Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Boss: I want minute by minute status! (25 of 44)

Fort Wayne Daisies player, Marie Wegman, of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League arguing with umpire Norris Ward: Opa-locka, Florida


Boss: I want minute by minute status! (25 of 44)
In our last episode we were looking for ways to get a project back on track by:

1.   Taking tasks out of the schedule.

2.   Decreasing the scope of the remaining work.

3.   Adding resources.

4.   Overtime.

Though these solutions are used quite often in software development projects we stressed that educating everyone on the variability inherent in any schedule especially early on the process and the need to reschedule as the project progresses.

Having said that, once a project goes off course it draws attention.
Project managers should expect to:

1.   Meet with the team more often.

2.   Report more often to management.

3.   Show how you plan to get on track.


Project managers need to prepare and shelter their teams from the added scrutiny. This will not always be easy.  Some practices that may help keep the pressure off the team and provide needed updates to management:

1.   Adopting a higher frequency of status meetings.

2.   Shorter duration status meetings.

3.   Increased frequency of reports to management.

Good luck on your projects!

We can schedule and track your next project.  Email Us: schedule.trackers@gmail.com.