Staying Proactive with Cross-team Transparency on Capital Projects

By

Tara Cohn

and Jonathan Greene

Last Updated Mar 9, 2026

By

Tara Cohn

and Jonathan Greene

This article is the third in a series focused on the need for a thoughtful implementation strategy for new digital solutions in construction management and execution. In the previous article, we discussed automation and optimization.

What does transparency mean in regard to implementing digital tools? It means collecting timely and trusted information to create an openly accessible data set across the lifetime of a project or portfolio, allowing stakeholders to reference and coordinate to expedite decision-making and mitigate risk through information-sharing. 

With enhanced transparency, timeline goals put pressure on siloed teams to produce at high rates, even when their purviews overlap. Plus, role-based visibility to aligned project data minimizes assumptions by creating cross-team accountability from the same live numbers. 

Transparency reinforces optimization.

Automation and optimization reduce noise. Transparency cements that now-clear signal through documented evidence of every communication and decision relevant to all stakeholders across a project. 

Clear ownership and audit trails of workflows allow teams to focus on their specific items of importance, which in turn are also documented. This allows the work to be fluidly and systematically improved.

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Reliable timelines are powered by live data.

Transparency creates a living timeline of information that is easy to access and quick to surface when needed. It allows for prioritization of pain points to address real-time risks.

The access to, and alignment of, continuously updated project data creates reliability by driving down rumor and confusion. 

Transparency is proactive.

Transparency takes added work to be effective. Downstream teams often shoulder this burden on top of meeting their performance goals.

Leadership can support the process by making transparency low-friction. Transparent projects allow leaders to make real-time adjustments ahead of the curve to mitigate risk and improve ROI.  

What to expect when transparency works: 

• Faster, clearer decisions: key changes resolved in days, not weeks.
• Higher confidence forecasts: fewer surprises at month-end; EAC within target bands.
• Less rework and fewer assumptions: issues identified sooner, with documented context.
• Portfolio visibility: consistent, comparable metrics across projects and programs.

Decisions require up-to-date facts that are both reliable and shareable. Transparency built on automation and optimization expedites workflows and improves communication up and downstream.

ROI readily improves when the same transparent standards are used on every project and by every stakeholder. 

Written by

Tara Cohn

Director | Wipfli LLP

Tara Cohn is a director with over 15 years of experience in providing healthcare data analytics services. She helps leaders improve decision-making and achieve success with the use of data analytics. Tara’s experience includes provider practice, hospital/health system and healthcare startup/technology. She is a healthcare subject matter expert and has supported initiatives across operations, clinical care, quality, compliance, patient experience, population health, marketing, strategic planning, finance, revenue cycle and human resources. Tara’s passion is in leveraging data analytics to help organizations achieve their full potential with a focus on transparency, optimization and automation via the power of data storytelling.

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Jonathan Greene

Writer

11 articles

Jon Greene is a freelance educator, writer, and award winning theater maker. As an educational writer he has created content, lessons, and led seminars for Young Audiences of Louisiana, Hynes Charter System in New Orleans, Centre Stage School of the Arts in Singapore, 'Friends of The Museum' Docent Workshop in Singapore, The Prague Public High School System, Moleac Pharmaceuticals, and with the Grand Portage Ojibwa Tribe. His work and writing for theater has been featured in Howlround and American Theater Magazine and he is the recipient of 2 regional theater awards in his home of New Orleans. He is a BFA Graduate of Boston University and a previous Kennedy Center Fellow.

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