One of the things I like most about being a project manager is how easy the job is.  All the projects I work on go perfectly smooth.  There are rarely, if ever, any issues that arise, dates that are missed, or budgets that are overrun.  It give me plenty of time to work on my side business, selling oceanfront property in Nebraska…

Let’s face it.  The reality is that projects are extremely complex undertakings, with pitfalls galore.  Resources leave or take on other assignments.   Optimism over how quickly things could get done leads to milestones that are missed along with disappointed stakeholders in tow.   And the technical snags!  Good Lord, the technical snags…

So here’s what I find fascinating.  We all love dashboards and cute little traffic light indicators of whether projects are “green”, “yellow” or God forbid, “red.”  But in spite of all that we know about how challenging it is to complete a project on time, within budget and with all the original scope intact, almost EVERY organization I work with starts every project’s status as GREEN!  Really??

I am becoming more and more convinced that in organizations that want to take project management seriously, every project should start with a “yellow” status and the project manager and project team should have to justify why it should be flipped to green, rather than the other way around.

I realize that colors alone can’t change the culture of optimism in project management, but you gotta start somewhere…