A supplier date is a promise, not a supported plan. How should we schedule it?
Unreliable external forecastRequest evidence of remaining work and constraints, and model uncertainty around the supplier commitment. Keep the promised date distinct from your evidence-based project forecast.
What to do now
- Ask for milestone evidence and remaining activities
- Check prerequisites under your control
- Assess schedule exposure to delay
- Agree checkpoints and fallback actions
When to escalate
Escalate when
The supplier cannot support a date needed for a critical milestone.
Who decides
The project manager and relevant commitment owner
Example
A delivery promise is tested against manufacturing completion, shipping readiness, and site access instead of accepted at face value.
Mistake to avoid
Treating a confident email as a validated schedule.
Prevent a repeat
Compare forecast versus actual results for comparable tasks, separating effort, elapsed time, waiting and scope change.
Suggested ApprovedFlow setup
- Tasks
- Timesheets
- Resources
Keep planned dates and assumptions with the affected task, compare recorded actuals, and attach the revised forecast for review. See the platform
Related cases
- Reviews take longer than the work itself. How can we plan better?Unplanned approval lead time
- How should we report a finish-date range instead of one date?Uncertainty communication
- Our project depends on an external approval date we cannot control. What should we do?External decision uncertainty
- The issue deadline keeps moving. How do we make it meaningful?Unreliable issue commitments