Status Reports: The Art of Letting Go

As a senior program/project manager I spend most of my professional career in international program/project management, focusing on distributed projects in multi-cultural environments. People I work with recognize me for my ability to assess a situation quickly and define adequate and pragmatic actions to bring projects back on track. My style of management can be characterized as can-do, a pragmatic approach focusing on delivery.

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When projects near the delivery date or an important milestone, the need for control increases. A lot of project managers require more frequent updates and a higher level of detail to feel in control. The same kind of behavior can be found when a production issue is causing application downtime, with status reports every 12 hours for a Priority 2--or even every hour in case of a Priority 1 issue. In my opinion, this is counter-productive--there are better ways to achieve the same result.

Imagine the following: A project is in the final phases of testing, and the remaining tests are for performance and stress. During these tests, it becomes apparent that the performance requirements will not be met. At the same time, you as the project manager have announced the go-live date. The first step is to go back to the steering committee and inform them about this setback, which might affect the delivery date of the project.

In most cases, the first thing a steering committee or project sponsor will ask is for more frequent updates. Meetings that were monthly become weekly, and when the delivery date nears the frequency will increase to daily level (I once experienced even twice a day). To be able to provide the project sponsor with up-to-date information, you ask your team to provide you with regular updates.

In my opinion, this behavior will only reduce the chance to …

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