Skill Sharpener Item #10

I develop a thorough documentation and review routine before a project begins and I maintain both throughout the course of the project.

Outstanding! Here are some of the benefits you've probably received because you methodically capture documentation on key elements of project progress from beginning to end:

You benefit from the time honored career insurance policy commonly know as C.Y.A.

In the event of some unforeseen schedule or budget disaster, you have something to rely on that's more credible than your memory when stakeholders question you about what happened and why.

You make the development of a post-project "lessons learned" document possible.

You can provide participant-contributing managers with specific information about the work their people did, the value that they generated and, as needed, any performance problems that arose.

You can verify the extent to which you stuck to the project budget upon which resources were justified.

You become a better project manager because you reflect on what you did, what happened and, in some cases, what you might have done differently to produce a better result.