The Project Tracking Meeting: A Recommended Agenda

Use this agenda to navigate your project meeting and stay a course for maximum results.

by Neal Whitten, PMP, Contributing Editor

LAST MONTH'S COLUMN addressed frequently asked questions about project tracking meetings. As a follow-up, this column addresses the major subjects of focus at these meetings. While project tracking meetings can be conducted in a wide variety of formats, I have found the following approach to be especially effective. These subjects are presented at tracking meetings in the order described here.
Project High-Priority Areas. The project manager displays the top three to five problems now plaguing the project, while their "owners" report any late-breaking news. These problems are currently impacting a major project milestone (often called an "issue") or have the potential (called a "risk") to do so. The project manager tracks these high-priority areas daily, all other project progress/problems are tracked weekly.
Overview of Project Progress. The project manager presents this information on a single chart that lists the project's major milestones. The chart is first presented as a high-level view of the project plan and is updated for each tracking meeting to illustrate the "big picture" of where the project's progress is in relation to where it was planned to be. This chart has special interest to the project's sponsor and client. It is expected to be a reasonably good view of the forest without obstruction from all the trees. The chart likely will require updating by the end of the tracking meeting after all participants have presented their status.
Progress of Project Activities. Each participant of a project tracking meeting presents their status against their portion of the project plan. This status includes metrics to substantiate the progress made, identifies their top three to five priorities and their corresponding status, and a 30-day outlook of what can be expected, including whether or not help is required.
Progress of Action Items. An action item is a project problem that is logged, assigned to an owner to resolve, and then tracked until it is closed. The owners of action items present their progress. Presentations of action items can be performed at the same time a participant has the floor to present his or her progress of project activities.
Project Outlook. The project manager forecasts a 30-day outlook for the project. That is, 30 days from now, will the project be on schedule, within cost, and what is the overall likelihood (high, medium, low) that the project will complete as planned? Although this information initially should be prepared before the meeting, it is likely that it must be altered real-time based on the latest information collected at the meeting.
Schedule Work/Escalation Meetings. The project manager spends the last moments of the meeting declaring what project activities and action items require special attention over the next two to three days. If possible, these meetings should be scheduled now, preferably for the following day. These meetings typically become priorities within the project.

THE MEETING AGENDA should be published and followed throughout the meeting. The project manager has the authority to declare that only a subset of the participants present their plan status, as well as which action items are presented. All status not presented must still be submitted to the project manager at the end of the meeting. This allows the project manager to study the status without subjecting everyone to presentations on other than the currently most important areas of the project plan and action items.
The project manager must lead these meetings so that they run on schedule and are productive. A beneficial technique is for the project manager to assign a scribe to record the meeting notes so that the project manager is free to concentrate on effectively running the meeting. This meeting and its derivative actions serve as the primary driving force behind the project. As these meetings go … so goes the project.

Neal Whitten, PMP, president of The Neal Whitten Group (www.nealwhittengroup.com), is a speaker, trainer, consultant, mentor, and author in project management and employee development. His books include The EnterPrize Organization: Organizing Software Projects for Accountability and Success and Managing Software Development Projects: Formula for Success.

This material is reprinted from PM Network magazine (June 2000) with permission of the Project Management Institute Headquarters, Four Campus Boulevard, Newtown Square, PA 19073-2399 USA. Phone: (610) 356-4600. Fax: (610) 356-4647. Project Management Institute (PMI) is the world's leading project management association with over 50,000 members worldwide. For further information, contact PMI Headquarters at (610) 356-4600 or visit the web site at www.pmi.org. "PMI" and "PM Network" are trademarks of the Project Management Institute, Inc. © 2000 Project Management Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.

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