of getting better the fastest, and so getting back to work and staying on schedule, is also the the path of least resistance – take the day off. 🙂

Any More?

I’m sure there are plenty more possibilities that could also be factored in; these are just the ones that came to mind initially.

Be Realistic

Of course, the amount of time for each of these should depend on the duration and deadline of the whole project, the budget, how well you know the client’s working patterns (how quickly they get back to you with feedback etc), whether you have to work with other colleagues, what other work you have on at the same time to keep the roof over your head when the budgets are minimal…).

You can’t plan for every eventuality, but adding a little extra contingency time may cover the one or two that do occur, and still enable you to deliver on time.

Miracle Worker

Should the (generally unlikely!) situation occur that everything goes to plan without any little hiccups along the way, you may even beat your deadline, which will put you in good stead for future projects with the client… and hopefully do wonders for your reputation!