44 Tracking the Project

Making the Most of Status Updates

Regular, mandatory status meetings for all project team members should be a part of any project. These meetings will give team members a chance to connect, discuss issues, and solve problems. It will also give you the opportunity to coach team members and make sure you’re on top of what everyone is doing.

Status meetings should be tied in with status reports. We recommend that both items be completed weekly or bi-weekly, depending on your project. Also, remember that meetings and reports can be brief or detailed – it all depends on what level of control you need and how big the project is.

We recommend a Friday-Monday schedule, where reports are submitted on Friday (before the end of the day) and status meetings are held on Monday. If a holiday happens to occur, reports could be submitted on the Thursday, and meetings could take place on the Tuesday.

Status reports should contain the following items:

• Team member name
• Status report date
• Tasks planned for the previous week
• Tasks completed in the previous week
• Tasks planned for the following week
• Issues and risks identified (highlight those that require project manager attention)

Status meetings, then, are a review of tasks that each member completed for the previous week, what they have planned for the upcoming week, and what issues they have encountered or predict.

Again, status reports and meetings should be customized for your projects’ needs. Team members should also know that issues should be reported to the project manager as they arise.

Managing Change

Change management is another way of controlling your project. This process ensures that any changes, whether they are to the objectives, requirements, tasks, or design of a particular component, are approved by the project team.

At the beginning of the project, all stakeholders and team members must agree not to make any changes to the project plan or to the design of its components, and to instead follow a change management process. Then, when a change is required, a change management form is completed.

Example

Then, the form is submitted to the project manager. The change is reviewed and a decision is made. In small projects, the review process may be done by the project manager. For larger projects, the project team or even a separate task force (typically called the Change Control Board, or CCB) is involved.

Monitoring Risks

Remember the risk management plan that we built during the planning phase? Make sure it doesn’t stay on a shelf. Continue to monitor and add to it.

Here are some additional tips for making sure risks don’t ruin your project:

• Be proactive. Have meetings with stakeholders and outside parties to ensure your risk assessment is accurate and that your action plan (if you have one) is valid.
• Keep an eye out for assumptions. Make sure that they continue to hold true. Identify what could happen if those assumptions are unfulfilled.
• Keep a record of what actions you take to mitigate risks.