Reviewing progress
As part of the controlling a stage process, the project manager will regularly review progress through checkpoint reports and will maintain the project log.
The project manager will use this information to update the stage plan with the actual progress achieved.
The format and frequency of checkpoint reporting will depend on the needs of individual work packages.
It is only possible to control progress at the level of detail in the plans. For example, if weekly checkpoint reports are required, the stage plan will have to include what needs to be achieved week by week.
It is also necessary to analyse the project data for trends to get a view of the overall health of the stage.
For example, the stage may seem to be progressing well in terms of the products being completed against the schedule. However, the issue register may reveal an increasing number of issues that are not being resolved and may be a cause for concern.
Similarly, the quality register may reveal there are a number of products that have failed a test and not yet been recorded as having been re-tested in the quality register.
Actions may arise from many sources and small actions may simply be recorded on the daily log and marked when completed. The daily log can also be used to record informal issues and any other notes or observations that are not captured by any other management product.
Formal and informal issues
The difference between a formal issue and an informal issue is that a formal issue will be captured in the issue register as an open forum. There, it will then be monitored and reviewed due to its material impact on the project or stage.
An informal issue is one that either does not have a material impact or requires handling in a suitable manner where open access would be inappropriate.
The daily log is a useful way of recording individual observations that on their own may seem insignificant but when collated may alert the project manager to a new issue or risk.
The product register also provides data on the status of the products that are complete, currently in progress, and those awaiting development. The data from this register may be compared with the physical status of the products to provide assurance on the progress of the project.
A principle of a PRINCE2 project is that the project management team learns from experience.
Therefore, the project team actively seeks, records, and incorporates relevant lessons throughout the life of the project, applies them to the remaining work and shares them for future projects.
It is often in the reviewing of progress that lessons are identified. The project log includes a lessons log, which is used for capturing lessons and is accessed when reviewing progress.
A lesson is information to facilitate the future of the project or other projects and actively promote learning from experience. The experience may be positive, as in a successful test or outcome, or negative, as in a mishap or failure.
To record lessons during a project is good for the organization, project team, and other existing and future projects. Lessons are the documented information that reflect both the positive and negative experiences of a project.
Capturing lessons
Lessons can be captured:
- during a post-project review
- during any meetings throughout the project (you do not have to wait until a post-project review to share lessons)
- via PRINCE2 management products like checkpoint reports or highlight reports
- by performing retrospectives
- when issues occur
- during stakeholder one-to-one meetings
- using electronic workspaces where data and information are shared.
The analysis of a lesson should answer five questions in the following order:
- what did we expect to occur?
- what actually happened?
- what worked well and why?
- what did not work and why?
- what needs to be done differently or what needs to be repeated?
Document management systems or team collaboration systems are a useful tool in sharing and reporting knowledge from lessons.
It should be noted that systems and data play a major part in reviewing progress.
Any reports, registers, or logs mentioned above may originate from a system where the data is integrated and accessible.
This would be in accordance with the digital and data management approach and presented electronically with drill-down capabilities to access more detail.
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