My boss and I could use your advice on our current project," she says. "We seem to do a good job of developing activity lists from the work breakdown structures we develop and sequencing activities. My boss takes that and comes up with estimates for all of the activities based on what he thinks is reasonable given the project deadline provided by the sponsor."

Karla gives you a pained look and admits, "For each of the three projects I've worked on with him, the sponsor has gotten extremely upset because the team has never hit a milestone. The sponsor has had to authorize additional money to complete the project on time in each case and has warned my boss that this can't happen for the project we've been assigned to now. What might we be doing wrong in developing our schedules, and how can we fix it?