You are starting a project and want it set up right the first time
The most expensive mistake in a project is made in the first two weeks: starting without recording what has to be delivered, when, and how you will know it is done. Much of what goes wrong afterwards traces back to that.
Where it usually goes wrong
- The schedule lives in a spreadsheet nobody updates after three weeks
- The budget is a sum of estimates with nothing underneath them
- There is no agreement on who takes which decision
- Risks were named in a kick-off and never looked at again
- Nobody has written down what falls outside the scope
What we do
We start with a ten-working-day Project Start, longer for a project beyond roughly a hundred and twenty work packages. In it we build the work structure down to the level someone can be accountable for, each package with a start, an end and a number of hours. That structure is validated with you and then recorded as the baseline.
What you are left with
A validated project plan with a WBS, a schedule, a budget and a risk log. From that moment every deviation is a deviation from something, and that is exactly what makes a forecast possible.
And after that
The baseline is not a document that disappears into a drawer. Under Project Control it is measured against every period, and the agreement changes only through a change request that you approve. Setting it up is part of the package price: you do not pay separately for the beginning.
Is your project about to start?
Arrange a conversationOr is this closer to your situation?
Your project is running late and nobody can point at where
The delivery date keeps moving, the updates stay optimistic, and the question "where do we stand" produces a different answer every time. That is rarely unwillingness. What is missing is a yardstick.
Stalled project →You have to report, and it has to hold up
A steering group, a grant body, an auditor or your own board: someone asks for an account every period. And the question behind that question is always the same: is this right, and what shows it?
Reporting →Your project is running well and you want to keep it that way
Nothing is going wrong, which is exactly why nobody is looking. Until someone asks where it stands, or until the first setback arrives and it turns out there is nothing to measure it against.
Project on track →