There are many stories of projects where 90% of the project takes 100 days and the last 10% also take 100 days. Too often project managers and top management get significant surprises late in the project. Could these surprises be known about earlier? What needs to be done to get the appropriate information? If we can get the information risk will be less.
9. Minimize Risk; Early Warning
Common practice, as discussed earlier, is to get a commitment from resources performing tasks. They try their best to make commitments that gives them a high chance of finishing their task(s) on time.
During execution it is not really ‘polite’ to ask for progress in tasks that have just started – after all the task is not due yet and the project manager has a commitment. So, at least early on during a task there is no report on progress – and therefore no knowledge of a possible problem.
When a task is planned the task owner must make assumptions about the task and his environment (for instance the number of tasks he has). When a resource starts work on a task he soon knows how long the task will take with much greater accuracy than at the time he made his estimate for the project plan. Why don’t project managers get this information and use it to help manage their projects better?
How about applying the following tactics. Instead of reporting completion progress e.g. a task or project is 25% complete let’s request the time remaining in tasks. All resources report how many more days they need to complete their task. That way (if they make an honest evaluation) the project manager knows immediately when a problem arises – rather when it is already to late from saving the project from missing its due date. (Remember cutting scope, or spending more money are the equivalent of missing the due date.)
There is the question of what to report and how frequently. Since project managers want early warning, report frequency must be high – say daily. To achieve such a frequency reporting must not be onerous. If only resources with started tasks report and all they report is the expected remaining task time, is that onerous? If WIP and multi-tasking have been reduced, then there will be fewer tasks to report and knowledge over remaining time will be better.
Does this make sense? Will this give the project manager a better view of the status of their project? Will it give top management a better view of their portfolio of projects?
What are the obstacles to implementation?
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