• There's barely enough time to do the work without writing memos about what was done and spending time in MORE meetings telling people about it.
• I see so little value in project documentation that I don't invest the time in it.
• I wouldn't know what to document and what to leave out.
• Since my Prime only wants to know about problems with budget and schedule, I only talk to him/her about the project when I have a problem with one or the other that I can't handle myself.
• Our work culture has fully embraced the 'working at the speed of change' point of view, which doesn't include much/any emphasis on looking backward for potential lessons learned.

Why You Should

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.

 

Some Tips On How To

Ask for and, in the event s/he doesn't have any, set documentation and review expectations with the Prime Mover(s). Regardless of how long the project is scheduled for, don't go longer than a month without a routine update.

Balance a desire to tell everyone how you're project's progressing with the knowledge that most people get too much marginally useful e-mail and/or hardcopy. Key participants in latter parts of the project should be kept up to speed, as should stakeholders who have an investment or return expectation. Some managers who have contributed significant human resources probably deserve consideration. Participants who are actively involved in project work should make your short list, along with end-users who will be directly impacted by the project result. After that, you may want to save a tree or an electron.

As far as Prime Movers are concerned, the two most important aspects of any project are cost and schedule, so be sure to document both. Although you don't want to break down trust with your documentation, you'll do want to capture the causes of budget and/or schedule impacting shortfalls. The idea is to document your project in a manner that is fair, tactful and savvy enough to generate compliance with commitments without unduly bruising the sensibilities or careers of people you'll need to work with in this and future projects.