STATUS COLLECTION
Status collection is an action that you take to determine the progress made in achieving your plans, but this action is filled with pitfalls that can hinder the validity of your feedback.
First, you face a lack of available information. Unless you have some mechanism in place to receive regular feedback, you will have to seek it. Holding meetings, interviewing people, and observing work are three ways to obtain feedback.
Second, you occasionally deal with defensive people. They will resist any effort to provide the feedback that you need. When facing these people, seek other sources of information, such as talking with other colleagues.
Third, you deal with untruthful people, who will tell you anything to get you off their backs. For instance, you talk with someone regarding a specific task, and you ask how much he has completed. Early in the project he replies, “I’m 90 percent done,” but much later, he never finishes the task on time or within budget. That’s known as the 90 percent syndrome—that is, people rattling off status so they’ll be left alone for whatever reason.
You can overcome these and other obstacles by following a few simple guidelines.
Stay objective. Avoid giving the impression that all you want to hear is positive feedback; you will hear only what you want to hear and not what you need to hear.- Make your assessments after you receive all the facts. Armed with complete information, you can make a rational decision.
- Collect status regularly. People can predict when you’ll need feedback and can prepare accordingly.
- Document your findings and the logic behind your final assessment. In doing so, you will not only have a historical document for future reference but also an understanding of how your project got to where it is today.
for Conducting a Meaningful Status Collection
- Determine the means for status collection.
- Determine the format of the data.
- Identify the sources of data.
- Cleanse the data.
- Set up regular intervals for collecting data.
- Collect the data.