Scheduling conflicts: 8 practical steps to prevent and resolve scheduling conflicts

In modern project management, scheduling conflicts represent one of the major challenges that can disrupt your working day and significantly impact your teams’ productivity. Whether you’re faced with the overlap of two important meetings or last-minute changes to your work schedule, adopting a proactive approach is essential to maintaining the efficiency of your projects.

If you’re in charge of a project, you’re likely to face a scheduling conflict at some point. Whether it’s a front-end developer working simultaneously on two major components, or a UX editor with several project deadlines set on the same day, these situations can significantly disrupt your workflow.

In fact, a few years ago, the Teambook Agency Productivity Report revealed that resource planning was the main challenge for 62% of agency managers, and we think that figure has risen since then! But scheduling conflicts don’t have to disrupt your project. Rigorous planning and effective prioritization can get your projects back on track.

This guide explains the causes of scheduling conflicts, how to avoid them and how to react when they do arise. We wrote it after consulting several experienced people, including a digital coach, a product manager and a CEO; all experts in resolving scheduling conflicts. 😉

What is a scheduling conflict in project management?

A schedule conflict occurs when several tasks, appointments or commitments overlap in time, preventing them from being carried out according to the original schedule. This situation creates a conflict between different priorities and can paralyze the progress of your projects.

As a result, employees risk becoming overwhelmed and unable to complete their tasks on time. Scheduling conflicts can lead to tension within your team, not to mention delays in workflow, missed deadlines and (perhaps even) failed projects.

The most frequent types of scheduling conflicts

Meeting conflicts

Meeting conflicts are probably the most common type of conflict. They arise when you have to organize meetings in time slots that are already occupied, or when a meeting room is double-booked. These situations create tension and delay decision-making.

Shared resource conflicts

Scheduling conflicts can arise for a variety of reasons, from last-minute meetings to poor communication to a lack of visibility on the availability of your resources.

For example, you might assign tasks to the UX editor of a project you’re managing, only to discover that he’s swamped on another project. Not checking with other project managers or team leaders about the availability and capabilities of a shared resource is a disaster.

Marc Dubois, senior consultant in digital project management and trainer, shares his experience of scheduling conflicts:

“In my 15 years of experience, I’ve found that scheduling conflicts are a project manager’s number one nightmare. They always arise at the worst possible moment and can jeopardize months of work.

The main problem? Teams work in silos. Each project manager plans in his own corner without considering that his resources may already be stretched elsewhere. It’s a perfect recipe for disaster.”

Assigning team members an unrealistic workload or overloading schedules to capacity is another cause of scheduling conflicts. With no leeway to deal with delays, one-off tasks or last-minute changes, tasks pile up.

This is confirmed by Sophie Martin, Product Director at a technology scale-up:

“The mistake I see all the time is scheduling teams at 100% capacity. It’s mathematically impossible! As soon as the unexpected happens – and it always does – everything falls apart. Employees end up overwhelmed and the quality of work suffers.”

How to avoid conflicts between work schedules?

Sometimes conflicts are unavoidable: they can arise when other urgent tasks come up, or when an established project tracking system is not used effectively.

The best way toavoid scheduling conflicts is to prevent them from happening in the first place. Here are a few preventive measures you can take when planning your project to optimize your work schedule :

1. Plan projects with realistic estimates

Planning problems start as early as the project planning phase. If your estimates are wrong and you never adjust them to reality, you may find that some members of your team lag behind and find themselves in conflict between several simultaneous tasks.

In his book “Human Project Management”, Marc Dubois stresses the importance of talking to the employees doing the work to obtain accurate estimates:

“You can read all the job descriptions in the world, but that’s no substitute for a real conversation with the person doing the job. How does Pierre manage his tasks? What are his real deadlines? Only by talking to him directly can we understand his work rhythm and avoid unpleasant surprises.”

You may think it will take your back-end engineer two weeks to create an e-commerce site from A to Z, but in the end it takes him a whole month. You’ll only know if you talk to him and ask him questions.

Another way to improve time estimation is to compare estimated and actual task times. Consult data from previous projects in your work planning tool. Did the UX editor take longer than expected to write the content for the integration process? Did the QA engineer identify errors and document them on time?

Using Teambook, you can compare the estimated schedule with the actual time spent on projects.

2. Use a resource calendar to monitor availability and capacity

Consider using time management strategies, such as a resource calendar, to improve your task planning and avoid future conflicts. For example, Teambook lets you record planned working hours, so you can compare the time actually spent on tasks with the time planned. Project deadlines can be anticipated and planned with greater precision, thanks to recorded time data showing how long the work will take.

