Chapter 7: How to Status Your Project

---

Overview

Equipped with a thorough plan and a logical schedule, we are finally ready to go to work. This is quite an exciting time. The team is bringing on consultants, sending off orders, and starting the process of turning those raw materials into a fine work of art. Common wisdom has it that it is also time for the project manager to pick up that clipboard and start checking things off like a foreman on a hectic loading dock. Further, we are taught that if by chance things go awry, recovery is simply a matter of fine-tuning dates, tweaking technologies, and in the worst-case scenario, invoking Plan B.

If it were that simple, project managers would not be needed. Instead, project management offices would only be staffed with:

• Project planners to build schedules

• Project administrators who issued status reports, transcribed meeting minutes, and processed purchase requisitions and timesheets

However, the job title includes the word "manager" for the same reason that captains are in the cockpits of commercial aircraft. Autopilot technology is wonderful, but there are times when only the presence of a skilled and experienced leader can avert disaster. Therefore, the focus of this chapter is the proper approach to project monitoring, including how to inspect for, and react to, pending exigencies.

---