When a highway journey deviated from what our old GPS had laid out, we would get this message: "Recalculating ..." On some trips we heard the message frequently.
When you prepare a business plan and your progress doesn't match the schedule you've laid out for yourself, you can (1) ignore your business plan, or (2) "recalculate" your time frames.
Ignoring your business plan is not a good strategy. It's like trying to get somewhere in your car but not bothering to note the address you're trying to find or the route that will take you there.
On the other hand, simply adjusting your time schedule has its own dangers. If you are working with money from investors, they will contact you over your non-compliance and may pressure you for an explanation.
The big danger comes when you're completely on your own and there's nobody to push you, hassle you, goad you into understanding the problem and how it might be corrected. This is a danger because either you recognize there is a problem and deal with it or you let your project drift, with the goal becoming more hazy daily.
Sometimes projects run behind schedule because the schedule itself is unrealistic. That which must be done to get from point "A" to point "B" cannot be done in the time allocated for the work. The current Obamacare software fiasco is an example of this. In time it will get worked out (probably) but first there must be some serious study of what went wrong, what is needed to correct it, and how much time -- realistically -- this might take.
Likewise with any business plan.
I'm thinking here of one of my own.
In this plan I have not reached the goals I set by the dates I set to reach them. So do I adjust the dates or do I examine the way I'm working to see if I could or should become more efficient?
Once I've dealt with these issues realistically I can adjust my business plan, realistically, all the while keeping my goal in sharp focus, even though it might now take longer to reach.
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