Paperwork

Paperwork

Projects generate paper. Even the smallest projects seem to be awash in memos, reports, and meeting minutes in volumes out of proportion to the importance of the project. It is said that the largest of modernmilitary cargo aircraft cannot carry the paper that was generated by the projects that created them.

There are two types of project documents: those that you need in order to manage the project, and the vastly more voluminous technical data. You should keep the latter in a library accessible to all project staff. If the project is large enough, you will need a project librarian to help maintain the library and ensure that the right versions of material are available.

The Project Binder

A critical tool to help you organize the management parts of the paperwork is the project binder: a three-ring binder, usually large, with tab dividers for sections such as memos, meeting minutes, issues, and project planning. The project binder serves three main purposes. First, it provides a single repository for the important project management material. When you are late for a project meeting, you do not need to search your desk for the relevant documents. You simply grab the project binder as you sweep through your office. When you arrive at your meeting, turn to the "Meetings" section of the binder and pull out the minutes of the previous meetingwhich, of course, you scrupulously placed there as soon as they were distributed.

Second, there will come a time in any project when somebody will question your memory of an event, such as a commitment, a meeting, or a decision. It is satisfying to flip open your binder, search deliberately through the appropriate section, then say, "At a monthly status meeting on August 17 held at the headquarters building, all participants agreed that. . .'' Having all necessary material organized in a single place makes it easy to keep project participants honest.

Third, the project material provides you with a current snapshot of what is happening in the project. Once weekly, during your reflection meeting (see "Reflection" in Chapter 5), scan the memos and meeting minutes of the past month to ensure that you have not overlooked some aspect of the project. Because all this documentation is together, you do not have to go through the demotivating process of looking for it or run the risk of not finding it.

The sections of the binder will vary depending on the project, but four will always be present.

"Project Plan" will contain your project plan and the current version of the issues log.

"Memos" will contain all important memos, either from you or to you.

"Meetings" will contain all meeting minutes and agendas.

"Status Reports" will contain all project status reports, including those to various levels of the client organization.

The documents in each section should generally be in date order, with the most recent at the front. However, there will be exceptions. For example, you may want to group all documents that relate to project benefits in one place. This may include memos, working papers, specification sheets, or anything else that is relevant to that subject. For convenience, paper clip the pages together for quick reference. This may violate the strict organization of the binder, but you are organizing a living entity, not a permanent library.

If the binder is to be effective, one rule is paramount:

Add new material to the binder religiously. Do not even think about keeping some material in another place.

Disobey this rule, and your binder will be useless. Adhere to it, and you will always have the material you need immediately at hand.