Hyderabad Blues: [HM:257619] 10 Recommendations for Project Tracking and Governance

Tuesday, 16 December 2014

[HM:257619] 10 Recommendations for Project Tracking and Governance

in Editor's Choice -

For a project manager the real game is project governance and its tracking. So I would like to share some tips for project governance and its tracking. Here we go:

1# Produce action points against each item on the agenda and circulate within 24 hours of the meeting. Use these action points to help in the creation of your next agenda.

2# Review the items on the critical path checking they are on schedule. Review risks, review yours stakeholders and your communication plans and whether you are still on track to deliver on time, to budget and to the required quality standard.

3# Set a tolerance figure and monitor e.g. a tolerance figure of ±5% means as long as you are within the 5% limit you do not have to formally report. If exceed the 5% limit (cost or time) then you need to report this to the agreed person – probably your sponsor

4# Report progress against an end of a stage – are you on schedule? Time, cost or quality? Ensure that if something is off schedule the person responsible for delivering it suggests ways to bring it back on time, within budget or to hit the right quality standard.

5# Develop an issues log to record items that may be causing concern. Review at your project meetings.

6# See whether you are still delivering the original project benefits when reviewing your project. If not, consider re-scoping or if appropriate abandoning the project. Do not be afraid of abandoning a project. Better to abandon now rather than waste valuable time, money, and resources working on something no longer required. If you close a project early – hold a project review meeting to identify learning.

7# Produce one-page reports highlighting key issues. Agree the areas to include with the Sponsor before writing a report.

8# Use a series of templates to support the monitoring process, e.g. milestone reporting, change control, log, planned v. actual.

9# Apply traffic lights to illustrate how you are progressing – red, amber and green. Use these in conjunction with milestone reports.

10# Engender honest reporting against specific deliverables, milestones, or a critical path activity. If you do not have honest reporting imagine the consequences.