It Is Difficult To Determine Status Of The Work In Various Locations

We encountered one project leader in Singapore who was leading a project involving three countries. She received complete and accurate information from two of the locations and assumed that this was true overall. It was not. Team members would reassure her when she visited them. Then there were no results. She did not know what to do. We suggested that she visit their location without prior notification. This changed the attitude of the team members. She had found that they would hold a meeting prior to her visits generally. The project was turned around.

Impact

When you report on status, it is in the context in terms of culture and language. The impact of not getting proper status means that the project leader and managers are left in the dark. They begin to lack confidence in the project leadership. The project could be terminated or shortened.

Prevention

To prevent this problem, you must address how status will be reported. But this is not enough. You also have to examine how status is verified and checked out. It is clearly insufficient just to get information. Prevention must focus on milestones and end products. If there is not a regular stream of milestones, then the project status is more difficult to determine since you are forced back to consider work in progress.

Action

There are a variety of actions that you can take if status reports are not adequate. One is to provide a template or outline structure for status reports. A second action is to ensure that there are sufficient regular milestones. A third step is to have more reporting on issues. Finally, there is nothing like informal unplanned telephone calls and visits.