Side of desk projects: why they stall and what it costs

Key takeaways

A side of desk project is one given to someone on top of their normal job, with no time released to do it. Small businesses that do everything in-house run most projects this way. They start well, stall within weeks and finish late or not at all, and the delay is the hidden cost.

• A side of desk project has an owner but no hours.
• A 40-hour project at 2 spare hours a week takes 20 weeks.
• Stalled projects still cost: licences paid, benefits not received.
• Either release time, reduce scope or buy capacity.

What is a side of desk project?

A side of desk project is a piece of work outside someone's core role that they are expected to deliver alongside it, without any reduction in their normal workload. Typical examples are a new CRM, a website rebuild, a process review or a move to new accounting software.

• The hidden costs of doing everything in-house
• Wearing too many hats at work: the cost to a small team

Why do they stall?

They stall because the day job always has a louder deadline. A project needing 40 hours of concentrated work, done in two spare hours a week, takes 20 weeks at best. In practice the spare hours disappear in busy weeks, momentum is lost, and each restart needs time to remember where things stood.

• The cost of context switching in a small team
• Important but not urgent: the work that never gets done

What do stalled projects cost?

Stalled projects cost the benefit that has not arrived, plus whatever is being paid in the meantime. A business paying for a new CRM licence while still running the old spreadsheet pays twice. Staff lose confidence in change, which makes the next project harder to start.

• Cost of delay: what waiting costs a small business

How do you resource a project properly?

Resource a project by matching hours to scope before it starts. There are only three honest options.

• Release time: move routine work off the owner for the project's duration.
• Reduce scope: cut the project to what the available hours can deliver.
• Buy capacity: bring in someone to deliver it, with the owner as decision maker.

• Generalist vs specialist: who should do the work?
• Learning curve cost: when staff learn on the job

When is side of desk fine?

Side of desk is fine for small improvements of a few hours, and for work the person finds motivating and has real slack to do. It fails for anything that needs sustained concentration, specialist skill or a fixed deadline.

How do you estimate a project's real hours?

List the steps and estimate each, then add half again for interruptions and things you have not thought of. Include the hours other people must give: answering questions, testing, attending training. A CRM rollout is not only the configuration; it is the data clean-up, the import, the training sessions and the weeks of answering how-do-I questions afterwards.

If the total is more than about ten hours, it will not fit on the side of a desk.

Which projects most often get stuck?

The projects that stall are those needing sustained concentration and skills outside the owner's role.

• New website or website rebuild.
• CRM or job management system rollout.
• Moving accounting or payroll software.
• Writing procedures and policies.
• Data clean-up before a migration.

• DIY website hidden costs: what a builder really costs

What does the owner still do if delivery is bought in?

The owner keeps the decisions. They define what success looks like, answer questions quickly, approve stages and make sure colleagues use the result. That is typically one to two hours a week, which a full-time job can absorb. What they hand over is the doing: the configuration, building, migrating and documenting that needs unbroken hours.

How do you stop the next one stalling?

Adopt one rule: no project starts without hours attached. Before saying yes, write down how many hours it needs, whose hours they are and what that person will stop doing. If nobody can answer the third question, the project is not ready to start, and saying so is cheaper than discovering it in month four.

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see with CRM projects: the office manager is asked to implement it, the licence starts in January, and by June two people use it. Nobody is at fault. The project needed 60 focused hours and was given none.

• See client work
• BPO Solutions for UK businesses

Side of desk checklist

Before assigning any internal project, answer these.

• How many hours does it need?
• Whose hours, and what will they stop doing?
• What is the cost of delay per week?
• What is the smallest useful version?
• Would buying the capacity be cheaper than the delay?

• The hidden cost audit: score your business in an hour

Next step

Tell us about one stalled project and who owns it. We will help you choose between releasing time, cutting scope and buying capacity in a 30-minute call.