Maintaining Control During Project Execution 169mentioned earlier, I recommend a team meeting interval of
about 4%. In other words, a reasonable frequency for a six-
month project would be once per week; for an 18-month project
it would be enough to meet once every three weeks, unless
there were special circumstances that dictated more frequent
meetings. The practice of MBWA described above will also help
you receive fresh information.
Precise. I’ve sat in many team meetings and observed project
managers attempting to ascertain the status of current activi-
ties. The responses sound like this: “I’m doing OK,” “I’m on
schedule,” “I’m about half done,” “I have a little bit more to do
and then I’ll be done.” Needless to say, updates like these do
not provide the project manager with enough information to do
the job. Refer back to the section in this chapter entitled “What
Information Do You Need?” Note that these items request specif-
icdates, durations, and dollar amounts. You’ll need this type of
specific information to maintain proper control.
Credible.The credibility of the information you receive is more
closely tied to human nature than administrative processes and
methods. There is often a correlation between the validity of the
information you receive from team members, and the quality of
your relationship with them. The issue often revolves around
how comfortable a given team member feels in giving you hon-
est and accurate information—particularly when things are not
going well.
This comfort level is closely tied to the climate you create
and the tone you set—in particular, how you react to “bad
news” (unfavorable status reports). Figure 9-2 lists some “Do’s
and Don’ts” for setting up an open, honest, and credible infor-
mation flow between you and the members of your team, so
you get quality information from your team.
How Do You Analyze the Information?
As mentioned above, your analysis should deal primarily with
schedule, cost, functionality, and quality. Let’s take a closer look
at how to process and interpret the information you receive—