The Illusion of Control

It always starts with a simple question. “Are we on track?”

You check JIRA. Everything looks green. Tickets are moving. The board says things are “In Progress” or “Done.”

Then, someone asks: “Is the feature actually done?”

You pause. Are you sure? You start digging.

You open JIRA, but “Done” doesn’t mean deployed, it might be stuck in review. “In Progress” could mean an engineer touched it last week but hasn’t worked on it since.

So you turn to Slack. You scroll through long threads, trying to piece things together. There’s a discussion about a blocker, but was it resolved? Someone says the PR is up. But is it merged? Is it deployed?

Still no clarity.

You open a spreadsheet someone made to manually track projects. But it’s outdated. Another meeting is scheduled. Another round of status updates. Another cycle of “Let me check and get back to you.”

This is what tracking engineering projects looks like today, a mess of tools, gut feel, and a lot of hoping for the best.

The Reality of Tracking Engineering Projects

We start with JIRA

JIRA is great for organizing tasks. But tracking actual engineering progress? That’s another story.

• "In Progress" doesn’t tell you if anyone is actually working on it right now.
• "Done" doesn’t mean merged, tested, or deployed. It could be sitting in review for days.
• JIRA relies on manual updates, and let’s be honest, engineers don’t love updating tickets.

Because JIRA doesn’t give real-time answers, teams turn to Slack.

• "Hey, where are we on this?"
• "Did the PR get merged?"
• "Is this actually shipping in the release?"

It’s a cycle. You ask, wait for a response, get half an answer, then ask again. Engineers get interrupted. Managers don’t get clear visibility. Nobody wins.

Inevitably, someone decides to make a spreadsheet to track status manually.

• It works for a while.
• Then it falls out of sync.
• Now it’s just another place to check, and no one really trusts it.

When all else fails, more meetings get scheduled.

• Standups, weekly check-ins, leadership updates.
• Engineers give best-guess estimates.
• By the time a problem is clear, it’s too late to fix without scrambling.

The Problem Is Bigger Than Just Visibility

This whole process creates more work instead of solving the problem:

• Tracking is manual. Engineers have to update tickets or spreadsheets, and often don’t.
• Information is scattered. JIRA, Slack, spreadsheets—there’s no single source of truth.
• Bottlenecks are invisible. You only realize a feature is stuck when the deadline is already slipping.
• Leaders are reacting instead of planning. No proactive decisions, just last-minute firefighting.

How Deliverables Fixes This

We built Deliverables because engineering teams need clarity without the noise.

Work is Tracked Where It Actually Happens

• Engineers don’t need to manually update anything.
• Deliverables connects to your tech stack
• See commits, PRs, code reviews, and deployments ALL-in-ONE-PLACE

Real-Time Updates Without Interrupting Engineers

• No more chasing people on Slack.
• No more asking developers to update JIRA.
• Progress updates happen automatically as work moves forward.

Spot Bottlenecks Before They Become Fire Drills

• If a PR is stuck, you’ll see it.
• If a project is slowing down, you’ll know early.
• If an engineer is overloaded, it’s clear.

Need to hit a deadline? Scenario Planning for Smarter Decisions

• Adjust scope and see what’s realistic.
• Thinking of adding more engineers? Find out if it actually helps.
• Get real answers before making changes, not after delays happen.

Tracking your initiatives, epics or releases shouldn’t feel like detective work.

It shouldn’t take six tools and a dozen meetings to figure out where a project stands.

With Deliverables, you get clarity without the chase. Real-time progress, no manual updates, no guesswork.

Book a Demo and see how it works.