Are We Making Progress?

Glen is Vice President Program Planning and Controls, Niwot Ridge LLC.

  Stakeholder Management   ProjectsAtWork  

In the concluding installment of our “5 Questions PMs Must Ask” series, we explore the fifth and final question: how do we know we are making progress? The answer requires measures of effectiveness and performance stated in tangible units that are meaningful to all stakeholders.

The introduction to this series — “5 Questions PMs Must Ask” — outlined five immutable principles that project leaders and teams must address in order to succeed. This installment explores the fifth and final question, How Do We Know We Are Making Progress?

With a clear and concise description of “done” — in units of measure meaningful to the decision makers; with a Plan and a Schedule baseline established for delivering the outcomes; with confirmation that we have enough resources, time and money; with the impediments identified and handling plans in place … the remaining question is how do we knowing we are going to make it on-time, with the planned budget, and that the product or service is going to work?

The solution starts with defining the measures needed to answer the question. These measures include:

__ Mission need — stated in terms of Capabilities needed to accomplish the desired outcome. The mission, vision and strategic goals are derived from the Project Management Plan (PMP), Project Charter, or Project Strategy (…

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