"Why is this project delayed?"

You’ve heard it before. Maybe in a standup. Maybe in an exec meeting.

The numbers in JIRA looked fine yesterday. The Epic said 70% complete.

So why is everything suddenly at risk?

Because those numbers? They were lying to you.

Most Tracking Systems Are Built for Reporting, Not Reality

If you look at any engineering tracking system (JIRA, spreadsheets, dashboards) they all operate on the same flawed assumption:

"If a ticket is marked complete, the work is done."

That’s not how engineering works.

• Progress isn’t binary. It’s not just “open” or “closed.”
• Engineering effort isn’t visible. Tickets don’t tell you who’s stuck.
• Workload isn’t obvious. Engineers aren’t just working on one thing at a time.

So the problem isn't that JIRA exists. The problem is that JIRA isn’t enough.

The Gap Between Tickets and Reality

Let’s say your team is building a new API.

1. In JIRA, the Epic is 80% done. ✅
2. In Git, the actual implementation is a mess, half-written, stuck in review.
3. In Slack, engineers are still figuring out key dependencies.

But JIRA doesn’t know that.

It will happily tell you that everything is "on track" right up until the moment your deadline explodes.

So we built Deliverables.

Tracking Engineering Work, Not Just Tickets

Deliverables doesn’t just show you what’s in JIRA. It pulls directly from Git to track real engineering effort.

1. See who’s actually contributing. Not just ticket assignees but real code commits.
2. Measure engineering effort. How much work is happening, and where
3. Find bottlenecks early. PRs stuck in review? Contributors overloaded? Spot it before it’s too late.

JIRA tells you what’s planned. Deliverables tells you what’s actually happening.

The Real Power: Scenario Planning

Most project tracking is reactive i.e. you find out about problems after they’ve already caused delays.

What if you could predict them?

With Scenario Planning, you can:

1. Test if you’ll hit a deadline. See if your current setup is enough.
2. See the impact of adding engineers. Does adding two devs actually help, or just create overhead?
3. Model trade-offs. What happens if you cut scope or shift priorities?

No more surprises. No more last-minute scrambling. Just clarity.

Why We Built This

JIRA wasn’t enough. Spreadsheets weren’t enough. Even Git dashboards weren’t enough.

Because engineering work isn’t just about tracking tasks.

It’s about understanding effort, predicting risks, and making real-time decisions.

That’s what Deliverables is built for.

So the next time someone asks, “Why is this project delayed?” you’ll already have the answer.