Jun06Project reportingPosted at 07:36 in Communication, Project Management

Stacey Douglas published a very good post about communication management, and more specifically about "how much detail is enough for project reporting".

To make the long story short, there is an appropriate level of reporting coming from your PMO: if your project reporting does not dig deep enough, your organization will struggle by always asking for more; and so will it be if your project reporting goes too deep into the details, dragging everyone away from actually performing the work to be done. Déjà-vu? Of course, it happens all over the place.

There are no easy answers to this problem, and I believe it goes through skilled PMO leaders who know how to gather reporting requirements; and building trust between them and the business leader. Any suggestion about tools and techniques to succeed in this field?

Mar27Pulling the plugPosted at 12:59 in Communication, Project Management, Risk Management

Very few organizations are capable of admitting that possibility of success is gone and that a project is failing. If expected benefits can't be delivered and deadlines can't be met, for the greater health, such projects must be terminated. It is never an easy decision to make, and it requires an objective and pragmatic analysis: Trade-offs need to be carefully weighted, and you need to have a comprehensive plan to address all anticipated issues (politics, expenses, relationships, etc).

Pulling the plug is important, because the cost associated with continuing the project might be (much) higher than the cost of terminating the project. This is valid for every single type of project, even a job hunting project: sometimes, it is better to back off if you don't feel comfortable with the way things are looking like.