Tracking Project Statuses using Rainbow colors – VIBGYOR

One of the key responsibilities of a TPM is to track program/project statuses. RAG (Red, Amber, Green) are the standard colors used to track project statuses. However, they are not enough to track all the statuses. Here is an alternative method to track statuses using Rainbow colors – VIBGYOR.

ColorStatusMeaningIndustry Standard?Mnemonic to help you remember
VioletFuture / To doPlanned but not yet startedNoViolet –> Vision –> Future
IndigoDroppedDropped because it does not make business senseNoIndigo –> Ink blue –> Dropped a bottle of ink –> Dropped project
BlueDoneCompletedYesBlue skies –> Evokes feeling of happiness –> Done projects = happiness
GreenOn-trackGoing as per planYesGreen stop light –> Continue to drive
YellowSlight riskPotential risks that might delay the project however mitigation plan in place to bring it back to GreenMostly (Some use Amber instead of Yellow to represent this status)Yellow stop light –> Slow down
OrangeOn-holdAwaiting a decision or partner dependencies and on-holdNoColor and status starts with an “O”
RedOff trackSignificantly behind plan either in meeting the date or the scopeYesRed stop light –> Stop and re-evaluate

Setting guidelines for changing project to Yellow / Red status

Depending on how stringent your project tracking needs to be, you can determine guidelines for changing project status to Yellow / Red. For ex: Status changes to Yellow if your project is going to be delayed by >2 weeks but less than a month. It changes to Red if the project timeline is going to be delayed by more than a month. Similarly you can set guidelines for scope tolerance as well.

It is important to get alignment on the status colors and their meaning with team members so that these colors mean the same across the organization. Once you set these guidelines, try not to change as it is going to be difficult to retrain everyone to understand the new guidelines. Use appropriate change management to change the statuses from one to another.

Hope this helps you track your project statuses better.

Sree

Sree is a PMP, PgMP, PMI-ACP certified Technical Program Manager (TPM)