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One of the most important responsibilities that any project manager has to undertake is to track and keep on top of the status of each project. That is part of the job. If you are working on a project that involves multiple teams, make it a priority to know where everyone is on their tasks. Do it in a way that doesn’t continually interrupt their train of thought.

One way of keeping track of tasks is to display the progress of each task (hours remaining till task is complete) in a location that everyone involved in the project has easy access to them. This could be anything from a poster sheet to a whiteboard or even a persistent online message board – as long as it is big enough and persistent to contain all the important tasks that require tracking. Also, make sure that each member of the team understands the purpose behind these information broadcasting tools and encourage them to update it on a regular basis. A good time to update the whiteboard may be every time code is checked in to your source management system(svn / cvs / git).

In the long run if the boards are respected and honored for their purpose both the project management and development teams can spend less time on “figuring out where we are” and more time trying to figure out the next steps to take towards a successful launch date.