234 Project Management
A Few More Words About the Punch List Approach
I first learned about the concept of the punch list while I was
having a home built for me. Near the end of my house building
experience, it became painfully obvious that there were a num-
ber of odds and ends that needed to be done before I would
consider the project successfully completed. The painful part
stemmed from the fact that my builder was not taking com-
mand of the situation and driving these few items to completion.
The result was that my satisfaction level was deteriorating on a
daily basis—despite the fact that the project had gone well up to
that point. A friend of mine suggested that I create a “punch
list” of activities, and present it to the builder, suggesting that he
get these things taken care of immediately. It worked.
I have since realized that the punch list concept is readily
transferable to any kind of project. In fact, you’re likely to reach
a point on many of your projects where only a few things remain
to be done to bring your project to a successful conclusion.
Normally, most of these activities will not appear on your original
project plan. This is indicative of the loose ends and unexpected
issues that often accompany the waning days of a project.
In situations like this, it can be helpful to take a more direc-
tive approach. Developing your own punch list, reviewing it with
all key stakeholders (most notably the customer), and creating a
mini-plan around the
punch list is an effective
strategy for driving your
project to a rapid, organ-
ized, and successful con-
clusion.
Figure 12-1 illustrates
the process for punch list
project management. You
will undoubtedly notice
that this approach is little
more than a scaled down version of the planning process intro-
duced earlier in this book.
Punch list project man-
agementThe process of
managing all the little things
that crop up at the end of a project
that have to be done before declaring
the project successfully completed.
There are nearly always such items,
often not anticipated, so it’s good to be
ready and to know how to handle
them, whatever they are.