Action-owner Due Date

00:04 By now, you should have a solid idea of what's involved in a kick off meeting.

00:08 So it's time to talk about the action-owner-due date concept.

00:13 You can probably guess by the not so cryptic title that it's some sort of project diary to keep track of actions throughout the execution.

00:23 But let's talk about it in a little more detail.

00:26 As we've mentioned plenty of times before, projects are complex initiatives and one we can plan meticulously.

00:34 The execution phase will still have its missteps if we're not diligent.

00:38 With so many activities, departments and expertise and people and cultures and new tasks, there are bound to be miscommunications and gaps in understanding. This can cause inefficiencies unless recorded in a project diary.

00:53 Whenever there are ongoing actions or agreements made.

00:56 As the project goes, the three dimensions to record are what must be done by whom and until when.

01:06 Let's look at them in turn.

01:09 First the action or the task.

01:13 You must describe the task clearly.

01:16 That way you will avoid giving people freedom of interpretation.

01:20 Then there's recording the responsible party.

01:23 We've all come across those tasks that everyone thinks someone else has done, and then they get neglected completely and everyone blames someone else.

01:31 Assigning a person to a task means everyone knows exactly who is responsible for the task completion.

01:38 And finally, the due date.

01:41 Humans are notorious procrastinators, both at work and in our spare time. Very few of us can trust ourselves to not get distracted, let alone others. On top of that, we know from the planning fallacy that we are not so great at forecasting the future.

01:58 Setting a time limit increases our focus.

02:03 So the Project Diary is a formal document which states the what, the who and the when.

02:09 It is super useful.

02:11 So let's have a look at what a project diary would look like using the laboratory project in the next lesson.

02:18 Get your project manager shoes on and I'll see you there.