A simple question however the answer is often quite complex.

Why?

The main reason for the complexity is that in some companies (many), there is no agreed standard of what project reporting should look like. To check this out, over the last 3 months I have carried out a simple activity. I got people to describe on a post it note what they thought about monitoring and control.

The results; simply put they were awful. “There is consistency in their inconsistency” is how one person summed up the results.

Around 85% of the post it notes were negative with wide ranging comments:

• non-existent monitoring and control,
• too detailed and over-prescriptive paper work
• change control is the only thing that works and this is only in our department
• at best, patchy

You get the general picture.

I find it amazing that companies will invest six and seven figure sums in projects, and not have a structured or agreed reporting process. It is hardly surprising that projects creep or sometimes race over the deadline date or budget figure with no checks, no recriminations, and no delivery!

Have you got a project management reporting standard, and if so, does it work?

Reporting is image

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