Project health, check-ins and risks

Three small tools tell everybody how a project is going: the health colour, the weekly check-in and the risk matrix.

Project health

In the space's Projects tab, each project shows its health: Healthy, Attention or At risk. It is a person's judgement, picked in one click. To say why, write a report in the project's Status tab (New report, with a colour under Health and a Title): the report sets the colour and its title becomes the note on it. Hovering over the health in the list shows the note, who set it and when. The count of risks beside it comes from the data, not from the risk matrix: overdue work items, plus a sprint that has run past its end.

Weekly check-in

The Check-in tab needs the Check-ins module. A project asks one question, once a week.

• To set it up: choose Set up the check-in, write the Question (for example, what are you doing this week and what is blocking you), pick the day it is Asked on, and switch it on
• To answer: open Check-in, write your answer for the current week and choose Answer. Choose Update answer to change it
• Not written yet lists who has still to answer. If you have not answered, your inbox reminds you

Risks

The Risks tab needs the Risks module. A risk is a work item placed on a 5 × 5 matrix of Probability against Impact; it keeps its status, assignee and history.

1. Click an empty cell; in a cell that already holds risks, choose Add another.
2. Choose New work item here, or Add an existing one by key or summary.

The Score is probability times impact, from 1 to 25, and falls into a band: Low, Moderate, High or Critical. Filter by band. In the View menu, Show matrix and Show table switch the matrix and the table of the same risks on and off (one of the two always stays); Focus mode is there too. Take off the matrix removes the risk without touching the work item. Export gives the Risk matrix (PDF) or the Risk table (XLSX).