Laura Rousseau, operations manager at a digital agency, explains:

“Since we’ve been using a true centralized scheduling system, we’ve cut our meeting conflicts by a factor of three. Before, it was anarchy: two meetings in the same time slot, double-booked meeting rooms… Now, everything is transparent and everyone can see availability in real time.”

A resource calendar also improves visibility of your team members’ schedules. With a centralized view of projects and assigned resources, you can know in advance the availability of team members and determine their actual capacity before assigning tasks.

A centralized view of people and projects makes it easy to see who’s working on which projects, and when. Teams can plan more effectively thanks to a real-time view of everyone’s capabilities. If you need to find someone else for a task, you can filter people by skill and availability. The integration of vacations into your single view of planned work and capacity enables you to anticipate unavailability and find alternative solutions in advance.

3. Communicate proactively with other project managers

Unless a team member is assigned exclusively to your project, you need to keep in touch with other PMs or functional managers to keep an eye on requests for this shared resource.

Sophie Martin recommends :

“The golden rule is proactive communication. We organize weekly briefings between project managers to avoid shared resources coming into conflict between several projects. It’s better to anticipate than to suffer!”

It could be as simple as sending a message before delegating a task to a shared resource. You might say, “I’d like to assign a task to Jane that will take two weeks. I wanted to know if you had any tasks you plan to give her, or have given her, during this period?”

Employees can also play a key role in preventing the types of conflicts before they arise, as they know when a task is taking longer than expected. Fertz recommends maintaining open communication and ensuring psychological safety so that they can alert you “if they need more time for a task or anticipate a potential scheduling conflict”.

Pro tip: communicate with your team before finalizing the job

Create a provisional booking in the Teambook work schedule. Once everyone is on board, you can update the booking with a single click, changing it from provisional to confirmed.

4. Add buffers when planning schedules

When planning your projects, be sure to add buffer times to allow for unforeseen circumstances and avoid scheduling conflicts.

When planning, remember to use the critical chain method, a resource levelling technique that exploits the leeway available in your project. You can always modify the schedule in the event of a problem, without affecting the overall project timetable.

Plan your team’s time efficiently with Teambook

Teambook displays your team’s capacity at a glance with a visual schedule. Add each person’s availability, vacations and external events to get an overview of their time and capacity.

How can existing scheduling conflicts be resolved?

Let’s imagine the worst has happened and you have a scheduling conflict while running the 😱 project. What can you do about it? Here are a few solutions for resolving conflicts effectively:

5. Involve others in decision-making

Before you set out to solve the problem, remember to discuss it with the other parties involved. Including others in the problem-solving process reduces tension, and negative reactions may be less severe if you all manage to find a solution.

You can also work out your own solution, then contact other stakeholders to find a consensus.

6. Make changes to the work schedule

Sometimes the only solution is to change the work schedule. If the other project takes priority, or if you have considerable leeway, consider the following options:

• Split tasks: for example, the UX editor is assigned a task for three hours a day for two days, instead of six hours for one day.
• Reduce the scope: for example, your team reduces certain tasks and follows the critical path, so that the project MVP is ready for the launch date.
• Delay the start time: for example, a new project is put on hold for a week until the lead developer returns from vacation.
• Replanning or moving tasks: for example, a lower-priority project is moved to the following month to allow team members to concentrate on a more critical project.

Always be sure to communicate any changes to everyone concerned!

7. Prepare extra help

If you don’t have a free time slot and need to get the job done, you may need to call on an extra pair of hands.

Sophie Martin recommends :

“We always maintain a network of trusted freelancers. When a scheduling conflict threatens to derail a critical project, we can quickly call on outside resources. It’s an investment, but it’s saved us more than once!”

Keep a list of freelancers with similar skills and contact them if you need to. Calling in a freelancer may cost you more than the project allows. If you decide to call in a junior, be ready to step in if necessary to help him/her complete the assignment.

8. Change project duration

If none of the above solutions work, consider changing the project duration. It’s a last resort, but it’s better to deliver the project late than to let it fail.

Contact stakeholders and inform them that the project schedule needs to be modified due to scheduling conflicts. Make sure you provide them with a new completion date (and stick to it).

Optimize your productivity with the right tools

Scheduling conflicts are inevitable, but you can reduce their frequency with resource management software like Teambook. This tool helps you organize meetings efficiently and maintain an optimal work schedule.

Teambook helps you plan tasks while avoiding over-utilization, monitor workloads in real time and make changes on the fly if a team member is overloaded. Check team members’ availability, flag potential problems and identify other resources to assign work to.

Take action: optimize your management of scheduling conflicts

Need a tool to help your team allocate resources and avoid scheduling conflicts? Join the thousands of teams who manage their resources in Teambook and easily track project workloads and schedules.

Discover Teambook today and transform your approach to work planning for optimal team productivity.

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