Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Task
Responsible
Deadline
Status
Fig. 7.8 Status report
Regular status meetings,
Intermediate ad hoc reports,
Keeping a list of open issues,
Keeping a list of remaining issues.
Status Meetings
All participants have to be invited who may provide any contribution since the last
status. Initially the overall task and action list with deadlines will be presented.
Later only deviations from the original plan will be discussed. For each issue a
status is kept with the follow-up to-dos. Figure
7.8
shows such a status report.
This report, including a list of participants, location and time as well as the
agreed upon next steps, serves as a protocol about work progress.
Status Queries
It is often necessary for the project management to ask for an intermediate state of
affairs between formal status reviews. For setting up a test system this is the case
when steps on short notice such as data upload, customising etc. have to be carried
out since certain follow-up activities are based upon these predecessors. In case of
failures or delays of the predecessor tasks the complete project plan has to be
adjusted accordingly. The project members involved have to be informed per email
about these short term changes without the necessity of convening a special
meeting.
List of Open Issues
Along with project progress the formal status reports will change to an open issue
list (Fig.
7.9
) which is worked through as a straight check at project meetings.
During this project phase all members are well accustomed to each other and the
issues in question are also well known, and therefore long elaborations can be
spared.
List of Remaining Issues
At the end of the project i.e. after having the system installed, the list of open issues
converts to the list of remaining issues. This list contains open issues, which may be
important but not indispensible for the full functioning of the system. This means
that the system has been practically accepted in the meantime (see below), but that
