As I study the collection and reporting of metrics and project statuses, I find many reports just do not deliver what they should. I believe there should be a stand-alone deliverable that a project manager is able to provide to a stakeholder at any time, illustrating the total project status.  I created a report and used the name “TPS Report” from the movie Office Space.  I try to interject a little humor into a project, where I can, without raising too many eyebrows.  Because I do not think I should keep all of the good stuff for myself, I hope others will download my free template.  It captures everything from overall project status to schedule, budget, scope, and quality, including a RAG (Red, Amber or Green) status.  What milestones were planned and accomplished?  What is planned for the next period?  Though I believe a subjective narrative does have its place in project reporting, I like the more objective approach.  Give your stakeholders the facts!
Please enjoy this free copy of  my Total Project Status Report Template.

I participated in a Communication Working Group session for the PMO today. Imagine a dozen people sitting around a table laughing for 10 minutes, when they realized I had shaved off my goatee. After the excitement subsided, we rolled up our sleeves and got to work. It was really quite refreshing to see how excited everyone was to be there. (We only had 4 people for the prior meeting) Ishikawa diagrams littered the walls and the smell of Scripto markers filled the air.

I can’t stress enough how important it is to have a Communications Management Plan.  Feel free to download my template.  If not, I recommend following the next 7 steps to write your own.

1. List the project stakeholders and their associated roles and responsibilities
2. Specify contact information for each stakeholder
3. For each stakeholder identified, specify the information required to keep stakeholders informed and enable them to fulfill their project roles and responsibilities. Also, specify the timeframe, frequency, or trigger for distribution of the information.
4. List the information that must be collected, summarized, and reported in order to produce the communication outputs that fulfill the stakeholder information requirements. Specify the associated collection and reporting details.
5. List each report or document to be produced and distributed as a communication output to fulfill the stakeholder information requirements. Specify the associated distribution, storage, and disposition details.
6. List and describe the distribution groups that will be used to distribute project information.
7. Last, define all terms and acronyms required to interpret the Communication Management Plan properly.

Before you begin designing and creating the next greatest iPhone application, it’s critical to define exactly what you plan your application to do, so says the iPhone Human Interface Guidelines.  A great way to do this is to write a product definition statement.  It is a succinct affirmation of your application’s core purpose and its intended audience.  I believe Apple understands, in order to be successful, you have to have a plan.  Developers of iPhone applications are not necessarily project managers.  Perhaps Apple is giving them better odds of success, by encouraging them to write a project definition statement.  I once worked with a very knowledgeable developer, Kent Lynch, who spoke out during a managers meeting saying, “People don’t plan to fail; they just fail to plan”.  He could not have been more right.

A project mission statement is no different.  No project should be attempted without first capturing a mission statement.  Traditionally, mission statements contain:

• Project Name
• Description
• Purpose
• Primary stakeholders
  
• Responsibilities towards these stakeholders
• Products and services offered

If you can articulate a mission statement that satisfies these few bullets, you’re on you way to understanding what you need to do to have a successful project.

(Image by jaapoost on flickr)