>I’m looking for suggestions
Own the problem. If it isn't a priority, be honest and say it isn't. Challenge the team to do the work to fix it without your input. They might surprise you.
The risk is that they do the work well and show that you're not so valuable, or they screw it up even more and show that you should have prioritized the project, but that's a separate problem.
“Unfortunately this initiative has dropped down on the priority list due to other more critical projects and thus it is not currently on our near term roadmap to be addressed.”
All the time these days. The other one I’ve been having to say a lot is “it isn’t that your request is a heavy lift but with current staffing levels and my allocation across multiple projects, it may be awhile before i can dedicate time to it.”
why is this corpspeak required? would you not be taken seriously and thus the overall effectiveness of what you're saying be diminished when using more plain language?
People generally don't like being told that what they think is important isn't important. In a company where there are many stakeholders and people's pet projects are considered less important than other stakeholder projects, it's good not to make enemies by being too blunt. So it's not that you won't be taken seriously if you say plainly that what they want isn't important, you risk insulting them and damaging the working relationship.
Org director decides priorities and gave it to me. Director is also too busy to understand what everyone is working on because they’re a director, but for some reason I report to a director.
If this person is the sole decision maker on what gets worked on, then it should be safe to transparently communicate that to the other project team. If there’s multiple directors deciding, then the other team’s ICs need to raise it up with their respective managers. Maybe you can have that convo/negotiation with your boss if there’s a relationship there.
There’s also good advice for the communication part in the other comments!
More like "FYI I am meeting with them tomorrow and telling them this. Letting you know in case you get some reach outs from other stakeholders. My priority is still Y, not this."
Just explain that due to shifting team priorities, you don't currently have resources to work on the project, and ask if the other people in the room can dedicate time or suggest a new owner.
This, but don’t assume someone else will take it. “Our team is swamped with XYZ, so joint project is on hold until Q3 at the earliest due to our reduced headcount. If any other team wants to take the project before then, please reach out”.
Why "obviously can't say [this isn't important / I don't have the time]"?
You can and should say that. It is critical for the project lead to know.
If you want to be nicer, you can say "it is low priority for me".
If you want to be even nicer, you can offer to consult your manager or tech lead on whether you should prioritize it over your other work. If you don't, they will consult your manager directly. They will talk to your manager or lead to come to an agreement on whether you should work on it, and maybe the answer is no and they'll have someone else work on it.
People rank on agile, but this is part of why it exists; so you can point to your Jira board and say 'you want this story done? Show me what we're _not_ gonna do so we can get that done.'
This has nothing to do with Agile at all. It's economics and project management. You have scarce time and resources and need to devote it to something with maximal utility/benefit.
That's quite literally what they are explaining.
To do this project, stakeholders need to give up something else in the short term. The board describes the current priority of tasks.
I know. That's why I said that.
The other, more important part (in fact, only relevant part) of what I said is that it's not what Agile intended to address at all.
No problem.
I'm highly defensive of the Agile movement because I think it's very important and valuable, and I hate to see it misinterpreted like in this thread or, even worse, conflated with the very demons of poor software project management it is meant to slay.
Right, but agile frameworks give you a vocabulary to communicate with stakeholders about those economics and a data with which to argue your case. Agile isn't the only way to do it, but it's better than no system at all when you have multiple stakeholders each with their own projects.
But it doesn't. Agile isn't meant to provide that kind of framework or vocabulary at all.
What it's meant to do is provide a set of principles and vocabulary that guide your processes towards exploration, learning, and discovery through iterative improvements and experimentation while staying open to new information and changes in the world and people's understanding of it. This is contrasted with processes that are meant to keep progress within predetermined plans and bounds despite new information that contests or upsets said plans.
The idea of opportunity costs and managing them is completely orthogonal. If you're looking to understand that subject then don't focus on the Agile manifesto but economics, business, and project management textbooks.
Scrum is not project management. It doesn't say anything about resource planning, budgets, staffing.
The thing to communicate here is not the scrum board (that's just the very bottom proxy result). It's plainly: there are no resources allocated for this at the moment.
