Whether you’re a two-person startup or the director in a Fortune 500 giant, real-time project status tracking is critical. Modern analytical software means that there’s no excuse for losing track of a project, missing a deadline, or running over budget.
But there’s more to effective project management. In this article we’ll take a look at 5 ways in which effective project status tracking can keep your team productive, your projects organized, and your deliverables on-schedule.
Project Updates at a Glance
Well-presented tracking data makes it easy to see how effectively your resources are being allocated. However, sometimes you’re pushed for time. Even if you only have a minute before the next meeting, here’s a snapshot of the information available at a glance:
- Lead and cycle times
- Progress of individual and high-level milestones
- Budget status
- Team performance
- Any bottlenecks in your workflow
And that’s just scratching the surface. Gone are the days of frantically searching the office for vague evidence of progress! Internally, project managers now have instant access to the real-time status and progression of project tasks and resources. Demanding clients can be placated with relevant, real-time data. Individual team members are motivated by seeing their progress, or those imminent deadlines!
Transparency and Accountability
The simplest way to boost productivity in your team is to share your status data with everyone involved. If Bill and Caroline are ahead of schedule, you can bet that Charlie is less likely to extend their lunch break watching that next episode of Netflix.
Conversely, you’ll notice if any team members are struggling to hit deadlines, or if their productivity is always low on a Friday afternoon. You can then be proactive about helping improve their workflow. Transparency keeps everyone up to date and helps to build a culture of continuous improvement.
Productivity
Balanced task scheduling and resource allocation are critical for effective project management. When we break down projects into digestible chunks, we can prioritize daily workloads and get the job done without burning out. Meeting four specific goals over the course of the week is substantially easier than attempting to manage one giant task by 5 pm Friday.
But it’s not all about increasing efficiency and maximizing billable hours. We all know that beating a deadline is a great feeling, always followed an immediate sense of accomplishment. These regular wins are tremendous for moral and keeping chins up across the whole team.
Instant Feedback
There is a distinctly technical advantage that project status tracking gives to your team: visual representation and feedback. Activity and time trackers collect heaps of data, but it’s our tailored Kanban dashboards that allow you to leverage this data and improve your business.
Since we spend all day reading, writing and talking through words, our brains love the respite of a trend graph or chart. At the simplest level, the implications of the “project status” plot can be instantly grasped: is the trend upwards or downwards.
Continuous Improvement
Remember that you will have access to all of the data from your past projects, and that could be immensely valuable. You can see where projects stumbled, or in which areas certain team members performed the strongest. For the next project, you can adapt your strategy to optimize your output.
Learn from the past, prepare for the future.
Smart implementation of project tracking and monitoring will give you an undeniable edge over the competition. Why? Because it provides clarity during your projects and invaluable feedback after them.
What is your experience? Share your story in the comments below!
