Reporting project progress

Every week I seem to see reports of failed projects, many of which have previously been billed as the next raging success.  What’s happening out there?

How honest are we in reporting project progress?  And how honest should we be?

As someone often on the receiving end of project and programme progress reports, of course I want to see the honest picture.  I would say that, wouldn't I?  But is that really the case?  And is it in the project/programme manager's best interest to give me a warts and all picture?

If you know there's a temporary blip in the project, but you're confident that you can manage to recover from it and still meet the key milestones, then why would you want to worry me (possibly unnecessarily) or risk me interfering (yes, we've all worked for managers who are keen to roll up their sleeves in the, often misguided, view, that they're the only ones who can put it back on track).  So, there has to be a judgement made about when and what to report.

But, on the other hand, please don't keep telling me it’s all OK until the eleventh hour and suddenly report the project is late, overspent, poor quality, not fully tested or has some other significant defect.  By this time it's too late for any of us to get it sorted to meet the original goals. And I'll be cross!  You wouldn't like that. If you'd shared the issues earlier then maybe we could have done something together.

A bigger concern for me, though, is the project manager who either doesn’t realise the project is off the rails, or doesn’t want to believe it.

For those of you who don't realise until it's too late - please, get yourself a coach or mentor who can advise you on the pitfalls to look out for.  Formal training may help but experience counts for everything.

For those of you who don’t want to believe it - the question has to be - why?  There could be lots of different reasons.  I'd guess that near the top of the list are: not knowing how to resolve it, fear of being blamed, fear of personal failure or a trusting belief that it'll be all right on the night, come what may.

And, at the end of the day, in my experience, the best way to get honest project progress reports is in an organisation which accepts that no-one and no project is perfect; that there will be times when it all looks hopeless but it's only by facing up to problems, and sharing them with a sympathetic ear, that we learn from mistakes and get better at project management.

So, to answer my first questions - no, we're not always honest about reporting on our projects.  And, yes, of course we should be, but we need the right, trusting, environment to do it in.

Which leads me neatly into my next thought - how can the managers and leaders create that trusted place to work?  Ah, if only…..

Project management - nature or nurture?

We all read reports about so-called IT projects which have:

• gone off the rails
• failed to deliver the required benefits or results
• gone over budget or over time or both
• been cancelled because they were beyond hope.

But why is this? What's the problem ?

Firstly, I refer to them as 'so-called' IT projects because in most cases the projects we hear about are actually business projects which are utilising new systems or technologies to change the way an organisation operates.

There are many possible causes for such projects to go awry. These are well documented and include:

• business not knowing, or being able to articulate, its real needs
• business not understanding the need to put in resources to work alongside IT colleagues during the project
• changes in scope, etc.

And so it goes on.

But I want to explore the concept of project management. Most organisations will say they use tried and tested methodologies for managing projects. Indeed, there are those ways of working which are becoming de facto industry standards.

Those same organisations will tell you that all of their project managers are certified in the chosen methodology. But does that only mean that they have been 'sheep-dipped' on the training courses and emerged with their manual and their attendance certificate?

The problems then start and I want to mention just two:

First - when was the project manager trained? There's a world of difference between 'just-in-time' training so that the learning is fresh in the mind and can be applied to the project with gusto, and the 'I've-got-a-manual-in-the-back-of-the-cupboard' approach whereby the learning is at best rusty or, worse, thinking and best practice standards have developed to the point that renders the old training meaningless.

So, my advice is make sure your project managers are freshly trained in the latest thinking and techniques. It always helps if they have managed successful projects before, but a refresher is never wasted.

Second - what makes a project manager? I've seen countless people who claim to be project managers. They have been on the course, got the certificate, know the keywords, understand the process and can produce a project plan.

But - they can't manage a project; haven't got a clue! Why not?

Is project management nature or nurture? I don't have the answer. I'm sure others have their views. A topic for an MBA thesis perhaps?