By the time a status report flags a program as yellow, the drift usually started months earlier. In the engagements where KP has been called in for recovery, three early signals have shown up almost every time — and each of them is visible long before the color changes.
1. Stakeholders stop asking questions in meetings
Healthy programs have stakeholders who are actively poking holes. When meetings become one-way status updates and the back-channel chatter increases, it usually means people have stopped trusting the formal process and are trying to sort things out privately.
2. Dates move in half-steps
A two-month delay on a milestone is easier to spot than six two-week slips that nobody reset expectations around. If the timeline keeps shifting in quiet increments, somebody on the team already knows the plan will not hold.
3. The risk register stops changing
An active risk register is noisy. New risks show up, old ones close, priorities shift. A static register usually does not mean risks have been managed — it means the process has become performative.
None of these signals are conclusive on their own. Two of them together are worth paying attention to. All three, and the engagement needs a reset now, not next quarter.
