Compelling Scoreboards Do Keep Projects on Track

Technology management involves liberal amounts of  project management. Like construction engineers and architects, we Technology Managers often find ourselves being asked to design technology solutions, and implementing these. But for most of us, driving projects to be completed on time, and within cost has proven challenging - especially in this era where most technology projects are implemented by vendors and outsourced partners.

Throughout the years, I found out that keeping a compelling scoreboard of the project not only helps me, as the Project Manager, keep track of its progress, but also elicits commitment from the implementing team, vendors included. It also helps in communicating the project's progress to other stakeholders (i.e. executives, other departments) easier. Keeping a compelling scoreboard is extolled as discipline three in FranklinCovey Institute's Four Discpline of Execution (4DX). While 4DX's approach is utilitarian and practicable, scoreboards (or dashboards) is not unique to 4DX. It is also espoused in various management cases and thesis (i.e. Project Management Institute, Balanced Scorecard, etc.). Although, it is in 4DX where the case of "scoreboards should be compelling", is consistently made.

Take the snapshot of the simple  project management scoreboard below as an example. The template for this can also be downloaded (link provided below) to help you start your own scoreboard for your projects.

All effective scoreboards should follow the following characteristics: