[AD] The Feedback Cycle
The idea of the 'suggestion box' is old and good! Project Health Control takes the concept of the suggestion box to the limit. The project staff's interaction with the PHC data collection systems works like this:
(1) He logs into the database and sees a simple dashboard that shows him what Concerns, Deliverables and Actions are assigned to him.
(2) He selects an item and works on it just as he would normally, leaving a window open to the item for background reference while he works.
(3) During the work, if something notable happens, he writes a brief message in a 'feedback' text box and presses the submit button.
(3a) If the notable thing is that he has finished work on the item, then that's what he types as his feedback "finished work, document stored".
(3b) If the notable thing is that there is a problem that prevents him from continuing, then that's what he types for his feedback "work suspended, need information on [x] from [y].
(4) He bounces around from item to item, doing as much as he can on each and giving his feedback until his day is over.
(5) Next day, he logs into the database and this time what he sees on the dashboard is a revised set of Concerns, Deliverables and Actions that reflect the feedback that he entered the previous day.
It's a continual cycle, and everyone on the project is doing this, all day every day. Normal work, as they normally would, feeding back to PHC admin 'snippets' of status information.
The feedback system is completely unobtrusive to the staff's normal work and each day they log on to see what is 'on their plate' in a continually changing project work landscape that is continually fresh with updated status.
For a manager, the dashboard is different and includes tools to allow drill down into various levels of detail and the manager has facility for reporting on metrics for project status and 'work to' lists for monitoring work progress.
For the PHC consultant and administration staff, the dashboard is different again and gives access to tooling that allows them to do various activities like data mining, and merging and tagging of data in the PHC lists. It is the work that the PHC team does that makes the daily access by the project staff work smoothly.
 
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