We have shared some of the tools and techniques we use to inject more objectivity in areas which are often subjective.

Clear Objectives without painting yourself into a corner
Well crafted objectives are a great tool to give direction and clarity to a wide range of stakeholders; the team, steering group members and a project's customers. But they can paint too black and white a view of success and failure and be prone to 'objective gold-plating' where objectives are set like sales targets—a stretch in the hope that delivery is somewhere near the goal. When used like this, they leave no room for manoeuvre, effectively painting you into a corner.

Nick Maxwell explains how capturing PaMPeRed (Plan, Must, Previous and Record) values for objectives has given him both clarity and room for manoeuvre when delivering.

Project Triage—focusing your time and effort when project trouble-shooting
Have you ever sat in meetings wondering: "Hasn't that milestone slipped previously? How can I be sure that the project isn't in permanent drift?". Often in these situations there is a temptation to ask for more detailed information from the project team to justify their estimates and delivery dates. Counter-intuitive as this may seem, this is not the right thing to do. Instead, you should use project triage techniques to zone in on the hot spots before delving into the detail.

Mark White explains how timeline charts that plot milestone slippage have helped him quickly find out where to focus efforts when troubleshooting projects.