Why project offices turn into paperwork, and how to stop it

Many project offices begin with a sensible aim: give leaders one honest view of where the money and effort are going. Then something goes wrong on a project, and the instinctive response is a new template. Something else goes wrong, and there is another form. Within a year the office is a collection of controls, each added for a reason nobody remembers, and project managers spend their Fridays feeding it.

The test is simple. For every document the office asks for, name the decision it supports and the person who makes that decision. If you cannot, the document is paperwork. It may feel like control, but it only produces the appearance of it.

Start from the decisions

Leaders make a small number of recurring decisions about projects: whether to start, whether to continue, whether to change scope or budget, and whether to stop. Everything the office collects should make one of those decisions quicker or better informed.

Work backwards from them. What does a sponsor need to see to approve a stage? Usually a short list: the outcome still being pursued, what has been delivered, what it has cost against plan, the top risks and what is being done about them, and what is being asked of the sponsor. That is a page, not a pack. Before adding or keeping any template, ask:

• Who reads it, and what do they do differently afterwards?
• Is the information already held somewhere else?
• Would anyone notice if it stopped?
• Is it the right size for the project it is applied to?

Build reporting from the registers

One of the biggest sources of waste is re-keying. A project manager updates the risk register, then copies the same risks into a status report, then into a slide for the steering group. Each copy is slightly different, and the meeting becomes a discussion about whose version is right.

Keep one live register for risks, issues, changes and actions, owned by the people closest to the work, and produce every report from it. When reporting is a view of the registers rather than a separate task, it costs almost nothing, and it is much harder for a report to say something the registers do not.

The registers also need to be honest. A risk register with every risk rated amber tells nobody anything. Agree rating scales in plain language, give each risk one owner and a next action with a date, and close risks that have gone away.

Scale the controls to the work

A three-week change and a three-year programme should not follow the same process. Define two or three tiers by size and risk, and set the minimum for each: what must be recorded, what needs sign-off and who gives it. For example:

• Light: a short brief, a weekly check and one named approver.
• Standard: a business case, a plan with milestones, monthly reporting and stage reviews.
• Full: formal stage gates, independent assurance and board-level reporting.

Small projects need a route that takes minutes, or people will avoid the office and the picture leaders see will be incomplete. Review the controls twice a year. Ask project managers which ones they would drop and which ones helped. Remove something each time. An office that can only add is on its way to being paperwork.

Measure the office by what it changes

Judge the office on outcomes: how early problems are raised, how quickly decisions are made, how often projects are stopped for good reasons, and whether project managers choose to come to it. Counting templates completed measures compliance and tells you nothing about delivery.

Be present, too. An office that sits behind a portal is a compliance function. One that sits with the team, helps with the awkward plan, challenges a risk rating fairly and takes a task off someone's desk is one people use.

If your project office has drifted towards paperwork, talk to us and we will help you decide what to keep.