In other words, there are preconditions to be met for a system to be effective. Below follow some preconditions that need to be put in place, without pretending to be exhaustive: The system must be designed to receive and provide the right and timely information. However, design follows purpose.
In other words, management first needs to define the information required to be able to make informed decisions. Using predesigned systems is in order but only after confirming it will serve the purpose of what management requires. Staff, responsible for providing input must have the knowledge and skills to do so effectively, timely, and with only a slight margin of error.
I went to her workplace and interviewed her. Let me introduce you to my mother. Green will typically mean that the project and activities are on track, yellow will mean that there is a delay or a warning for certain items to pay specific attention to and red is an alarm that things are not progressing well at all and action needs to be taken.
Such a system can be very helpful indeed and provide management with timely information to take measures. The system will only be effective though as long as it receives the right and timely inputs, as long as it produces reliable output information, as long as the information it provides is referred to consistently, and finally as long as the information it provides is responded to adequately.
