Measuring progress & taking corrective action

• Good decisions are generally recognized as such only when a project is finished. This can be a long time, so making decisions is not just about the mental process you engage in before you take any action.
• Are you the optimistic sort? Do you not bother to track progress because you are sure everything will work out in the end?
• Are you inclined to feel in a hurry much of the time, thinking that measuring progress is too time consuming?
• Do some of your projects go off the rails because you have not kept on top of some of the details?
• Are you skilled at finding someone or something else to blame?
• Good decisions require follow through until they are fully implemented. No matter how good you are at placing blame, your reputation is not helped by sloppy implementation. Others will question your competence even if they superficially buy your excuses.
• There is no substitute for progress tracking in complex situations. This includes reviewing, at all stages, whether even to proceed at all given how rapidly strategies can change these days.
• A well executed project is still a bad decision if, because of changed strategies, the project serves no value added purpose.
• So, corrective action must include the possibility of abandoning the project altogether in mid stream. Feels like failure but a better decision than expending resources for no purpose.