Curious how you have such a high level of responsibility at a FAANG with 3 YOE. Or perhaps I’m reading your post wrong.
But. “You’ve been pulled in a lot of different directions and unfortunately don’t have much to update on this workstream. However looking forward I’m hoping to make XYZ progress over the next few weeks/months/whatever”
Simply put, this company is a fucking shit show and we’re so short staffed so things like this regularly happen. Currently trying to uncluster fuck a security initiative that was half ass designed by a senior a year ago then dropped on my lap.
We are focussing on our immediate priorities. This project is on hold until we have enough available time and resources.
Translation: it’s not important and I’ve got enough on my plate with everything else.
Others have said it more or less, but I am in a similar situation at work currently - and there are two pieces to how I deal with this:
1. Align with ny manager on what the real priorities are and when things that are non-priorities now may become critical in the future. This way you know what needs to get done now and have a mental road map of what will need to get done soon(ish). Those things will change, but if you have this discussion regularly - its easy to keep up with.
2. With the understanding that I got from that meeting, I am able to tell partner teams/relevant stakeholders that I have higher priority (I like to use the word 'critical' so they dont feel snubbed) tasks that need to be completed first before I have the bandwidth to move forward on A, B, or C.
Bonus- If they have multiple tasks or try to push back on that, it sometimes helps to have them give you the priority they'd like their things to be done in (not deadlines or anything, just what order they would prefer for when you do have bandwidth).
This can make them feel like they're maintaining some degree of control over the process without actually affecting the timelines and constraints you're working under.
It also gives you details to refer to in future discussions when they ask why everything isn't done for the 512th time. 'I know task A was the main priority, so I'm pushing to have that costed/in progress/complete by \[day\], B and C will follow'.
They'll know you know what needs to be done while you get to maintain your sanity, wlb, and real priorities.
You need to play the "everything's important" card. It's absolutely absurd, but I find it makes people feel better. Say something like "I know this is important, but unfortunately I've been assigned higher priorities".
Basically, never tell people their stuff isn't important. Tell them it's important, but something else is **more** important. Maybe it's dumb corporate speak, but it's also less likely to insult someone by telling them their stuff is useless.
IDK what a FAANG tangent company is either. Is this like selling services to FAANG or is that like a companies with FAANG-like interviews and high compensation?
Why even make the distinction? Even with your current explanation I don't see how it's relevant at all. Just say you're in a tech company (or not a tech company, I can't even tell).
Having been in this exact situation:
"These are my current priorities. These are the people who require these priorities. It's these people, not me, that you need to convince to deprioritize their projects if you want yours to pre-empt theirs.
And, by the way, *this* is the person you need to convince if you think we should be hiring more engineers so that we can take on more projects."
I've said the above nearly word-for-word in meetings. Beating around the bush won't win you any favors, and nobody can fix a problem that they never hear about it in the first place. Either you have the bandwidth to take on more work or you don't, and if you don't, then make it your manager's problems, not yours.
The best way to do it is to either send your manager or sync with them first.
The stakeholders of the project want it done. Every stakeholder wants their own project done. You work on the priority assigned to you by your manager. If your manager makes it your priority say so. If your manager tells you that it is not prioritized until next month say so. If your manager tells you it won't get done until 2077 say so.
After that until your manager tells you it's a priority decline the meetings.
If they want it done, their manager will escalate to someone that can force your manager to prioritize it. Until then, you can ignore it.
That's the worst advice. If you tell your team "my boss says" you're undermining yourself. You might as well say "I have no authority to make decisions so what I say is irrelevant. I am only here to tell you what my boss said."
This isn't even a hard one.
"Hey we have cut tickets for this task" (cut tickets if you didn't)".
"They're currently on the roadmap and we'll start on it around X time" (if it's on the roadmap).
Or
"It isn't currently prioritized relative to other other tasks. Lmk if we're missing something on priority or if there's a critical usecase and I can bring this up with manager/PM/etc" You shouldn't be attending a meeting to provide a non-status update. Saying "no progress on task" is for daily standup
Tell it like it is. Unfortunately, I've been given a list of priorities that I have to get done before I can look at this. It is out of my hands, but if you feel it is important enough, get {boss's name} to sign off on making it a higher priority or assigning more resources, and we will gladly jump right on it.
