TL; DR:
- A missed date is not a PIP
- Ownership means finding the next move
- Manager accountability covers people and outcomes
- No livestream... I am on vacation!
When A Developer Misses The Deadline, Who Owns It?
A question came up in the comments about what happens when an engineer does not deliver a project on time.
Does the developer get put on a performance improvement plan? If the manager cannot get the developer back on track, does the manager get put on one too?
It is a fair question, but it starts from a framing that I think is too simple. A project slipping does not automatically mean somebody failed at their job. Real projects have dependencies, changing constraints, technical surprises, and decisions that turn out differently than expected.
The more useful question is this: When the plan stops working, who takes ownership of figuring out what happens next?
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