Solving Budget Problems by being Creative

Problem

"I usually encounter project blockers due to budget restrictions. This may sometimes present itself as a hiring freeze or a halt on buying or renting of hardware. Yet, budget issue is usually not an acceptable reason to justify missed goals or delayed milestones."

Actions taken

"When faced with budget problems like in hiring additional headcount or procuring tools and materials, being creative and having a can-do attitude usually can save the day."

"During a hiring freeze, for example, you are not allowed to hire a FTE and one option for you is to hire smart contractors and to give them general job descriptions so they are flexible and can be assigned different tasks."

"Another example of a budget constrain is restriction to buy or rent tools (ex. servers) and an alternative to this is to move the whole stack into virtual environments on every member's laptop, thus helping to scale down cost."

Lessons learned

"Budget problems teach you to become creative. You cannot simply stop working on a project because of budget concerns and often you just have to keep your goal in mind and do some out of the box thinking to find alternatives. Avoid being bogged down by budget constraints and think beyond the typical solutions. When there's a will, there's a way."