Projects end late whenever they are started late.<p>If a project is a month past its deadline, that means it should have begun a month sooner (in order to meet the deadline).<p>It&#x27;s surprising how little attention is paid to this fact in the professional world.  So many teams and managers focus on the end date, and ignore the start date.   In truth, the start and end dates are <i>precisely</i> equal in importance.