Situation:
Company is about 50 people. Total number of developers is about 15, split into three teams. Team 1 has five developers working hard building a new system. The deadline is yesterday, which means there's no specific dealine set, but the sooner we finish, the better.
We have no scrum master or project manager. I'm the most experienced developer on the team and seen by the CEO as the lead of the team, I preside the weekly meeting with the CEO and other stakeholders etc.
T is a new teammember since three weeks. He talks with the CEO about something he really likes to do the new system, however it's not something that's currently on the task list. The CEO is enthousiastic and asks how long it will take for T to do it. T says it will take about half a day to day. "Great" answers the CEO. "Come and show it to me tomorrow".
Tomorrow comes and the task is not finished. So T wants to continue with the task the next day.
My feelings:
I feel like T intentionally made a low estimate of the task, to make the CEO say yes to the task. However T now has no time for the other planned tasks, and his new task is taking an unknown amount of time. I feel this is a problem for the planning, and it should be solved by T.
Question:
What should I do?
My answer:
I'm really torn about the way to act:
- I can ignore the situation. T will do his best and probably finish the task soon. Making estimates is difficult, maybe even more so when asked directly by the CEO.
- I can ignore the situation, as I'm not the manager or official leader.
- I ask T how he's gonna solve the situation. Accepting a deadline and then not delivering is not something that can be ignored. Of cource one can always miss an estimate, but when one's going to miss a deadline it must be anounced before the deadline is over.
- Since I'm not the official leader, but the CEO is seeing me that way, I need to make a mark. So I have to talk with T, saying he has to let me know about the situation so we can find a solution together.
Update
Wow, great answers! I have upvoted them all (not publicly visible unfortunately). I was a bit afraid I was taking my percieved role too seriously, but you guys gave me the feedback so I know I'm on the right track. I already talked to the CEO about the scope creep and will continue to do so on any occasion. Again thank you very much!