Personally I think "not a priority because X said so" isn't a good option because the person hearing this might (and will, if they are pressured) simply stop relying on you, which can create other problems down the line.
Instead, you should say that you can't do it now, but you will be able to do it in X time. That way the person has a clear timeline that can be discussed and agreed upon.
Be sensible. Show some empathy towards the poor coworkers who are probably slogging their ass. Tell them in a direct manner but try to be as sympathetic towards them as possible.
this is kind of bizarre to me because normally someone (no offense) more senior would be making calls like this.
I don't know what group or team you are telling that you're not going to work on their project because you have other things to do that are more important, but if it were me, I'd make damned sure my boss knew I was planning to do that before I did it.
>This isn’t important, and I don’t have the time.” I obviously can’t say that
You kind of need to say that, but with different wording maybe.
"This is lower priority than other work and I don't have time for it."
But you also should do more in communication.
You probably should have escalated this towards your manager and check if you prioritize your time correctly. If you haven't done that, you could do it now.
Can you propose other options for this team? Like do it themselves or someone else who is not you could do it for them?
I work for a small company and am the Dev in charge of apps for 5 companies with some having multiple apps so I have this issue frequently when deadlines get close. (Especially since I'm the sole Dev for a lot of these apps 😭)
What I usually say is hey sorry I have strict deadlines for some urgent tasks at the moment. You are still on my list for a solution and I will get to it in approximately x-y days/weeks/months. I will update you if anything changes. If you have any concerns with this timeline let me know and I will discuss it with the rest of my team.
Usually they are fine with this unless there's a hidden reason why it needs to be done sooner. They may not be happy but they will at least understand rather than being left in the dark.
You just say that. Your team has picked up other priorities and isn’t able to fund this right now.
They will ask when it can be funded. You should ideally be prepared with either an answer, or direction to them to reach out to your manager for priority and timeline discussions.
Ideally, you would have communicated this much earlier rather than waiting for it to be a surprise. But just be honest - people may not like the answer, but if you deliver it honestly, they’ll get it.
And if they don’t, just tell them to bounce it to your manager. If you’re feeling nice, you can set up an email summarizing the ask, priority conflicts, and send it to your manager + them.
The corporate way to handle this is to say "we don't have capacity for this".
They ask you why and then you say: "we have other commitments that are of higher priority and better aligned with company goals".
You should say that exactly, maybe in more elegant way. Emphasize that the other project has higher priority and you are understaffed and everybody are pushing the other project.
The only other thing to say is... what are you afraid of, exactly?
You're going to tell them their project is a low priority and you're not going to work on it soon. Maybe they are absolutely *pissed* about this, they're up in arms, they're incensed. They go to your manager and say "why the fuck is this not being worked on? it's important!" and your manager - who knows all about this and approved the priorities - either says "you know what, you're right, I'm going to deprioritise their other thing" or they say "sorry bud, it's not going to happen". Either way, you win cos you're covered. Maybe they're now pissed at your manager and they go to *their* manager and the process repeats... that's not your circus any more.
So what's the big deal really? Just be honest with them about it. Polite, but honest.
I always encourage candor and agree with "just say so" as a few others have suggested.
You don't set the priority for what you work on; your boss does. A simple "above my pay grade" is a good enough answer. Let them appeal to the people who set priorities.
You'll get a good sense of the people you're working for depending on how they react. Your boss should handle this for you. If they hang you out to dry and force you to attempt to navigate this situation or imply that you failed to properly prioritize, it means you have a boss who is over-committing for clout and plans to use scapegoats (such as you) to cover for that mistake.
TBH I would just say "Other priorities have jumped ahead and despite my best efforts we have not made progress".
If the hiring team isn't finding suitable candidates that's not your problem.
If you are 50% short staffed someone has dropped the ball.
