Our custom software development business delivers highly variable, long-term projects, making weekly tracking difficult. How do we run the Great Day or Lousy Day exercise specifically for our Project Manager seat to find weekly leading indicators?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Many owners of project-based businesses struggle to find weekly scorecard metrics because their deliverables span several months. They assume that because their work is variable, it cannot be measured weekly. This is a mistake that leads to projects going over budget and slipping past deadlines without warning. To find the right metrics, run the Great Day or Lousy Day exercise specifically for your Project Manager seat on the Accountability Chart. Sit down with your project management leader and divide a blank legal pad into two columns. Under the Great Day column, list what a highly successful week looks like. This might include developers writing clean code, tasks being completed on time, and clients responding to feedback quickly. Under the Lousy Day column, list everything that goes wrong. This might include scope creep, missed milestones, or developers waiting on client feedback. Once both columns are full, look for the patterns that can be measured weekly. For example, instead of tracking overall project completion, track the percentage of weekly project milestones met or the number of days developer tasks are blocked. By turning these daily realities into weekly scorecard metrics, you gain a real-time pulse on your project pipeline, ensuring every project stays on budget and on schedule.