What do your team members do when you ask them the question, “Where are you at on the project?” Ignore you? Stare blankly? Look confused? Cower? 
What makes tracking and reporting so difficult? After all, “Where are you at?” is a completely reasonable and fair question. In fact, without answers to that question, we have very little information for our stakeholders.
Many things make tracking and reporting on projects difficult. Project Managers often don’t have authority over the resources, and team members may not feel obligated to provide timely answers. Those providing answers may not be clear on what information is being asked, or they may be dependent on others before they can report progress on their part of the project. Fear of the response to their answer also drives a lot of behavior around tracking and reporting.
Three things to keep in mind to make the Q and A around project tracking and reporting less painful:
When I first read the BABOK® Guide, my initial reaction was, “What are they thinking?!” With my Project Manager (PM) hat perched squarely on my head, my reaction was “but… but this is 
One of the most frequently asked questions I still get from my clients is whether or not one person can be both a Project Manager (PM) and a Business Analyst (BA) on the same project. The answer, of course, is yes, they can. Another related question, though, is whether or not they should. I think there are really two different answers to two different questions.
