The Decision Backlog: How to Manage Uncertainty
Elizabeth is a freelance writer and project manager living and working in London. She runs The Otobos Group, a project communications consultancy specializing in project management.
If you’re anything like me, you will have worked on projects where technically you are on schedule, but certain team members are blocked from continuing. Projects rarely stall because people have run out of tasks to do. You hit a wall because you need someone to decide something.
It could be that you’re waiting on someone to make the call about what supplier to use. It could be that you have to wait until a particular committee meets or a senior stakeholder gives you approval for funding to be released. Perhaps you’re waiting on a client or colleague to confirm whether the requirements are actually what they want, or maybe there is a governance hoop to jump through that requires an approval you haven’t yet got.
Most mature PMOs and project teams manage risks, issues, actions and tasks, but the processes for managing decisions tend to stick around fixed dates, internal policies or external factors that feel awkward to control. Whatever the reason, the project team ends up waiting.
If we can make pending decisions visible, we can focus on getting them made—and that should reduce the waiting.
Decisions are different from risks
You might have decisions on your risk register, phrased something like this:
There is a risk that the supplier decision is not taken in a timely manner (i.e., within three months), which would negatively impact…
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"You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do." - Henry Ford |