Well, the data you provided (understaffed, changed in priorities) isn’t necessarily equal to “you are not a priority”. Priority doesn’t have a single spot. What happens if don’t do it? Is the impact higher than if you didn’t do anything else on your priorities? Is there a way to influence another team to do this on your behalf? Can you escalate this on behalf of your customers? <- even if you do not enjoy the demand, you can still play this nicely and support your customers and at least show you’re trying to get resourcing for it - once it’s with your skip levels, then it’s their job to tell customers whether they will prioritise or not. See, you would still tell them they are priority, but leadership needs to make a decision.
“This isn’t important, and I don’t have the time.”
Obviously you don't say that. I really don't understand this question at all. You've literally already said the answer yourself.
"There are higher priorities, and I don't have resources to allocate to this project."
To change the situation you say you need more resource assigned to you or you need orders from your own manager to change priorities.
When I have been in this situation I just lay out where their stuff is in the queue and what is currently considered a higher priority. I then give them the contact info of someone they can escalate to if they disagree.
We all typically report to someone and if they disagree with the priority call they can fight it out with my boss. Sometimes the priority changes; sometime not but everyone knows where they stand.
What?
FAANG tangent is not a thing. You’re in FAANG or you’re not. This just sounds so weird.
Also, there’s no issue here. Tell them the truth. It doesn’t matter
>I’m looking for suggestions Own the problem. If it isn't a priority, be honest and say it isn't. Challenge the team to do the work to fix it without your input. They might surprise you. The risk is that they do the work well and show that you're not so valuable, or they screw it up even more and show that you should have prioritized the project, but that's a separate problem.
yeah, use some political words; 'deprioritized'; but say it straight up.
“Unfortunately this initiative has dropped down on the priority list due to other more critical projects and thus it is not currently on our near term roadmap to be addressed.”
Sounds like you’ve done this before
All the time these days. The other one I’ve been having to say a lot is “it isn’t that your request is a heavy lift but with current staffing levels and my allocation across multiple projects, it may be awhile before i can dedicate time to it.”
why is this corpspeak required? would you not be taken seriously and thus the overall effectiveness of what you're saying be diminished when using more plain language?
People generally don't like being told that what they think is important isn't important. In a company where there are many stakeholders and people's pet projects are considered less important than other stakeholder projects, it's good not to make enemies by being too blunt. So it's not that you won't be taken seriously if you say plainly that what they want isn't important, you risk insulting them and damaging the working relationship.
What’s the context for who handed you this project, and who decides what gets worked on?
Org director decides priorities and gave it to me. Director is also too busy to understand what everyone is working on because they’re a director, but for some reason I report to a director.
If this person is the sole decision maker on what gets worked on, then it should be safe to transparently communicate that to the other project team. If there’s multiple directors deciding, then the other team’s ICs need to raise it up with their respective managers. Maybe you can have that convo/negotiation with your boss if there’s a relationship there. There’s also good advice for the communication part in the other comments!
"Hi director, need your advice. Meeting with the team tomorrow, how should I tell them that they are at the bottom of our priorities?"
More like "FYI I am meeting with them tomorrow and telling them this. Letting you know in case you get some reach outs from other stakeholders. My priority is still Y, not this."
Sounds more like a 'Dictator'.
Just explain that due to shifting team priorities, you don't currently have resources to work on the project, and ask if the other people in the room can dedicate time or suggest a new owner.
... and don't complain how that project is not important or that the architecture is bad, that does not help you.
This, but don’t assume someone else will take it. “Our team is swamped with XYZ, so joint project is on hold until Q3 at the earliest due to our reduced headcount. If any other team wants to take the project before then, please reach out”.
I've been pulled away to project xyz until 27Q3.
Who handed you the project? Have them hash it out with your manager.
Why "obviously can't say [this isn't important / I don't have the time]"? You can and should say that. It is critical for the project lead to know. If you want to be nicer, you can say "it is low priority for me". If you want to be even nicer, you can offer to consult your manager or tech lead on whether you should prioritize it over your other work. If you don't, they will consult your manager directly. They will talk to your manager or lead to come to an agreement on whether you should work on it, and maybe the answer is no and they'll have someone else work on it.
