Time management - Poor control and reporting
Poor control and reporting
Backward planning
We know that it is a good thing to plan.
We start at our goal and work backwards to the present breaking down the project into many objectives.
The major objectives are designated as milestones.
This can be done on paper but does not have the flexibility of electronic software.
If the period for producing the flow sheet of tasks is small, for example, a week of 1 month then a paper version may be more feasible. The fact that many plans change and require review means that long term plans on paper are harder to control.
Electronic methods, for example, the use of Microsoft Project, can give you many other flexible features
Control
Without control you will not know where you are in a plan and will not be able to take any corrective action if you need to.
For this you will need a progress report.
You will have decided with the person preparing it:
- The content and format
- The frequency
A progress report template, that you may wish to adapt is in the Word file ‘project progress report’.
Control is covered in much more detail elsewhere [see ‘The Complete Project Management package’] and [see 'The Complete Project Management plus PRINCE2'].