By Gopal K. Kapur
Published at Computerworld • JUN 21, 2004 6:00 AM PST
Early in my career, when I worked as an engineer, my boss had a process by which the engineering team was expected to report project status. He insisted that we use the following steps, in the specified order:
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Punch line: The facts; no adjectives, adverbs or modifiers. "Milestone 4 wasn't hit on time, and we didn't start Task 8 as planned." Or, "Received charter approval as planned."
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Current status: How the punch-line statement affects the project. "Because of the missed milestone, the critical path has been delayed five days."