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The
Project Group, LLC
We specialize in assisting corporate and government clients in learning to
improve their productivity while planning and executing projects.
Our three-phase approach yields faster, more efficient project initiation,
planning and execution results.
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Greetings,
Each
month our newsletter delves into a specific step in the phases of
Initiation, Planning and Execution of projects. Our methodology is
applicable to any project in any industry. Our process approach to
Project Management is designed to help your company's projects gain
traction quickly, communicate clearly to all
parties and keep them on track to reach a successful conclusion.
We facilitate workshops that jump-start your teams, making sure they know
what they are going to do and validating they have the time and resources
with which to do it.
This newsletter focuses on Process 11:
Tracking and Managing A
Project.
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· Collecting Actual Data
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You made your project plan and had it approved. You've set a
baseline. Work on the project proceeds. How do you know if the project is
proceeding according to plan?
Now you
have to find out what's really happening on the project by collecting
'actual data'. Much project management literature just says something
like "collect actuals and then compare actuals to the plan".
But how do you get people to report on the work they have done?
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· How to do it
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The following table describes several communication modes
along with their pros and cons.
<BR
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Modality
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Advantages
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Disadvantages
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Telephone
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Easy to do
Can get some non verbal feedback
No written record
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Time consuming
Difficulty coordinating schedules
Time difference challenges
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One
on One
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Best non-verbal feedback
Most warm and fuzzy
No written record
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Time consuming
Difficulty coordinating schedules
May intimidate some team members
No consistent format
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E-mail
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A
written record
Team members can respond on their time
Asynchronous (good for team differences)
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No standard format
Impersonal; no non-verbal cues
Easily misinterpreted
E-mail overload No guarantee of response
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Electronic
forms
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A
written record
Team members can respond on their time
Asynchronous (good for team differences)
Standard format
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Everyone must have same software
Impersonal
E-mail overload No guarantee of response
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Paper
Forms
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A
written record
Team members can respond on their time
Standard format
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Must be collated or transcribed
Only can be used when team works in same location
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Meetings
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(Potentially) Warm and fuzzy
Consistent format
Team members can listen to each other
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Time consuming
Time consuming
Time consuming
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How
many of us have been in meetings where the project manager (or the
project manager's boss) goes around and grills each person: "How is
your part of the project going?". And what
do the rest of us do? We sit around being bored until it is our turn to
get grilled.
Meetings may be useful but they are not the best place to collect actual
data. As a project manager you should utilize one of the other methods of
data collection and then hold meetings to solve problems collaboratively
that you have uncovered as a result of your analyzing the data.
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· How often should
you do it?
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How often you should collect actual data depends on the size
of the project. For short projects once a week may be required. A
generally accepted standard is every two weeks. This gives your team
members time to actually get some work done. If you have been following
the 8/80 hour rule, that is, not having any task longer than two weeks,
you won't have that many tasks to report on in any given period.
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· Do you want me
to spend time working, or reporting on my work?
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What do you do when team members, especially programmers,
complain about reporting requirements?
One response is to ask them if they are professionals. They'll all
indignantly say yes. You then remind them that lawyers, painters,
consultants, accountants and psychiatrists always track their hours, how
long they have worked for which client. Why should
programmers, or any other team member for that matter, not be held
to a professional standard to keep track of what they are doing?
This
argument is a good one but it does not always work. Your next best
defense is to try to keep it as simple as possible.
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· The Four Questions
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Reporting actual data ought to be simple and easy. In most
projects, if you have broken the work down into tasks and work packages,
no one is working on more than four or five tasks in a two week period.
The Four Questions that need to be answered on each task ought to be done
in ten minutes or less.
What are The Four Questions?
1) Is the task complete (Yes/No)?
2) If complete, how long did it take (or how many effort hours did you
spend)?
3) If not completed, how many days to you anticipate to completion (or
how many more effort hours of work do you anticipate)?
4)If not complete, explain in a few words why it
is not complete.
To see previous newsletters
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· Next Month In The Newsletter
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In the December Newsletter we will talk more about how to
use the Four Questions, how to use the responses from them to report
status and then take appropriate corrective action.
To receive our newsletter, click here
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