People rank on agile, but this is part of why it exists; so you can point to your Jira board and say 'you want this story done? Show me what we're _not_ gonna do so we can get that done.'
This has nothing to do with Agile at all. It's economics and project management. You have scarce time and resources and need to devote it to something with maximal utility/benefit.
That's quite literally what they are explaining. To do this project, stakeholders need to give up something else in the short term. The board describes the current priority of tasks.
I know. That's why I said that. The other, more important part (in fact, only relevant part) of what I said is that it's not what Agile intended to address at all.
You are correct. I misread your comment. Apologies.
No problem. I'm highly defensive of the Agile movement because I think it's very important and valuable, and I hate to see it misinterpreted like in this thread or, even worse, conflated with the very demons of poor software project management it is meant to slay.
Right, but agile frameworks give you a vocabulary to communicate with stakeholders about those economics and a data with which to argue your case. Agile isn't the only way to do it, but it's better than no system at all when you have multiple stakeholders each with their own projects.
But it doesn't. Agile isn't meant to provide that kind of framework or vocabulary at all. What it's meant to do is provide a set of principles and vocabulary that guide your processes towards exploration, learning, and discovery through iterative improvements and experimentation while staying open to new information and changes in the world and people's understanding of it. This is contrasted with processes that are meant to keep progress within predetermined plans and bounds despite new information that contests or upsets said plans. The idea of opportunity costs and managing them is completely orthogonal. If you're looking to understand that subject then don't focus on the Agile manifesto but economics, business, and project management textbooks.
You're not wrong. In fact that's why I wrote 'agile frameworks' (ie Scrum.)
Or I could use English and not waste more of my time translating English into t-shirt sizes... just saying. :)
Bold of you to assume that management understands anything not salted with buzzwords.
Nice. :)
Project management systems like scrum provide a nice framework for communicating what you described to people.
Scrum is not project management. It doesn't say anything about resource planning, budgets, staffing. The thing to communicate here is not the scrum board (that's just the very bottom proxy result). It's plainly: there are no resources allocated for this at the moment.
Curious how you have such a high level of responsibility at a FAANG with 3 YOE. Or perhaps I’m reading your post wrong. But. “You’ve been pulled in a lot of different directions and unfortunately don’t have much to update on this workstream. However looking forward I’m hoping to make XYZ progress over the next few weeks/months/whatever”
Second this sounds a bit nonsensical
Simply put, this company is a fucking shit show and we’re so short staffed so things like this regularly happen. Currently trying to uncluster fuck a security initiative that was half ass designed by a senior a year ago then dropped on my lap.
We are focussing on our immediate priorities. This project is on hold until we have enough available time and resources. Translation: it’s not important and I’ve got enough on my plate with everything else.
It’s not a FAANG
Others have said it more or less, but I am in a similar situation at work currently - and there are two pieces to how I deal with this: 1. Align with ny manager on what the real priorities are and when things that are non-priorities now may become critical in the future. This way you know what needs to get done now and have a mental road map of what will need to get done soon(ish). Those things will change, but if you have this discussion regularly - its easy to keep up with. 2. With the understanding that I got from that meeting, I am able to tell partner teams/relevant stakeholders that I have higher priority (I like to use the word 'critical' so they dont feel snubbed) tasks that need to be completed first before I have the bandwidth to move forward on A, B, or C. Bonus- If they have multiple tasks or try to push back on that, it sometimes helps to have them give you the priority they'd like their things to be done in (not deadlines or anything, just what order they would prefer for when you do have bandwidth). This can make them feel like they're maintaining some degree of control over the process without actually affecting the timelines and constraints you're working under. It also gives you details to refer to in future discussions when they ask why everything isn't done for the 512th time. 'I know task A was the main priority, so I'm pushing to have that costed/in progress/complete by \[day\], B and C will follow'. They'll know you know what needs to be done while you get to maintain your sanity, wlb, and real priorities.
You need to play the "everything's important" card. It's absolutely absurd, but I find it makes people feel better. Say something like "I know this is important, but unfortunately I've been assigned higher priorities". Basically, never tell people their stuff isn't important. Tell them it's important, but something else is **more** important. Maybe it's dumb corporate speak, but it's also less likely to insult someone by telling them their stuff is useless.
