Milestone Tracking

Every project has several milestones enroute to the eventual delivery/go-live. A detailed project plan with built-in task dependencies, resource loading and milestones enables tracking the correc status of the project at all times. At a higher level, the milestone based tracking helps measure the progress as well. If a particular task has a certain deliverable date, it helps to remind the task owners of the upcoming date as the date gets closer and making them aware of the escalation that will be required if the date slips. Educating the teams/task-owners about the purpose of escalation is important, so that everyone is on the same page with regards to delivering on-time and the benefits of doing so. There are always situations where the original estimate turns out to be less than actual work required, and mitigating actions such as adding more resources, de-scoping some items, etc. might be required. However, the team members should be empowered to raise those concerns/risks as soon as they see it, so that executives are made aware of any schedule/scope changes that may be required to meet the planned go-live date.

Project management crisis management basics

Several well managed projects or relatively simple projects go awry for variety of reasons. Some of these could be because of factors that are out of control of a project manager. In these situations the project team needs leadership to stay focused and get back on-track. If the project manager gets frustrated and stressed in these situations, it has a direct impact on the team. This is where leadership is required. In these situations when the project manager stays calm and looks at the situation objectively, the path for forward progress can be identified and successfully navigated. This may take some time however, a focused yet calm demeanor of the project manager will have a positive impact on the team. The team will get direction, and know that it is being supported. If a resource crunch is experienced, either the work will be limited to the resources available or resource augmentation would need to be made.