Are Your Project Teams Living In "Template Hell?"

Project templates provide patterns for project deliverables, serving to increase understanding, save time, and improve the quality of project outcomes. But while the value of templates is obvious, some project management practitioners approach their creation and use in an old-fashioned way, neglecting the consumers' needs, injecting unnecessary complexity, and rigidly structuring template use. Commonly, project teams in these organizations claim to be in "template hell": They spend more time on documentation than on delivery of working software. By taking a lean approach to designing and using templates, you can maximize their value and minimize waste. Evaluate your templates for their necessity, fit-to-purpose, flexibility, and usage. Replace them with lighter-weight communication methods where possible and redesign, buy, or borrow to round out a strong, practical template suite.