In software development, there are often technical difficulties that cannot be anticipated. Sometimes, it is purely that the team just needs the time to do the work. But, sometimes your team is dependent on another team within your organization and you are blocked from proceeding because either you don’t have access to make the changes that will let you proceed or your team does not have the know-how. Here are some tips for escalation so everyone can save face:
- Pinpoint what exactly is blocked and explain the impact of why it matters. For example, if we don’t have access to the authorization API, our testers cannot finish the regression testing cycle and our delivery timeline will slip a week for each week that we don’t have the API.
- Be collaborative and respectful. State that you have worked with the owning team and that their roadmap is tight so little to no progress has been made. Ask the stakeholder to permit time to find a short-term workaround.
- Come with solutions for a path forward. Perhaps you can offer engineers to pair up or you can be granted temporary access under supervision.
See the Escalation tip video from The Wild West of Software Project Management series below.