Knowing What DONE Looks Like

I'm finishing off 4 briefings for the 2010 EVM World in Naples Florida in June. The theme of these briefings of "connecting the dots" between Cost, Schedule, and Technical Performance Measures.

I finished one of three of my briefings and course work. Behind schedule !!

It dawned in me that there are a simple set of phrases that describe the basis of program success. Program success means...

1. Knowing what DONE looks like begins with the Integrated Master Plan.
2. Recognizing what DONE looks like when it arrives means measuring the planned Technical Performance.
3. Measuring Physical Percent Complete tells us how far we have moved toward DONE by calculating the “Earned Value” we’ve achieved.
4. Connecting Earned Value, Technical Performance, and Physical Percent Complete establishes a credible measure of Progress to Plan.

Without these four elements you don’t have a clue to what DONE looks like or if you’ll ever get there as planned.

I'd conjecture this is the source of most of the cause of project failures, in the IT business as well as the defense business. Forget all those methodologies, esoteric discussions of this method of that. If you can't answer these questions in some credible manner - you're hosed. No method is going to save you.