If you had to deliver a project ‘perfect and late’ or ‘good and on time’ which would you select and why?

Question

What are your thoughts about this?

undertone · Accepted Answer

Good and on time, you can always iterate

Munkers · Answer

I agree with the good and on time with the wise caveat that some industries (medical, nuclear, fabrication, etc) have to be perfect.  If you're in production and will fail an inspection, or software and IT and fail and audit, you really do need perfection.  If you're deploying a configuration, rolling out software updates, or something that you can iterate on, being agile and flexible are good.  The key I think if you are going to miss perfection is to communicate clearly and often.  A surprise of being late is very different than showing progress and articulating that while some features slipped, what you do have is solid.

Fosireg · Answer

Nothing is ever "perfect" which is why we should be iterating on the product each sprint. Every release should be good, while working to make it better each time. Does "perfect" mean there are no bugs? That the product is launched and never looked at again? Since it is perfect, it cannot be improved upon so why bother?

cjEnti · Answer

I would probably say good and on time.

njseen · Answer

Can I say it depends?

If you're in the medical field for example, or another highly regulated field like precision instrumentation (healthcare), perfect is second to none, even timeline. Because one error can cost lives or be catastrophic.

vroom86 · Answer

Most managers don’t want someone who is crippled by perfection. Time is money after all. Good [enough] is subjective which is why communication is important. Time is also arbitrary sometimes. I've had deadlines made because someone feels like it should be done, not because customers, for example, want it done by such and such date.

If you had to deliver a project ‘perfect and late’ or ‘good and on time’ which would you select and why?

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