During project planning, consulting with the members of the various teams would help to develop more accurate project timing forecasts. This is something that I experience at my company rather frequently. As projects move into the planning phase, critical members of each of the teams (regulatory, quality, manufacturing/processing, R&D) come together to discuss the nature of their responsibilities. The responsibilities are quantified and discussed between the different managers of each division to ensure that adequate assessments have been made. Time tables are then developed with adequate time for each team to achieve their goals, with many steps running in parallel to optimize the process.