Action Item List

When was the last time you knew a task was about to be due…but somehow forget about it and failed to deliver on time. We can assure: you are not alone. Not continuously focusing on the tasks assigned to us is a common challenge in any project.

The solution to this challenge is the Action Item List. It helps those who are expected to deliver a tasks. And such a list helps the Project Manager and entire project team to have transparency on the tasks and their status.

Which problem it helps to solve:

Any project is dynamic. New topics to be solves arise day in day out. It does not take long when neither the individuals nor the entire project team have transparency on the tasks to be delivered nor their status:

• Project Manager: Needs to be on top of things at any given time. Having transparency on the delivery status and due dates of all tasks is essential.
  
  
• Project members: These individuals are often assigned to multiple projects at the same time. They must keep every task assigned to them on their radar and are expected to deliver on time.
  
  
• Project Team: They must have the full overview of all tasks. This is driven by the high degree of dependencies of the single tasks. If one task is delayed, it often impacts other subsequent tasks as well.

How it works:

An Action Item List is not the same as a GANTT Chart. Instead, it captures single tasks which are typically more granular than tasks one would find in a GANTT Chart. Such an Action Item List could thus be best described as “these are the tasks to be completed which are in our line of sight.”

The key features of this Action Item List are:

• What to be done: What are the tasks about and to which category / sub project do they belong?
  
  
• Who needs to deliver: Who is the person to whom this task has been assigned?
  
  
• Until when to deliver: What is the initial due date? And what is the updated due date (=needed in case the initial due date is not feasible anymore)?
  
  
• Where we stand: Which tasks are on time or delayed? What is the progress status?

The Action Item List shall be owned and maintained by the Project Manager. It is a tracking and reporting-out tool at the same time.

What else to know:

We are convinced the Action Item List we designed is a highly effective leadership tool in Project Management. Once established in a project team’s routines, it allows all stakeholders to deliver per their commitments.

We recommend any Project Manager to make reviewing the status of the tasks a habit of the team. Once applied with a high level of discipline it will help to grow a culture of ‘deliver what we have promised.’