“What’s the status of your project?”
On fire: Will not leave me alone, something blew up, highest priority. This is what I’m working on unless something else is also on fire, in which case I’m working on two fires.
Active: Regular meetings, regular activity, moving along as scheduled (or a little faster or a little slower). I can usually handle 2-3 of these at a time unless there’s one on fire.
Waiting on somebody: Can’t move forward without something major from (usually) the client or business or (sometimes) the tech/IT group. It’s no longer a day-to-day activity.
Back burner: Somebody moved the project out of the top priority queue. (Generally I don’t have the authority to back-burner, unless it’s a personal project)
Fridge: Somebody moved this far enough off the back burner that we’re not pulling it forward anytime soon. But we’re going to work on it some day. Honest.
Freezer: Someone moved this so far off the back burner that its own mother couldn’t find it with a GPS system. But still, honest, we’re going to get to it. Maybe Day 3.
Sleeping: Descoped, or unbudgeted, or otherwise not happening anytime soon, but the people in charge swear it’ll happen some day. Really.
Dead: Been sleeping so long that by now it has to have starved to death. You don’t ever expect to see it again, except in conversations that start with “Hey, do you remember when we talked about that project where you had the cool alert implementation? Can I steal the alert implementation from your wireframes?”
Zombie project: Hey, you remember that project we asked you about last year? The one you worked hard on and then it was descoped? Well, it’s back, and with a whole new set of sponsors and requirements.- Zombie on fire: WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT WAS DESCOPED LAST YEAR WE PROMISED IT WOULD LAUNCH NEXT MONTH.
