Red Amber Green Color Status

A word about a tool used to communicate across vast project teams and diverse stakeholders. Using this tool is a slippery slope that could clearly communicate the status of your project. Beware of anything that is simple and clear.

I'm talking about color status. Those flashy little red, amber, green boxes on your weekly dashboards that tell the health of a project or phase "at-a- glance".

Once executive sponsors are held accountable for a project's health, you can no longer expect to use a red color code to signal a project in trouble. You see they are too frighteningly clear and someones job can be on the line if a project is red.

One solution is to invent new color codes frequently so as not to alert sponsors and executives as to the true state of your project. I highly recommend alternating to Orange because no one really knows what that means anyway. For those engineers among you; one idea is to create an elaborate randomly shifting algorithm that alternates between color codes at periodic intervals. This method can ensure that no executive will be at risk for a failing project. For truly effective concealment, be sure to avoid telling your project team the definition of your color schemes.

For those PM's that may not have a degree in mathematics, one easy approach is to keep your troubled project at amber status regardless of it's true state. As long as everyone in the company feels good that you will make the deadline, you will never have anyone challenge an amber status with a bogus path to green.

Note-the efficacy of these methods is directly proportional to the size of your company.

Good luck and happy reporting.