In every project, be it a large IT initiative or a smaller team effort, one major success determinant is how well you track progress. But what is project tracking, and why is it so important? It means understanding why keeping an eye on your project’s progress makes all the difference.
It means monitoring and measuring against the plan that how the project is progressing towards achieving its set objectives. That is, checking whether the completion is on time, within budget, and meeting the set quality standards from the beginning. This will be like you being on the wheel driving to ensure you are in the right direction on the highway. In case you see you are going off route, you will adjust your route to be on course.
Benefits of Tracking a Project
Some of the prominent benefits of tracking a project during execution may include:
Early Problem Detection and Mitigation
Any problem gets notified pretty much at an early stage when it is tracked. One can regularly monitor their project and hence keep any impending problem at bay before it starts getting bigger. For example, if a certain task has fallen behind the schedule, then it must be sorted out on time, or else the whole project would get delayed.
Better Utilization of Resources
Better utilization of the resources is another advantage. Tracking can be used to understand how the resources are utilized. If a project has been utilizing more resources than planned, adjustments can be made to avoid wastages and keep the project within the budget.
Better Communication
Proper tracking of the project may lead to the better communication. The frequent updates on project status make it easier to communicate with the team members and stakeholders. Every person is on the same page therefore, misunderstandings can be reduced and the team remains aligned to the project goals.
Timely Decisions
Another prominent advantage includes the ability to make timely decisions. When you are tracking the progress, you have the information needed to make certain decisions. This way, you can easily change your approach and try new strategies depending on real-time information, if certain other strategies do not work.
Enhanced Accountability and Team Support
Tracking also increases accountability. It sets clear expectations of what each should be working on and holds team members accountable for their responsibilities. It is also easy to see who is making progress and who might need a little more support.
Achievement of Intended Benefits
Progress tracking for any project including an IT or business project is not only about timelines and budgets but also about their ability to produce the intended benefits. It is important to stay aligned with business goals. For example, most of the IT projects have specific goals, which could be either about improving system efficiency or making the life of users easier. Tracking helps to make sure these goals are met and the project aligns with the overall objective of the business.
Increased Return On Investment
Another crucial benefits of tracking a project helps in getting a good return on investment. Upon measured progress, you can know if the project is returning what it was meant to. Such returns may count benefits like cost savings, productivity, or improvements in better service delivery. If it is not meeting such expectations, then adjustment can be made in those aspects to ensure improvement in the return on investment (ROI).
Manage Expectations
In business projects, it’s also critically important to be managing the expectation of stakeholders. These projects usually involve a multitude of stakeholders who have different expectations. Tracking progress ensures that the management of these expectations is possible since the stakeholders will always be updated on how far the project is from its intended goals.
Track Quality Deliverables
Another significant aspect includes the tracking of quality deliverables. IT projects should possess good quality deliverables solutions. With tracking, the development process will be allocated to the right quality and ensures that any defects identified are effectively corrected.
Avoid Delays
Some important benefits a project stands to gain from tracking and measurement of progress include keeping the project on course. You can compare the actual progress with the planned schedule, and you will know about any deviation in advance. You are allowed to make the necessary adjustments to keep on track, thus avoiding delays to hand over on time.
Provides Transparency
Tracking also provides transparency during the development of the project. This transparency could be helpful in managing appropriate expectations and may also serve as a warning for all parties concerned about its status at present or other matters that should be addressed.
Project Control and Management
Better control of the project is also be associated with project tracking. Where there is effective and efficient tracking, a project manager can have tighter controls over the project regarding scope changes, adjustments in timelines, or even the re-assignment of resources to be tapped so that whatever challenges arise can be duly addressed.
Foster Constant Improvement
There is also the advantage of facilitating constant improvement. By measuring the progress, it is possible to learn from experiences. What happened can easily be analysed as either successful or not and thus leads to constant improvement in processes or strategies to apply to newer projects in the future.
Enhance Confidence
Lastly, tracking progress enhances confidence. When progress is well tracked and correctly reported, it builds confidence among team members and stakeholders. They are more certain that the project is really on course and likely to succeed.
In other words, monitoring progress is an essential element in the running of a project. This helps in early problem identification, effective resource management, the enhancement of communication, and the making of possible decisions. This is especially important for IT and business projects, which ensure that the project will deliver expected value to support the ultimate goal of the business strategy. A firm grasp on how things are going will enable you to guide the project to success and ensure it serves its purpose efficiently.
