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The Money Files

A blog that looks at all aspects of project and program finances from budgets, estimating and accounting to getting a pay rise and managing contracts. Written by Elizabeth Harrin from RebelsGuideToPM.com.

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A Change Manager’s guide to spring resets

Categories: Teams

We’ve had the delivery pressure of Q1 and now April is here! Where I am in the northern hemisphere that means we are starting to see warmer weather and everything feels lighter and nicer, and that includes work. Somehow, it’s not so hard to get through the back to back meetings when the sun is shining outside the office window.

April is a bit a breather after the struggle to get through Q1, but it also comes with the pressure of knowing that a big chunk of the year has already gone. So here’s what to do – don’t panic!
Many teams push on instead of pausing to recalibrate, that doesn’t have to be you. You can pause here, regroup after the first three months of the year and think about what intentional change you want to manage for your team.

Let’s start with the signs to look out for.

Warning signs

Look out for change fatigue showing up as disengagement or cynicism – people who roll their eyes when you talk about the plans for the year.

Another thing to put on your worry list is multiple initiatives competing for the same attention. There’s only so much change an organisation can deal with at any one time, and if you failed to land some biggies in Q1, that has just squeezed the change window into the remaining nine months.

Talk to the PMO or project leaders and get a sense of how they are feeling, are they OK to pause if they need to, or are we into the “Everything is priority one” syndrome?

How to reset

As a change manager, you have the power to help teams reset. It doesn’t mean stopping all the work or rebranding problems as “opportunities”. It’s about clarifying priorities for the rest of the year, the pace and the purpose. It’s about explaining what teams can manage to take onboard and resetting expectations with stakeholders.

Practical reset opportunities

I know I’ve used the word ‘opportunity’ there, but I don’t mean it negatively, I promise! Here are 5 things you could do if you know your teams are struggling and we’ve still got a lot of the year left to go.

Pause low-value change activity. Can it wait? Does it have to be done at all? There might be some things you can take off people’s plates that everyone will benefit from.

Reconfirm what success looks like now. Success might look different now to what it did when you first set these targets. Maybe you need a bit more benchmarking, or maybe other projects have shifted the art of the possible so you can set more challenging targets.

Simplify governance temporarily. I am not going to make any friends for saying that, but it will make a difference! Ditch what you can.

Talk to stakeholders. Remind them why you do what you do. Talk to them about expectations and how they sit within the wider programme of change across the organisation. Just because they have expectations doesn’t mean you can meet them, and it’s better to get that out in the open now rather than closer to the delivery date.

Give teams psychological permission to say “this isn’t working”. We had a long talk in my team about psychological safety at the start of the year, and it’s something we’re actively working on. Assess how your teams are feeling and what you can do to make it safer and easier for them to express concerns in a way that is listened to (and feels listened to).

As a change manager, you have the option to lead in a calm, considered way, it’s a leadership choice. We don’t need panic, and project managers are the same. We should be the stabilising influence on the team, even when everything is changing around us. We don’t just drive the change, we help people through it, and that’s a real skill.

Posted on: April 06, 2026 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Tools and strategies for validating and auditing project data

Oh my – projects create a lot of data. If you’ve been around projects for any amount of time (or read my previous articles on data management) then you’ll know that it’s really important what you do with that data.

By project data in this sense, we’re talking about the data about managing the project – the performance management data you collect and use to course correct. Your project might also create data as a deliverable, for example customer records or staff records, or financial data. But what we are talking about here is the performance management of the project – the kind of data that the PMO wants to audit from time to time to ensure you are sticking to the process.

Data validation tools

Data validation tools are what you can use (and they might already be set up in the system) to make it easier to ensure that the data meets certain criteria. Two easy ones are:

Data validation rules: Implementing built-in validation rules in your project management tools (e.g. ensuring budget figures are positive numbers or task deadlines are not in the past). That can prevent incorrect data entry or flag up when things look off.

Automated checks: Use software that automates validation processes, checking for discrepancies in data consistency, format, or compliance with predefined standards. For example, project codes might need to be 5 digits, or the project sponsor name might be chosen from a drop down list. These can be automatically checked at the point of entry by limiting the entries, or you can run reports in the background.

Auditing and monitoring

Audit logs: Enable audit logs in your project management tool to track changes made to the project data, including who made the change, what was changed, and when it was changed. Then you can trace discrepancies and identify the source. You might need PMO-level access to see the logs, but that’s OK, it’s normally the PMO team who would want to do the auditing anyway.

Data quality dashboards: Use dashboards that monitor the quality of project data. For example, what % of fields are filled in on a resource request? How many dependencies are in the average project schedule? How many risks haven’t been updated this month? This gives you insights into who is actually updating the project management software, and the quality of what they are putting in there.

