Take a few minutes to think about the effectiveness and consistency of the project review process in your organization.

• How frequently do you discover substantial risks or issues late in a project?
• How frequently do your project managers need to create an additional project report or document for a “fire drill”?
• Does your organization have a standard project review process?
• Is it followed?
• Does your organization have a standard project reporting format?

To improve their decision making, management must take a more active role in setting the expectations and standards for project status reporting. Their active participation takes project status reporting from the typical “How are you doing?” - “Fine.” conversation to an honest discussion of standardized and quantified metrics that represent measurable progress.

This presentation will make the case for implementing a metric driven project status review process for an organization’s critical projects and offer a Ten Chart Program/Project Review Starter Set to jump start the effort to implement the approach.

At the end of the presentation you will:

• Understand the limitations of written and antidotal project status reporting and the benefits of a metric driven project status review process
• Be aware of some specific metrics that enable trend analysis of key project performance indicators
• Understand how to effectively present project/program status to senior management.

Prior to joining R3D Tom operated his own consulting business, pm-focus and before that was a Vice President of Project Management Practices at Fidelity Investments where he managed a nine person Project Office and later led an internal consulting group with the charter to help Fidelity business groups understand, adapt, and implement Project and Program Management in a commercial environment. Tom helped organizations setup Project Management Offices, conducted organizational assessments of their project management capability, managed troubled projects, and delivered consulting and training on all these topics.

Prior to Fidelity he worked in the defense sector with program and project management assignments at Lockheed Sanders, Raytheon and General Electric.

For the last 9 years Tom has taught graduate level courses in Project Management at Brandeis University. In 2002 he proposed the creation of a Master of Science degree in Project and Program Management to Brandeis and worked with the Rabb School of Continuing and Professional Studies to design the curriculum, hire instructors and launch the program. Tom is the chair of the department for this program.

He is a member of the ASAPM, the Project Management Institute and is a certified PMP..