Heard a PM say daily logs are 'busy work' and it got me thinking

Tbh I ran a site meeting last week and this PM said he only fills daily logs to keep the office happy, not for actual tracking. Is that a common shortcut, or do field folks actually use the data to catch delays before they blow up the schedule? Has anyone else dealt with a team that treats the software like paperwork instead of a tool?

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paige8619d ago

The guy might actually have a point. Daily logs are mostly about covering your back when something goes wrong later. You can go back and say, "Hey, the data showed we were behind on Tuesday," but honestly, everyone already knows that on Tuesday. The schedule changes so fast that the log is old news by the time you review it. Real delay catching happens in the morning huddle and on the walkthrough, not by typing notes into an app. If the PM is spending 20 minutes on a log, that's 20 minutes he's not talking to the crew or checking material deliveries. That's a real cost. Plus, the office folks love a neat spreadsheet, but they don't use it to fix anything. They just want proof that someone was paying attention. So yeah, filling it out to keep them quiet is a smart survival move, not a shortcut. If the log actually helped catch problems, then sure, use it. But most jobs I've seen, the good PMs spot the issue and fix it before the log even gets written. The log is just a record of what already happened. So I'd say the PM is being honest, and the people calling it busy work are just admitting the truth.