Regular data audits

These are your normal project health checks or peer reviews, but in my experience they often stop happening after a brief fluffy of being booked in at the beginning of the year.

Periodic data reviews: The PMO can schedule regular data reviews to manually check the consistency and accuracy of project data, especially after major milestones or changes. As a project manager, you can also ask for a data review if you think it will help you maintain the accuracy and completeness of your data.

Cross-department audits: In larger projects, ask cross-functional teams (e.g. finance, operations, and HR) review project data for consistency and accuracy. Ideally, everything that’s held should be the same as what other departments are saying it is – in other words, data should align across departments. Check everyone is working off the same documents and schedules. You’d be surprised at how often one team is working off something that is out of date!

These are only a few strategies and ideas for auditing and validating the data in your project management systems – and they mostly require input from other humans on the team. If you are in a PMO role, try to build these into your annual cadence of checks and balances. As a project manager, do your best to stay on top of the data you create for performance tracking and keep everything as tidy as possible.

Posted on: March 17, 2026 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Project management lessons unwrapped: 10 Things I learned in 2025

Categories: Lessons Learned

OK, I know we’re nearly a quarter of the way through the year, but it takes time to do the work to reflect. And if you’ve read my previous posts from earlier this year, you might have picked up that there’s been a lot going on.
Before we move into the second quarter of the year (which here in the UK is the first quarter of the financial year – so there’s that), I wanted to share my takeaways from 2025 to see if there’s any that resonate with you.
And if you haven’t had time to properly digest the end of last year (or the beginning of this one), take this as a sign that it’s worth putting the effort in.

Here are 10 gifts I got to unwrap last year – the lessons we can all share with our teams.

The gift of focus

I know in the workplace we don’t get to say no to work, but in my personal life I was able to say no to low-value work. We outsourced cleaning and now have a lovely cleaning team, for example. I said no to several speaking engagements that required overseas travel. And at work, I did have conversations with my management team about the projects I enjoyed and what I felt I could take on, which helped me focus on the projects that made best use of my skills.

The gift of a clear brief

Having clear instructions is so important – I see this with my children! When I ask them to contribute to household chores, they are still at the age where they need very clear instructions. Giving and receiving clear briefs saves so much time.

The gift of patience with stakeholders

Stakeholders are busy. Let’s assume their actions come from a good place, because I’m 99.9% sure that they do. A little bit of patience – and factoring in lots of time for their response – is just being kind.

The gift of humour during chaos

Being able to laugh together and to see the funny side of events is really important for team morale. I can’t share the exact moments I’m thinking of, but being able to emotionally regulate in a way that brings others along with you is really helpful.

The gift of templates and checklists

I love a good checklist! This year my goal is to checklist-ise even more of my day job, especially month-end processes. Templates (basically the last project documents I created for the project that’s a little further on in the process) are a lifesaver when you need to get a new piece of work off the ground quickly.

The gift of clear communication

I have valued the times that stakeholders have been clear with what they want to see in steering decks, or communications materials, or in reporting. That saves everyone time. And I hope I communicate clearly to my colleagues too.

The gift of teamwork

I’m lucky to work with some amazing people, who have positive attitudes to their work and are proactive – being in a time like that, knowing that people have your back, is really important for wellbeing and psychological safety.

The gift of adaptability

Flexibility isn’t just a buzzword. How many times did you have to pivot in the last 12 months because your project team changed, or world events through everything for a loop, or the organizational objectives changed? We just have to be adaptable – it’s not an option.

The gift of reflection

I’m lucky enough to have had colleagues who have provided me with performance feedback, and to have had the time to reflect on that. One of my project teams last year was also the absolute best for capturing lessons learned as we went through the process – we ended up with some meaningful improvements we can action.

The gift of optimism for what’s next

2026 is already here, and really, who knows what the next few months – or years – will bring? While there is a lot of uncertainty, coming from a place of optimism rather than despondency is going to help me and the project teams I work with. Look for the good.

Posted on: March 10, 2026 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

10 Things you should stop doing on projects (right now)

Categories: productivity

No one has time for avoidable chaos. If you’re anything like me, you’re preparing the draft steering deck for the next meeting as soon as this month’s meeting is over, to make life easier for Future You. When projects are busy (and your personal life is probably pretty full as well), you need to really focus on what is making a difference. So you can drop what is not.
Some habits seem small but they drain time, energy, and your morale. So I’m giving you a permission slip to drop them, right now. If I were you, this is what I’d be giving up as soon as I could.

Scheduling meetings without an agenda

Even if your standing agenda is ‘action review, plan review, risk review, AOB.’ You still need something to work through to make it a meaningful interaction.

Copying half the company on every email

You don’t do this, do you? Please stop!

