Too Many Projects?
Take a Lesson from Lean Production

Typical project management clings to an inefficient batch processing model. The more projects you have in line, the slower they move. A lot of activity is just an illusion of progress. Ten projects that are each 10% complete DOES NOT equal 100% of anything. You’re not realizing any benefits and won’t for quite awhile at that rate.

And managing a lot of projects (just like managing a lot of production inventory) is a waste of time and energy. Execs and managers spend hours tracking projects with spreadsheets and project management programs and hold long, tedious weekly status meetings. All that gives you is 10 people in one room listening to project updates for four hours…that’s 40 hours, one entire person-week, wasted. NOTHING ACTUALLY GETTING DONE. How crazy is that?

Four Maverick Rules to Wrangle Your Projects

1. Dramatically Limit Active Projects – Any one person should only have three active projects MAX. One’s finishing up, one’s halfway done, and one’s in its early stage. Only add another when one project finishes COMPLETELY. Learn to just say ‘No’ to someone’s request that their project be active. Be tough!



2. Demand Progress Every Single Day - Forget weekly updates. All they do is ensure that progress only happens weekly. We all know cases where the Friday update came from a phone call to a vendor on Thursday afternoon. A phone call that should’ve been made on Monday morning. Lean systems have daily or even hourly goals. It’s all about progress, and progress hinges on project leaders, managers and executives breaking down barriers immediately.



3. Simplify Reporting Ridiculously – Post projects and updates on a visible, public space (white board, bulletin board, intranet or blog). The project name, benefit (preferably quantified), estimated completion date and project owner should be clearly posted until the project is finished. Updates should be DAILY and ONLY address four things…
   
   
   1. Where this project should be today (what activity should be happening now).
   2. Where is this project actually today: early, on-time or late.
   3. What you need help with in short bullet points (managers and execs…this is your responsibility).
   4. What you're doing today and what progress you'll make by tomorrow in a single, detailed sentence.


4. Celebrate Weekly – When someone finishes up a project, party your brains out. Make Friday lunch a ‘Project Completion Party’ but only hold it if someone’s finished one of their three projects that week. Keep the focus on getting and rewarding results.

With these simple rules you’ll get the benefits of your projects sooner. Your organization will develop expertise at moving projects forward at light speed with minimal waste. And you and your staff will have a real feeling of accomplishment and be ready to take on even more challenging projects in 2009.