Project Management vs. Piloting: The Key Difference
Project management focuses on execution. Piloting adds strategy. Learn why this distinction matters and how to adopt a piloting mindset.
6 min read
The test for every widget
Ask: if this value moves, which decision do I take? If the answer is “none, I look at it”, the widget reassures. If there is a decision, the widget steers. A steering dashboard keeps only the second kind.
The eight widgets that steer
- Health per goal — on trajectory, watched, off trajectory. Not a global percentage that hides one goal in three being at risk.
- Remaining work versus remaining capacity — the only schedule indicator that matters. When the gap opens, choose: more capacity, less scope, or another date.
- Blockers older than three days — with their owner, who often does not know they are being waited on.
- Pending decisions and their age — the most invisible delay in a project.
- Open risks with a plan — a risk without a plan is a worry, not a managed risk.
- Dependencies and their state — expected date versus probable date.
- Agent missions in progress — running, waiting for an answer, waiting for approval, failed. The committee’s window on what the agents do.
- The briefing — a short text, prepared each morning by an agent or the lead, that reads the seven others and says what changed and what is expected.
The widgets to remove
Raw velocity (it measures the team’s past, not the project’s future), the global completion rate (64 % of what?), the number of open tickets (a large backlog is not a project in danger) and the activity graph (a project can be very busy and off trajectory).
Compose without double entry
A steering dashboard dies of double entry: as soon as a number has to be copied by hand from the board, it is a week late, then wrong, then ignored. In Stellary the cockpit is composed per project from a catalogue of computed widgets, and the portfolio view aggregates several cockpits for a programme.
FAQ
Which indicators belong on a project steering dashboard?
The ones that trigger a decision when they move: health per goal, remaining work versus capacity, blockers older than three days, pending decisions and their age, open risks with a plan, dependencies and their state, agent missions in progress, and a briefing that reads all of it.
How do you keep a steering dashboard from going stale?
By removing double entry: every widget must be computed from the working data — cards, documents, missions, decisions — never from a number typed in by hand.
