BUS605: Strategic Project Management

As Chad Wellmon explains in his interesting essay, "Why Google Isn't Making Us Stupid…or Smart," the history of human civilization is the history of people trying to make sense of too much information. As far back as biblical times, the writer of Ecclesiastes complained, "Of making books there is no end" (12:12). In the modern business world, we could update that famous quotation to read, "Of writing reports and sending emails there is no end". Indeed, according to an article by Paul Hemp in the Harvard Business Review, many researchers argue that information overload is one of the chief problems facing today's organizations, resulting in stressed out, demoralized workers who lose the ability to focus efficiently and think clearly because their attention is constantly being redirected; lost productivity and reduced creativity due to constant interruptions; and delayed decision-making caused by people sharing information and then waiting for a reply before they can decide how to proceed. According to Hemp, one study that focused on unnecessary email at Intel set the cost of "information interruptions" at "nearly $1 billion".

So if you feel like you are drowning in a sea of information, you're not alone. But as a project manager, you have the ability to shape all that data into something useful, whether by creating electronic, at-a-glance dashboards that collate vital statistics about a project, or by creating reports that contain only the information your audience needs. By doing so, according to Wellmon, you'll be engaging in one of humanity's great achievements – using technology to filter vast amounts of information, leaving only what we really need to know. As Wellmon puts it: "Knowledge is hard won; it is crafted, created, and organized by humans and their technologies".

When reporting on the health of their projects, successful project managers tailor the amount of detail, the perspective, and the format of information to the specific stakeholders who will be consuming it. Talking to your company's CEO about your project is one thing. Talking to a group of suppliers and vendors is another. You need to assess the needs of your audience and provide only the information that is useful or appropriate to them. For example, in a report to upper management on a software development project, you might include data reporting costs to date, projected cost at completion, schedule status, and any unresolved problems. The report is unlikely to include details regarding programming issues unless a supervising manager has the technical ability and interest to be involved in such details. Dashboards for the coding team, however, would need to highlight progress on key unresolved coding issues and planned follow-up actions.

Brian Price, the former chief powertrain engineer for Harley-Davidson, and an adjunct professor in the UW Master of Engineering in Engine Systems program, says it's helpful to think in terms of providing layers of information to stakeholders. At the very top layer is the customer, who typically only needs to see data on basic issues, such as cost and schedule. The next layer down targets senior management, who mostly need to see dashboards with key indicators for all the projects in a portfolio. Meanwhile, at the lowest layer, the core project team needs the most detailed information in the form of progress reports on individual tasks. This approach keeps people from being overwhelmed with information they don't really need. At the same time, it does not preclude any stakeholder from seeing the most detailed information, especially if it's available through a virtual project portal.

The decisions you make about what monitoring and controlling information to share with a particular audience are similar to the decisions you make about sharing schedules. In both cases, you need to keep in mind that your stakeholders' attention is valuable. To put it in Lean terminology, attention is a wastable resource. You don't want to waste it by forcing stakeholders to wade through unnecessary data. Remember that the goal of monitoring and controlling information is to prompt stakeholders to respond to potential problems. In other words, you want to make it easy for stakeholders to translate the information you provide into action.