Who Monitors for the Trigger Event?
Program trigger events were discussed in our last blog. We can set up a program data base that has inbuilt triggers or we can pick up on the issue if we build these triggers into frequent product development reviews.
We feel the project/program manager is the primary party to monitor for trigger events. Secondarily, the individual assigned to tasks that have reaction plans should also be the one monitoring their tasks for potential aberrations. We need to be careful, however, that ownership of trigger issues is clearly defined in the project statement of work.
Advanced organizations should also plan for escalation of the issue as soon as a trigger fires, alerting the appropriate participants that an issue has passed a threshold. Each trigger will have its own escalation plan unless a generic version is sufficient to get the job done. Accountability concerns become an issue when failure to escalate per plan occurs, especially if the trigger issue directly includes an effect on the customer.