Definitions - ‘D’
More light-hearted definitions of project management and associated terms, to help with project and stakeholder communications:
Delegate
(a) Assign responsibility for a task to someone else.
(b) A way of finding out what style your project / department manager adopts. Some managers will delegate everything to their staff, go and play golf, and then take all the credit for the work. Others will hoard all the work, leaving you to do the filing.
Deliverable
(a) Something that will be produced as a result of your plan.
(b) An ill-defined promise in vague language that is impossible to understand and deliver. Example: “We will give Total Customer Satisfaction”.
Doctor’s Appointment (known in Singapore as “Medical Certificate” or MC)
(a) Meeting with a health professional to seek medical care.
(b) Get-out-of-work-free-card.
(c) Excuse for managers to wander in at 11am (”I had a doctor’s appointment”). Staff, of course, are often required to schedule their appointments outside office hours.
Dotted Line
(a) Informal reporting situation in an organisational chart.
(b) You supervise a person but you have no power, authority, or credit. A great way for the company to save money and pass the blame around.
Drill Down
(a) To look at something in detail.
(b) To do the work you said you were going to do in the first place, by reading and investigating.
Due Diligence
(a) To research and learn the facts and details about a project.
(b) Way of terminating unworthy projects “We performed the due diligence and found that it’s not cost-effective”.