Updating the RAID log if you never use it

I get it – hardly anyone reads the RAID log except me and I’ve made peace with that. But if you only add things to it and don’t ever cross anything off or update it, then it’s not working for you. Use it or don’t, but don’t write things in it and then ignore them.

Treating every task like it’s urgent

Not everything is urgent. In my book, Managing Multiple Projects, I talk about having a ‘drop everything’ list of people you will respond to urgently (like your director or your child’s caregiver). Everyone and everything else gets a place in your To Do list based on your assessment of it’s priority.

Over-polishing PowerPoint decks

If you’ve read other advice on time-saving, you’d have heard something like: “Nobody notices your fonts.” That is absolutely incorrect. People absolutely do notice when your brand fonts aren’t used, or where you’ve picked a colour that is not in the brand palette.

But you can over-polish. Know when you’ve got something that’s good enough – and when your branding and grammar won’t distract from your message.

Running retros where no one speaks

If no one talks during retros or lessons learned, then they aren’t working for you. Ditch them and try something else, or switch up the format so they are actually useful.

Trying to solve every problem yourself

You’re a facilitator, not a firefighter! The age of the hero PM is over (if indeed it ever existed). Call in the experts, that is what they are paid for.

Ignoring feedback until the end

This is so important I wrote a book on it! You can check out Customer-Centric Project Management for more on this idea, but basically the idea that you only get lessons learned and customer feedback at the end of the project is ridiculous. Get feedback as early as you can so you can make things better as you go along.

Micromanaging

One of my mentees complained recently about a micromanaging manager, but how many of those micromanagers are actually us? Project managers get so in the detail that sometimes we are the problem. You can step back.

Saying “yes” to every new request

Scope creep is real. That’s what boundaries are for, people. And the change management process, which is there to back you up 100% when you have to say no.

Getting rid of some mental load or unhelpful habits means you’ll have more space to show up to be the leader you want to be. If your New Year’s resolutions kind of fell by the wayside, remember that you don’t have to rely on January to set yourself a new direction for the coming months. Start with one new (or dropped) habit today and stick with it. You’ll soon see the difference.

Posted on: March 03, 2026 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)

Are your projects creating technical debt?

Categories: software

I thought I had written about this before, but I couldn’t find anything, so I figured I would tackle the topic – technical debt.

We talk about debt on projects often in terms of how the project is being funded, but technical debt is different. It’s when you introduce a technical problem that will need to be resolved at some point in the future – debt that some other project or team is going to have to deal with (or maybe Phase 2 of your project). It’s where you make a short-term choice because it helps you in the moment, but it’s not the right strategic or longer term choice.

These are some ways that you could be creating technical debt.

Introducing manual processing

If your system expects users to do manual processing of data, such as receiving in paper forms when previously the submissions were digital, that’s technical debt. Especially with the march of AI, we are going to want to eliminate manual work, whether that’s reporting or data entry. And giving users processes and systems that are worse than what they previously had is never a good idea.

Duplicating records

If your project duplicates data that is already in another system, that’s technical debt. You could/should be identifying which system holds the main record and linking back to that with system interfaces.
Double keying for data entry is a similar thing – if you are expecting users to type the same information into two or more systems, that’s increasing the likelihood of user error. Eventually the smart product owner is going to want to automate the process or build an interface to pull the data.

Increasing support tickets

If your project has some kind of feature that you know has the potential to increase support tickets, that’s likely a sign that something will have to be fixed at a point in the future. For example, introducing an error message that people will call up about because it isn’t clear or because they can’t resolve it themselves. Or not being able to reset their own password and needing someone from tech support to do it for them.

Parallel processing – 2 systems doing the same or similar things

This is a bit like duplicating records, but it’s more about what the systems actually do. For example, if you have two systems that process invoices, at some point in the future it would be smart to standardise the company on to one invoice handling system. Because otherwise you are paying for maintenance and user licences for two systems, including resourcing that work and having system administrators for each. That’s just not efficient, so think about whether your project introduces something similar to what you already have in place.

Inefficient interfaces or integrations

Are you building system interfaces or integrating apps? Make sure you’re doing it in the most efficient way, or you’ll be back in a few months trying to unpick bad coding and streamlining it.
Or more often than not, you won’t be back to fix that and your colleagues will live with the project’s bad choices for years. Sorting out a messy interface is never going to be top of the list for a strategic CIO, unfortunately.

Building on old versions that need (or will need) an upgrade

If your project relies on old tech, platforms that will be decommissioned or are slated for an upgrade, the chances are that someone will have to redo your work in the future to move it (or make it suitable for) the new version. Could you reorder projects so your initiative happens after that upgrade is done and you only have to do the work once?

What else do you see in your organisation’s projects that you would classify as technical debt, and how do you get those items on the radar for management so they make the right choice?

Posted on: February 17, 2026 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)