• 21 Ways to Excel at Project Management

Monitoring & Reporting Progress

Question 11: Are you monitoring progress regularly?

Good Practice: The project plan should be monitored and updated every week. This activity is essential since tasks are often underestimated, and new tasks will be identified as the project moves forward.

Many people use what is called Rolling Wave Planning. This is when you plan down to the level of detail currently known and go back to plan deeper once more information is acquired. Usually rolling wave planning needs to stay at least 2 to 3 months ahead of the actual work being done, but of course this varies slightly by industry. ¹

If you create plans at the beginning of a project, put them in a drawer and forget them, why bother making them in the first place?

In poorly run projects, problems can go undetected until the project fails. It's like the drip…drip…drip of a leaky underground pipe. Money is being lost, but you don't see it until there is an explosion.

Common Mistakes

• Project plans are never updated beyond the first draft.
• Using non-binary milestones.
• Reporting tasks as partially complete. Low-level tasks are not complete until complete; they should be measured as either 0% or 100% complete.
• Ignoring warning signs and pressing on, hoping everything will turn out right by the end.

Warning Signs

• The number of open issues continues to rise.
• Using contingency plans faster than the rate of progress on the project.

Reference

¹ Micah Mathis, PMP, Work Breakdown Structure: Purpose, Process and Pitfalls, 2007.