Every quarter I schedule a ‘clear out day’. I go through all my files and throw away (actually recycle) those papers that are no longer required or relevant.

While going through one file labelled articles I stopped. I re-read one article and thought; this is too good to throw away!

It was written by Marc Mardell (it was a Blog in ecademy) and it is far too valuable to throw away, it needs sharing with others.

I think will stretch many organisations. In his article called An Annual Report on Projects. He asks an important question:

“Big government projects are scrutinised so why not those in big business”. He goes on to say:

“To what degree are projects in big business scrutinised i.e. how do we actually know that projects within big business are any more successful (by time, quality, cost) than in government?”

He further suggests in the article:

 would it be positive if in fact all businesses had to publish some audited project information as part of its annual accounts?

 having figures will give the company some comparative figures across industries

He goes onto ask:

“I wonder how many Blue Chip executives could lay their hands on (project) metrics for their business?”

Pretty revolutionary stuff!!

Companies can hide behind their annual reports however readers of this blog will know of projects that are way off delivery date, over budget or will not meet client requirements.

Who pays? As consumers, we all pay in the end!

Do read this article, it makes fascinating reading