Start me up
I hear words and sometimes a song comes into my head. This song, “Start me up” is by the Rolling Stones from their 1981 album, Tattoo You. I am guessing many, if not most, know of the song since it was also the advertising theme tune to Microsft’s Windows 95 marketing campaign.
The reason the song came into my head was because of an expression used during a project status meeting I once attended. A particular task was being reported as “started”, and an update was accordingly made to the plan. “Start me up” I thought!
Nothing unusual in saying a task has started, but it got me thinking of this piece to write on project task status reporting because of what happened next.
When asked for further detail about the % complete progress the project manager replied to the effect that since it had started, progress should be recorded as 25% complete. Some new people in the room asked for explanation and were told, “the way we report is 25% for started, 50% for progress on track, and 75% for nearly complete”.
An interesting use of metrics! Certainly easy to report and no questions asked. I am not sure it would meet any Project Management certification standards I am aware of.
I remember some years ago a project manager reporting a status to me as 60% complete after 8 weeks into a 14 week task work stream. I am making up the numbers to create a simplistic model for you to follow. The PM seemed confident but I had my doubts about progress. I asked for more detail. It was a complex work stream and we were resource constrained and with an upcoming deadline. I won’t write all the details but simplify using the following:
PM View: 10 tasks, 6 tasks completed = 60% complete.
My assessment: 2 of the 6 completed tasks were one week effort each. 4 were three weeks effort each. This translates to completing 25% by effort. Of the 4 remaining tasks, and I should point out that all had only just started, 2 were 8 weeks effort each and the other 2 were 12 weeks effort each.
Total effort required for all 10 tasks, 54 weeks, effort consumed was 32 weeks. Total effort consumed of 60% against what should have been 25% effort consumed. So we were 18 weeks effort behind schedule.
Simplistic I know but the intent is to show how easy it is to completely overstate, or mislead, progress reporting. And this is just the beginning, as I am sure many will be thinking of telling me. I have not factored in the cost of resources yet, and the earned value analysis that should also be assessed.
In my view project task status reporting cannot be simplified to 25% etc if one is to really understand progress, or lack of it.
“Start me up” had a line in the song, that I cannot resist quoting, “You make a grown man cry".
Don’t do that to your program executive when reporting status!
About the Author:
Michael has over 25 years experience in leadership roles in prominent customer and vendor organizations working in the UK, Canada, Australia, South Korea and Hong Kong in the Airline, Banking, and Telecommunications sectors.
