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PM-Fu: Keep Your Eye On The Ball

August 28, 2007 – 8:33 pm

Keep your eye on the ball.  Take your eye off it, and you’ll always fail- you’re just swinging blindly.

This is a simple concept we learn as kids.  It applies all through life.  It also is an old cliche, and it gets written on time and again.  Nevertheless, I’m going to touch on it here, because it’s so relevent to problems I see so many times in projects.

Goal number one of any project is simple:  Complete the mission.  Do it on time, in scope, and within cost if you can, but if you can’t, the goal remains:  complete the mission.

Your mission is whatever your project scope is.  It is not to complete all the tasks in your project plan.  It is not to be on time with all your tasks regardless of if you’re rushing work to the point that it gets sloppy, that details get missed that may cost the project dearly later on.  Your goal is to complete the mission, and do it well.  Listen to your people when they bring changes to the table for good reasons, whether those changes are good or bad to your project plan.  If you have to adjust the schedule, adjust it and communicate those adjustments to reset expectations with stakeholders.

Keep your eye on the ball.  Complete your mission.

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