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Project Status Reporting: Break Glass, Press Panic Button
Tom's latest eBook has been released on Amazon: "The 7 Myths of IT Integrations". Tom is also a Program Director for a large Midwest corporation and has been an adjunct faculty member at Walsh College. He has managed global web initiatives, data center moves and large multi-million dollar programs.
Something struck me about the way that Bear Stearns abruptly made their corporate announcement recently. For those not up to speed, Bear Stearns basically has been presenting healthy-looking financial reports to investors and financial analysts in an apparent effort to make everybody think things were going along just fine. Then the news broke that not only was Bear Stearns not healthy, but in so much financial trouble that it needed to be bailed out by the government or it would be out of business.
Where were the warning signals? As an investor, you would have likely made decisions to invest (or not to invest) based upon the validity of those financial reports--financial status reports. That got me to thinking, how many times I have seen something similar in project status reports? Projects are investments as well. Most projects have to complete at least a basic return on investment (ROI) calculation to help determine if the project is viable enough to warrant the investment.
Investors and project stakeholders are making decisions to fund, or continue to fund, IT projects based upon the health that they perceive they see in the project status reports. We have all heard the saying that until a project goes live the only product a PM has is the communication.
When Good Projects Go Bad
If you have been in the IT industry for any length of time, you …
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When I was born I was so surprised I couldn't talk for a year and a half. - Gracie Allen |