Deliverables assigned to team leaders and supplier project managers can be completed any day, and that’s the time for a quick review and approval by the project manager. The approval in this management activity is preliminary.

In the case of major or critical deliverables, if possible, seek approval of the sponsor and the customer.

Purpose

Having too much work in progress causes problems – it wastes resources, it may lower quality, and it reduces the predictability of the project. When possible, instead of working on too many deliverables at the same time, you need to encourage everyone to finish and close an item before moving on to the next one.

Common pitfalls

Approving a deliverable carries a responsibility, and some project managers delay approvals to avoid this responsibility. This is counterproductive and should be avoided. Don’t be afraid of taking responsibility; some of the deliverables you’ve approved may cause problems in the future, but those problems are not as big as having too many pending deliverables in the project.

Many deliverables quickly approach a nearly-complete state and then run into problems because of a few small difficulties. You may be tempted to mark them as complete because most of the work is done, but you shouldn’t do that – you should only approve deliverables that are completely done.

Principles

The following principles play a significant role in this management activity: