Project Performance Monitoring:- In project management, it is not enough to make a decision or to entrust a task to an employee to be sure of the expected result: it is imperative to follow closely the execution of the tasks and the progress of the project to ensure that everything takes place in the best possible conditions. As a project manager, it is therefore essential that you observe and verify the results of your collaborators to make sure that:
- The team is moving in the right direction,
- It works together to achieve the objectives set,
- It respects the budget, deadlines and resources allocated to the project.
In addition to monitoring that the project is progressing towards its final goal, the purpose of this monitoring is to improve the performance of your project team.
What is Project Performance Monitoring?
Monitoring progress (or monitoring of project tasks or activities) aims to verify that the project is carried out in accordance with the established plan and that the human, material and financial resources are well defined and used properly. If you have a problem, you can report it to the team and act quickly to resolve it.
Monitoring the progress of the project is divided into three stages:
- The data collection,
- The analysis of these data,
- The implementation of corrective actions if necessary
It can be done on a daily, weekly, monthly or seasonal basis
To evaluate the monitoring of the activities of your project, it is important to use Key Performance Indicators (KPI). These indicators measure the performance of your project, evaluate a situation and make an appropriate decision.
The Importance of following the Evolution of the Project
Once your project is launched, it is not enough to accomplish the tasks one after the other so that the objectives are achieved and the project succeeds. Unfortunately, project management is more complex than that.
To ensure the success of your project, it is essential that the division of labor takes into account the skills of each of the employees involved. When the various tasks are assigned, you must follow their evolution throughout the project. Why? To ensure that everything runs as originally planned in the schedule. If necessary, it is up to you, the project leader, to readjust the deadlines, budget or resources needed to ensure a successful completion of a task.
By properly following the different tasks of the project, the activity and the results of your collaborators, you ensure that your team is performing well and that the objectives set will be achieved. This monitoring also makes it possible to estimate the cost of the project at any time, depending on the time already consumed.
The Various Monitoring tools
To help you follow the progress of your project, two tools are at your disposal:
- The follow-up meeting;
- The project management software
Follow-Up Meetings
The purpose of the follow-up meeting is to take stock of the progress of all the project tasks with all the members of the team concerned. It is also during these meetings that the problems encountered will be dealt with. The objective is to enable the project to progress on a daily basis.
The Project Lead facilitates the meeting and the leaders of each task have to participate. Attention should be focused on the up-to-date schedule of the project on which each task is represented graphically (start date, duration, and end date). The schedule must be readable and comprehensible to all participants. Each task must be classified according to its status: completed, ongoing or not started.
The follow-up meeting will:
- Identify tasks that should start shortly,
- Define new tasks to be added and which ones to delete,
- Determine the progress of the tasks in progress and their remaining duration,
- Make the necessary decisions.
It is imperative that project follow-up be carried out jointly by the project manager and his / her team, and that the schedule, updated daily, is the reference document. After the meeting, a report details the delays observed, their origin and the actions to be taken to resolve them. Follow-up meetings should be held regularly throughout the project. Their frequency will depend on the size and duration of the project.
Project Management Software
Project management software offers many features that are essential to effectively manage your project from start to finish. They allow you to simply plan each project task, assign it to a collaborator and easily track it. Using tools such as the Gantt Chart , Resource Management, Task Manager, or Timesheets, you can plan, track, manage, and analyze the activities and workload of each member of your team.
With the Gantt chart, you can see the progress of each task in a snap. As for the resource management tool, it allows you to track the workload of each member of the project team. You know who is overworked and who is available. This allows you to efficiently allocate resources to a task in order to make up for a delay or shorten a timeframe that is too long.
In Summary
Monitoring the progress of your project ensures that the tasks are carried out in accordance with the deadlines, resources, costs and objectives set at start-up. To improve this monitoring, use appropriate tools such as follow-up meetings or project management software.
Hello everyone! This is Richard Daniels, a full-time passionate researcher & blogger. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Economics. He loves to write about economics, e-commerce, and business-related topics for students to assist them in their studies. That's the sole purpose of Business Study Notes.
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