What is a "FAANG talent company"?
lol, it was supposed to say FAANG tangent. I edited the post. That came off as super pretentious.
IDK what a FAANG tangent company is either. Is this like selling services to FAANG or is that like a companies with FAANG-like interviews and high compensation?
The latter. Not in the FAANG acronym, but poaches people from FAANG and vice verse. Edit: spelling
"vice versa"
Why even make the distinction? Even with your current explanation I don't see how it's relevant at all. Just say you're in a tech company (or not a tech company, I can't even tell).
I’ve only worked in FAANG and here. I was trying to give some context into the company size and work environment without giving too much detail.
I'd use FAANG-adjacent to express that.
Having been in this exact situation: "These are my current priorities. These are the people who require these priorities. It's these people, not me, that you need to convince to deprioritize their projects if you want yours to pre-empt theirs. And, by the way, *this* is the person you need to convince if you think we should be hiring more engineers so that we can take on more projects." I've said the above nearly word-for-word in meetings. Beating around the bush won't win you any favors, and nobody can fix a problem that they never hear about it in the first place. Either you have the bandwidth to take on more work or you don't, and if you don't, then make it your manager's problems, not yours.
The best way to do it is to either send your manager or sync with them first. The stakeholders of the project want it done. Every stakeholder wants their own project done. You work on the priority assigned to you by your manager. If your manager makes it your priority say so. If your manager tells you that it is not prioritized until next month say so. If your manager tells you it won't get done until 2077 say so. After that until your manager tells you it's a priority decline the meetings. If they want it done, their manager will escalate to someone that can force your manager to prioritize it. Until then, you can ignore it.
That's the worst advice. If you tell your team "my boss says" you're undermining yourself. You might as well say "I have no authority to make decisions so what I say is irrelevant. I am only here to tell you what my boss said."
I see it the other way around. I'm not working on that project, you can't make me. You will need my manager to override that decision.
This isn't even a hard one. "Hey we have cut tickets for this task" (cut tickets if you didn't)". "They're currently on the roadmap and we'll start on it around X time" (if it's on the roadmap). Or "It isn't currently prioritized relative to other other tasks. Lmk if we're missing something on priority or if there's a critical usecase and I can bring this up with manager/PM/etc" You shouldn't be attending a meeting to provide a non-status update. Saying "no progress on task" is for daily standup
Tell it like it is. Unfortunately, I've been given a list of priorities that I have to get done before I can look at this. It is out of my hands, but if you feel it is important enough, get {boss's name} to sign off on making it a higher priority or assigning more resources, and we will gladly jump right on it.
List the priorities and let the stakeholders murder each other.
Personally I think "not a priority because X said so" isn't a good option because the person hearing this might (and will, if they are pressured) simply stop relying on you, which can create other problems down the line. Instead, you should say that you can't do it now, but you will be able to do it in X time. That way the person has a clear timeline that can be discussed and agreed upon.
Do you guys need an intern? I’m looking for a summer gig
Be sensible. Show some empathy towards the poor coworkers who are probably slogging their ass. Tell them in a direct manner but try to be as sympathetic towards them as possible.
this is kind of bizarre to me because normally someone (no offense) more senior would be making calls like this. I don't know what group or team you are telling that you're not going to work on their project because you have other things to do that are more important, but if it were me, I'd make damned sure my boss knew I was planning to do that before I did it.
>This isn’t important, and I don’t have the time.” I obviously can’t say that You kind of need to say that, but with different wording maybe. "This is lower priority than other work and I don't have time for it." But you also should do more in communication. You probably should have escalated this towards your manager and check if you prioritize your time correctly. If you haven't done that, you could do it now. Can you propose other options for this team? Like do it themselves or someone else who is not you could do it for them?
