Effective Project Management: Traditional, Adaptive, Extreme, Fourth Edition

Chapter 10. Monitoring and Reporting Project Progress

When you are drowning in numbers you need a system to separate the wheat from the chaff.

—Anthony Adams, Vice President, Campbell Soup Co.

If two lines on a graph cross, it must be important.

—Ernest F. Cooke, University of Baltimore

The project plan is a system. As such, it can get out of balance, and a get-well plan must be put in place to restore the system to equilibrium. The longer the project manager waits to put the fix in place, the longer it will take for the system to return to equilibrium. The controls are designed to discover out-of-balance situations early and put get-well plans in place quickly.

You can use a variety of reports as control tools. Most can be used in numeric and tabular form, but I suggest using graphics wherever possible. A well-done graphic is intuitive. It does not require a lengthy explanation and certainly doesn't require a lot of reading. Be cognizant of the fact that senior managers just don't have a lot of time to dwell on your report. Give them what they need as succinctly as possible. Graphics are particularly effective as part of your status report to management. Senior managers generally aren't interested in reading long reports only to find out that everything is on schedule. While they will be pleased that your project is on track, their time could have been spent on other pursuits that require their attention. When projects are not on schedule, they want to know so immediately and see what ...