http://jrothman.com/blog/mpd/2007/07/schedule-game-column-is-up.html Management, especially good management, is hard to do. This blog is for people who want to think about how they manage people, projects, and risk. Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:52:40 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 http://jrothman.com/blog/mpd/2007/07/schedule-game-column-is-up.html/comment-page-1#comment-627 Kenneth P. Katz Wed, 25 Jul 2007 00:52:06 +0000 http://jrothman.com/blog/mpd/?p=7966#comment-627 The unbreakable rule* on every project that I manage is that there are only three states for every task. 1. Not yet started. 2. In work (started and incomplete). 3. Completed. None of this 90% complete nonsense. As long as your decompose your work into small enough work packages and define what "completed" means in an unambigous way, this works very well. * The exception is when the % of work accomplished can be measured in an unambiguous way. Example: you are loading 50 data tapes to online storage. Rather than make this 50 different tasks (rather unwieldy and cluttered), make it one task and count the loading of each tape as 2% progress. The unbreakable rule* on every project that I manage is that there are only three states for every task.
1. Not yet started.
2. In work (started and incomplete).
3. Completed.
None of this 90% complete nonsense. As long as your decompose your work into small enough work packages and define what “completed” means in an unambigous way, this works very well.
* The exception is when the % of work accomplished can be measured in an unambiguous way. Example: you are loading 50 data tapes to online storage. Rather than make this 50 different tasks (rather unwieldy and cluttered), make it one task and count the loading of each tape as 2% progress.

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