No News Is Good News...

  • Print
Topics: Reporting | Good news | Bad news
… and only good news is bad news.
Projects thrive in an environment of trust. It is therefore critical that a Project Manager has clear expectations and has been entrusted with clear boundaries for authority and decision-making without having to ask permission from Executives every step of the way.
Under these conditions, a project can move along involving Executives at predetermined moments and gates such as the end of a project stage and beyond that knocking on the doors of the corner offices only if certain predetermined tolerances are passed and serious events may occur. This is called management by exception.
 
Considering this approach and reflecting further on the title of this article, if reports up to Executives from a Project Manager are always good this can also mean that problems may be going unreported or unnoticed. Think about, on any project there are very likely moments things go not as planned or simply go wrong. Therefor, Executives who only receive good news reports, should take this with more than a grain of salt - more like a very bad sign - statistically speaking.

Enough is Enough

  • Print
Topics: Communication | Information management | Reporting | Just-enough-information
On a project, enough is enough.
What this means is that you must provide any person only the level of detail of information that person needs at that time. Think of it, when you are packing your suitcase for a vacation, do you really need to know that the average temperature over the last 50 years for that month is 28.53987 degrees? No, you do not. All you need to know is that the average temperature is between 25 and 30 degrees, or between -10 and 0. It will make a big difference on what you pack, or not.
 
Providing too much (too detailed) information, particularly to executive levels of authority, is not only a waste of time and effort but also a big risk. The risk being that people get caught up in details, and that they completely miss what is really important.
 
We see this time and time again in project meetings; Project leads/manager/members being grilled about an apparent incongruity of details between reports. The issue at hand, that the project is over budget, gets ingored and the project member gets send back to write yet another report explaining the reason(s) for the difference.
 
In the same way that just-in-time management streamlines processes, just-enough-information management streamlines communication and decision-making. Don’t give people an excuse to talk about details that do not matter at that moment. Enough is enough already!
 

Explain the Rationale Behind a System Choice

  • Print
Topics: Choosing | System
“Alice came to a fork in the road. 'Which road do I take?' she asked.
'Where do you want to go?' responded the Cheshire Cat.
'I don't know,' Alice answered.
'Then,' said the Cat, 'it doesn't matter.”
 
- Lewis Carol
Alice in Wonderland 
 
In other words, if on one hand you don't mind what a system does there is no need to know why it works the way it does. If on the other hand you do mind what a system does and you do mind that it works and that the people using it use it correctly then you better explain early on and often the 'why' behind the choices that are being made in the organization project.
 
We once worked for a client who did not explain to the end-users the selection of a certain system had more to do with dislike of the previous system and its system provider and less to do with like for the new. This turned out to be a costly mistake as the users really liked the old system and never really accepted the new system. After a few years the organization had to back track on its steps and go through a costly revision of the system.
 
If this organization would have explained the reason for switching had more to do with a falling apart between them and their provider they would have probably still have had to do a lot of convincing but in the end the system would have been accepted.

Balancing People and Time

  • Print
Topics: Human resources (HR) | People | Time | Lesson learned

At the end of the day, two of the most fundamental components of any successful project must not be short-changed: people and time.

 

Better to have a project take longer and to involve more people rather than involve less people and rush.

 

With more people we do not mean more people working on the projectt but more people being involved with the project. In other words, stakeholders. The largest group being the end users, those who will be impacted by the project output most. The success of the project, in terms of acceptance and adoption, is greatly driven by the people who will, or will not, be using the end product the most.

 

Adding and/or increasing stakeholder involment throughout your project will very likely add to the cost as well as to the duration but it is more than worth your consideration.

Lesson Learned

  • Print
This template is based on the Smarty template engine
Please find the documentation at http://www.form2content.com/documentation.
The list of all possible template parameters can be found here.

Lesson Learned

This is an automatically generated default intro template - please do not edit.

LLTitle:
LLText:
LLSubmitter:
LLProjectName:

Register to read more...

More Articles...

  1. Plans are Like Food. Check the BEST BEFORE DATE!
  2. Create, Update and Manage Your Scope Statement
  3. Service Level Agreement
  4. Project Charter Template

Subcategories

  • (Book) reviews

    (Book) Reviews: Worth reading? Absolutely!Climbing_Books

    Reading keeps the mind agile. We read a lot; Books, articles, blogs to name a few. Here is a list of what we liked and did not (sometimes)
  • Checklists

    Checklists: To make sure you don't forget anything...Stick-Figure-with-Cheklist

    Here you will find an ever growing number of checklists. Every third checklist we publish is available for the general public.
  • Lessons Learned

    Lessons Learned Do not make a mistake more then once!Raising_Hand

    Here are some of the insights we have acquired over the last two decades.Remember though that Lessons Learned are only really learned if you act upon them!
  • Templates

    Templates Don't invent the wheel. It has been done.Fill_in_Template

    If you know what you are doing a template can be a very valuable instrument. Here you will find a vast selection of templates. Every third template will be made available to the general public.
  • Events

    Events Where things happen.Calendar

    Here you can browse events that may interest you. If you like to promote an event that is not yet listed you can do that as well.
  • Tooling

    TOOLS To make things happen.Showing_Wrench

    Here you can find an overview of all sorts of tools that may be of use.

    But remember: A fool with a fool is still a fool! Worse... a dangerous fool!

    • Project Management Tools
      All tools directly related to Project Management. Please note that there is a separate section on estimating tools.
  • Tutorials

    TUTORIALS To see how we do it.Laptop_View

    Last but certainly not least here you can find all sorts of tutorials on how to use some of the tools/instruments we use. Go try. And if you are still stuck you can always contact us or seek help in one of the forums
  • Stuff
    We have lots of stuff. We like lots of stuff.
    • Cool Stuff

      There is so much cool stuff out there!3467972A

      Here we’ve collected for you, a selection of things, sites, ideas and otherwise, that we think are very cool.