BuildBuild: Quarterly review…
The dashboard
Callum, the project manager, builds the monthly dashboard from four spreadsheets that disagree. It's beautiful. The Glasshouse is on budget: a lovely green bar.
Stage 5 · Build it · Stop 9 of 13
The monthly report
The back alley's bill so far: 122 weeks · See the bill
The information · The monthly report
The board reads a number made from me. Every number should say where it came from, who owns it, and how fresh it is.
The wrong way
The board
Helen, the divisional director, tells the board. The board is pleased. Nobody asks where the green came from.
Behind the bar
The green comes from a spreadsheet on someone's desktop, last updated before the basement went two metres deeper. The real number is in an email nobody forwarded.
BuildBuild: Two weeks later…
Overnight
The bar turns red overnight. It was a feeling, not a forecast.
The call
Helen's phone rings. She holds it at arm's length.
Gordon (chief executive): The board would like a word.
The rebuild
Callum spends a fortnight rebuilding the forecast. The four spreadsheets still disagree, but now everyone knows they do.
The green bar was a feeling. The red one came with a phone call.
+2 weeks on the back alley's bill: A dashboard built from spreadsheets nobody owned: a forecast that was wrong for two months, and a fortnight rebuilding it.