When there are more tasks due than there are people to do them, an old consultant trick is to put prioritization into the hands of the client.
“I know you want to have the administration screens up and running, but you also want the customer-facing screens working. Since we have to do these more or less one at a time, which one do you want first?”
That was, more or less, what I said to a client. The response is hard to remember because it was a verbal throwing up of hands. “All of it is important!” the client said, following with a short dissertation on the value of each of the not-yet-delivered bits of code. In the end I realized that I had a non-responsive client. The first question is why the client did not want to prioritize this stuff?” Then it occurred to me:
