Project shmoject - Just gimme a frickin issues list...

How many times have you heard this? And you know what? They may be right (under the right circumstances)! Some of the best perceived projects I've managed have been those where I had a one-page milestones list and an issues list, and communicated the hell out of the project. Simple as that.

At each weekly status meeting, after going through this week's issues, we reviewed the milestones. I asked questions like: "What percent complete are we on these?" "How much time have each of you spent on these in the last week?" "Is there anything standing in the way of meeting our next milestone, and if so, how do we resolve it?" I put together a simple Earned Value chart and management was happy. Simple, flexible, and fast - three principles of any good project.

Will this work for every project and in every environment? No. But it'll work more often than we care to admit (and this is coming from a PMP-certified, project management evangelist). Of course, we still need a business case and a collaborative effort putting the plan together. But once the plan is developed, the milestones and issues list can often take you the rest of the way. As Eisenhower said, "Plans are nothing. Planning is everything." Food for thought.