Depending on which research firm you believe, anywhere from 50-90% of IT projects are completed late. While I could rattle off any number of reasons for this, I think that (much of the time) it boils down to one problem: Being late is an option. The deadline is viewed merely as a suggestion…it’s not the end of the world if it’s missed. We’ll just inform management that the project is running behind schedule and then set a new deadline.

But, what if being late wasn’t an option?

What if you were working on a project with a very specific, and unmovable deadline? Obviously, you’d have to find a way to meet that deadline. I have a great example of an IT staff in this very situation.

The Boone County IT department needed to create an ePollbook application in time for an upcoming election. For those unaware, an ePollbook is used in place of paper-based pollbooks and lets voting officials review and/or process voter information electronically during an election. It simplifies the voter check-in process and eliminates long wait times.

However, Boone County’s IT department faced a couple problems: They weren’t sure how they were going to create it, and they had a very strict deadline. You can’t just move an election back because a project is behind schedule.

What did they do? They managed to create the application in time for the election, using their current skills and staff. Read the whole story to find out how they did it.