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"On track" meant four different things

On one EV deployment programme, four departments reported project status – engineering, procurement, finance and commercial. Each used the same words. None meant the same thing by them.

“Ready” for engineering meant the design was signed off. For procurement, it meant the equipment was ordered. For finance, it meant the budget was approved. So a project could be “ready” in three reports and stuck in reality.

The fix wasn’t a new tool. We sat down, agreed one definition per status, wrote them down, and built them into Sitetracker so every team reported against the same list. Over 50 projects became comparable on one screen for the first time.

If your status reports keep disagreeing, don’t start with the dashboard. Start with the definitions. A dashboard built on four meanings of “ready” is just a faster way to be confused.

Question

Why do our project status reports never agree with each other?

Terminology

Status definition – the agreed meaning of each project stage (“ready”, “in progress”, “complete”), written down so every team uses it the same way.

Context

On one EV deployment programme, four departments reported project status – engineering, procurement, finance and commercial. Each used the same words. None meant the same thing by them.

Experience

At E.ON Drive Infrastructure (UK) I coordinated more than 50 concurrent EV charging projects at pre-planning stage, and owned how their status was reported across the four departments.

Observations

“Ready” for engineering meant the design was signed off. For procurement, it meant the equipment was ordered. For finance, it meant the budget was approved. So a project could be “ready” in three reports and stuck in reality.

The fix wasn’t a new tool. We agreed one definition per status, wrote them down, and built them into Sitetracker so every team reported against the same list.

Research

A five-minute test: ask three teams separately what “ready” means for a project. If you get three answers, your status reports can’t be compared – however good the dashboard looks.

Focus In On: Responsible for Project and Programme Delivery

New Areas of Value:

Increased credibility with and confidence from across the business

Higher delivery efficiency and effectiveness from clarity around process performance

Improvements around:

Lack of appropriate collaboration tools and ways of working

Weak project prioritisation, approval, compliance and sponsorship

Relevant Skills

Relevant Business Perspectives

Relevant Industries

Practice Group