On the Highlight Report

Quality reporting is one of the fundamentals to a successful delivery and without it the wheels of your project will come off.
Tool Downloads
> Highlight Report

However there is no one size fits all solution. Every Project Manager and every project develops its own style, some like to keep it loose and vague taking the approach that “you can’t be hit if you can’t be seen”, while others see real benefit in tailoring and controlling messages sent outside of the project team.  Whatever your approach, project stakeholders, particularly the ones paying the bills will insist on seeing regular reports.

In PRINCE2 this is the Highlight Report.  The report facilitates the regular communication between the Project Manager and the Project Board and is used to monitor progress and track issues / risks.  It draws heavily from the internal checkpoint reports and the project logs and its an important perception management tool for the Project Manager.

HINT: project teams usually find reporting painful as they are usually focused on what their believe they were recruited for – delivery of products -  however a little bit of regular reporting can set the stage for a strong defence if and when the project comes under fire – if an environment where profit is at stake – these PRINCE2 Highlight Reports, when done correctly, are usually worth more than their weight in gold.

On the Stage Plan

The PRINCE2 stage plan plays a key role in the Project Manager’s OODA loop (decision making) cycle by allowing for continual refinement of the project plan.
Tool Downloads
> Stage Plan

The OODA Loop is a concept originated by military strategist Col. John Boyd of the United States Air Force and has become an important concept in both business and military strategy. According to Boyd, decision-making occurs in a cycle of observe-orient-decide-act. An individual or an organization can process this cycle quickly, observing and reacting to unfolding events more rapidly than an opponent, can thereby “get inside” the opponent’s decision cycle and gain a military or business advantage.

In terms of project delivery, the OODA loop can be applied to keep the project flexible and responsive to a ever-changing environment by ensuring that planning occurs throughout the project lifecycle. While detailed planning prior to starting stage 1 is always a good idea, the plan needs to remain flexible in order to remain adaptable to changing or new requirements that appear mid-project or from lessons learned from the previous stage.

By using stage plans in your project, this allows the PM to review previous planning, Observe the current environment, Orient the project team, Decide on the best course of action and finally Act (thereby returning to observe the new environment created by the previous action).

This constant refining on the project plan through the stages enables a more controlled outcome.

Online Project Management Tools and Software – 2008

Have I been blogging for over a year now?  sheesh times flys!  In following up my previous post, Online Project Management Software Players – 2007, the good people at SIIA have announced the 2008 winners of the annual Codie Awards earlier this year.  There were a couple of project related categories and products worth taking a look at:

Best Project Management Solution

Awards the software solution that best automates the management of project-based business activities.

Best Collaboration Solution

Awards the software solution that best facilitates group interaction via the Internet, this includes groupware, real-time conferencing and collaboration over the Internet.

I had a good response from readers and vendors alike to my previous 2007 post, so please feel free to let us know what you’re using currently, or if you’ve had experience with the software solutions above, let us know what you think!

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.