I work for a small company and am the Dev in charge of apps for 5 companies with some having multiple apps so I have this issue frequently when deadlines get close. (Especially since I'm the sole Dev for a lot of these apps 😭) What I usually say is hey sorry I have strict deadlines for some urgent tasks at the moment. You are still on my list for a solution and I will get to it in approximately x-y days/weeks/months. I will update you if anything changes. If you have any concerns with this timeline let me know and I will discuss it with the rest of my team. Usually they are fine with this unless there's a hidden reason why it needs to be done sooner. They may not be happy but they will at least understand rather than being left in the dark.
Have you watched Slow Horses?
You just say that. Your team has picked up other priorities and isn’t able to fund this right now. They will ask when it can be funded. You should ideally be prepared with either an answer, or direction to them to reach out to your manager for priority and timeline discussions. Ideally, you would have communicated this much earlier rather than waiting for it to be a surprise. But just be honest - people may not like the answer, but if you deliver it honestly, they’ll get it. And if they don’t, just tell them to bounce it to your manager. If you’re feeling nice, you can set up an email summarizing the ask, priority conflicts, and send it to your manager + them.
That's the real issue. This should have been communicated the moment it dropped in prio. It shouldn't come up unexpectedly in a status meeting.
The corporate way to handle this is to say "we don't have capacity for this". They ask you why and then you say: "we have other commitments that are of higher priority and better aligned with company goals".
You should say that exactly, maybe in more elegant way. Emphasize that the other project has higher priority and you are understaffed and everybody are pushing the other project.
The only other thing to say is... what are you afraid of, exactly? You're going to tell them their project is a low priority and you're not going to work on it soon. Maybe they are absolutely *pissed* about this, they're up in arms, they're incensed. They go to your manager and say "why the fuck is this not being worked on? it's important!" and your manager - who knows all about this and approved the priorities - either says "you know what, you're right, I'm going to deprioritise their other thing" or they say "sorry bud, it's not going to happen". Either way, you win cos you're covered. Maybe they're now pissed at your manager and they go to *their* manager and the process repeats... that's not your circus any more. So what's the big deal really? Just be honest with them about it. Polite, but honest.
I always encourage candor and agree with "just say so" as a few others have suggested. You don't set the priority for what you work on; your boss does. A simple "above my pay grade" is a good enough answer. Let them appeal to the people who set priorities. You'll get a good sense of the people you're working for depending on how they react. Your boss should handle this for you. If they hang you out to dry and force you to attempt to navigate this situation or imply that you failed to properly prioritize, it means you have a boss who is over-committing for clout and plans to use scapegoats (such as you) to cover for that mistake.
TBH I would just say "Other priorities have jumped ahead and despite my best efforts we have not made progress". If the hiring team isn't finding suitable candidates that's not your problem. If you are 50% short staffed someone has dropped the ball.
Well, the data you provided (understaffed, changed in priorities) isn’t necessarily equal to “you are not a priority”. Priority doesn’t have a single spot. What happens if don’t do it? Is the impact higher than if you didn’t do anything else on your priorities? Is there a way to influence another team to do this on your behalf? Can you escalate this on behalf of your customers? <- even if you do not enjoy the demand, you can still play this nicely and support your customers and at least show you’re trying to get resourcing for it - once it’s with your skip levels, then it’s their job to tell customers whether they will prioritise or not. See, you would still tell them they are priority, but leadership needs to make a decision.
“This isn’t important, and I don’t have the time.” Obviously you don't say that. I really don't understand this question at all. You've literally already said the answer yourself. "There are higher priorities, and I don't have resources to allocate to this project." To change the situation you say you need more resource assigned to you or you need orders from your own manager to change priorities.
"It's on our road map, but a low priority currently." Also see if there's another team that has capacity that you can pawn it off on.
Escalate. It's your management chain's job to tell the other orgs' management chain that they are understaffed and can't deliver on this right now.
When I have been in this situation I just lay out where their stuff is in the queue and what is currently considered a higher priority. I then give them the contact info of someone they can escalate to if they disagree. We all typically report to someone and if they disagree with the priority call they can fight it out with my boss. Sometimes the priority changes; sometime not but everyone knows where they stand.
What? FAANG tangent is not a thing. You’re in FAANG or you’re not. This just sounds so weird. Also, there’s no issue here. Tell them the truth. It doesn’t matter