Not Making A Decision Is Also A Decision

Imagine an ad that reads as follows:

• Help reduce productivity
• Use resources less effectively
• Increase costs

Not many people would rush to buy this “solution”.

However, this is exactly the solution chosen by a large number of projects and companies on a daily basis, putting billions of shareholders’ capital in jeopardy.

Instead of establishing fundamental project management and controls processes they close their eyes and hope that the experience of the team will carry them through the hoops of the project.

Instead of having proper change control processes in place they rely on their engineers always knowing best and accept being notified after changes have taken effect and costs estimates have been blown.

Instead of using structured and transparent reporting systems they rely solely on team members’ usage of manual Excel spreadsheets to report cost status and track their changes.

So, if you are a project or business manager today – don’t sit around and wait for the next surprise to come up. Make a decision to put the necessary controls mechanisms in place so that you know your objectives, where you are going, where you have been and why.

Remember that not making a decision to put project management practices in place is a decision to reduce productivity, using resources less effectively and increasing your costs. Who would make such a decision?