Category Archives: Status Reporting

Mindshift: Stop Doing “Whatever It Takes”

  By Hala | July 4, 2012 - 4:04 pm | Agility, Paradigm, Process, Project Management, Status Reporting
18 Comments

I used to go into job interviews with the phrase “I’ll do Whatever It Takes to Get It Done” emblazoned on my forehead.

 

I used to write documents nobody would ever read, create status reports nobody cared about, and schedule so many meetings that people didn’t even bother to respond to the invites anymore (this was sometimes remedied by the promise of homemade cookies, which in and of itself warrants its own blog post, but the gains were only temporary. I promise.)

 

Even worse, I expected my project teams to work on and deliver “project artifacts” that were redundant, or clearly unnecessary, because someone else asked for them.

 

In summary, I did (and expected others to do) “Whatever It Takes”, which translated into doing everything and anything requested, without questioning the logic behind the requests.

 

The result: Frustrated teams, wasted time (and money!), and managers that still wanted more.

 

 

Gradually, I evolved from doing “Whatever It Takes” to doing (and expecting) “ONLY What It Takes” to get something done.

 

By doing “ONLY What It Takes”, we get rid of the unnecessary, the redundant, and the useless.

By doing “ONLY What It Takes”, we deliver only what will allow us to move forward, instead of satisfying multiple requests for the same information, in slightly different formats.

I.e., doing “ONLY What It Takes” removes ego from the equation.

 

Do you do “Whatever It Takes”? Do you find that you may be doing too much? What can you do to streamline and do only what it takes to get the work done, with the same level of excellence and quality?

 

Examples:
Can you avoid writing 3 documents that repeat the same information, and centralize the information into one key document?

Can you combine two reports that you send to two different stakeholders and send one report instead?

Can you graciously decline some requests while making a clear case for why the request may be a waste of time, money, and morale?

 

Share! If you’ve figured out a way to streamline and cut the excess from what you do, I’d love to hear about it.

Manageable Mondays: No More Information Goose-Chasing

  By Hala | June 11, 2012 - 12:15 am | Communication, Project Management, Status Reporting
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Post Executive Summary:
Spend a few hours creating a central project collaboration site and save many frustrating hours of information goose-chasing (and become known as the most organized PM your team has ever had)!
Read on for more…


It’s Monday (again), and your stakeholders/managers/executives have been struck by temporary short-term memory loss.

They vaguely remember that you are at some phase of your project, just not which one.

You thought you were clear in your project status from last week on next steps, and on when your next project communication would be coming out.

 

Inevitably though, you will get a stray email or two asking the seemingly innocent question,
“Hey there awesome project person! Can you remind me what your latest project status is before I go into this board meeting?”

Get a few of these in a row, and you’ll realize how not innocent these types of questions can be. Yikes.

Wanna be one step ahead? Here’s how:

1) If you don’t already have one, create a central project collaboration site within your company’s intranet where you store all your project status emails/reports, as well as meeting minutes. (SharePoint is great for this if your company has it!)

2) Post/upload project status reports and meeting minutes to your project site before emailing them to a wide audience, and avoid forgetting to do it later!

3) Include the link to your project site within your email signature.
(And if you don’t have an email signature, what are you waiting for?!? Go make one right now, and put some personality into it!)
Bonus tip: If you are working on multiple projects (hopefully NOT, but hey we all gotta do what we gotta do), list each project’s site in your email signature so you don’t have to choose which one to include every time you send an email.

4) Send the link to the relevant sub-page or file on your project site to people who ask questions that have already been addressed.

Benefits:
By having a central project site that stores all your communications, reports, and project vital signs, you can:

  • easily direct people asking generic questions to that site (within seconds!)
  • avoid spending time digging through sent emails
  • avoid rephrasing information that has already been communicated

Soon, people will automatically go to your project site first when looking for information!

Bam! Instant productivity boost.

Now go forth and create!

Share with us:
Have you had success with having a central project site? What tools or collaboration software have you used to create yours?

How to Embrace Project Status Color Coding

  By Hala | May 25, 2012 - 8:55 am | Communication, Project Management, Status Reporting
2 Comments

Ah yes. The beloved topic of project status color coding. The notorious Green-Yellow-Red of project status reporting which we all know and hate dislike with a burning passion.

If you currently work in an environment where color coding is required for your status reporting, read on!

There may be slight variations on the specific definition of what each color means to your project or in your organization, but for the most part, they follow the general rule of:

Green = Project is cruisin along, and we’re optimistic about budget, scope, and schedule (which I’ll lovingly call the BSS)

Amber = A few issues exist that may cause us to miss the BSS

 

Red = DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! The BSS has gone down the toilet, and heads will be flying as soon as this report gets in the hands of the person with a temper and a corner office!

Phew. That’s a lot of pressure.

The concept of color-coding on project status communications can be used to your advantage, if used to accurately reflect the status of a project.

Unfortunately, many project managers seem to have an overwhelming bias to the color green. 
Based on zero scientific studies, I sense there may be a correlation between that bias and the oversensitivity many senior managers seem to have to colors OTHER than green. (Just sayin’)

So then, it makes perfect logical sense that we are swimming in a sea of green project status reports, with the occasional brave soul throwing out a yellow or even a red (gasp! Usually out of desperation after reaching the end of Mitigation Workaround Road).

And here is where embracing color comes in! There is only one way to change the perception of project status color coding as being a reflection of your skills/competency/incompetency as a project manager.
You need to lead the revolution in viewing and using project status colors as an honest communication tool.

So own that yellow, be bold in that red, and rather than hiding behind weak excuses, stand up and explain what those colors mean.

When you see risk approaching and putting your project in danger, use yellow to make that danger visible to others.
Inspire your team to take action to reel you back into green, or to find a way to maneuver around the danger.

When something throws a huge wrench in your project plan, throwing the entire project off its course, make sure people know as soon as possible with red.
Seeing red alerts others to the fact that something has gone wrong, but make sure they also see the reason why.

The secret to using color-coding with confidence and skill is:
Always be thoughtful and proactive in your approach.

Boldly stating that your project is RED means nothing if you haven’t also analyzed and communicated the reasons, potential workarounds, mitigation options, and outcome scenarios.
Use your team, which is the most valuable resource you have, to think about the real impact of the situation and come up with innovative ways to either maximize success potential or minimize losses.

As project managers (and people!) we need to accept that things do go wrong, sometimes out of pure circumstance, other times because of major or minor mistakes we may commit. However, miscommunicating your project’s status will only make things worse for you and your team, and most importantly, your project.
 
Be honest, thoughtful, and proactive, and lead your own color revolution!