Project Monitoring

This is a long one. Bear with me, as it will be worth it. Project monitoring is often the difference between ‘on time and on budget’ and ‘late, costing way too much and not having warned the people affected’.

…Geoff

To reduce the risk of the project going substantially over in terms of time or cost, you should monitor project progress.

Regular reporting of progress to people with an interest, including the project team, can keep you focussed on project monitoring. Even if progress reports are not requested, they can be a good way to promote the project if it is going well, and of communicating issues if it is not going so well.

A fortnightly progress report will typically consist of:
* Current Tasks – A short list of tasks currently underway.
* Project Progress – Stating what has been completed in the fortnight just ended; and what is expected to be completed in the next fortnight.
* Variation – An explanation for how the budget, workdays and/or timelines have varied from the original plan (whether positive or negative).
* Issues – A brief description of any significant issues, including the action being taken.


To ensure that members of the project team take responsibility for monitoring their own progress, request mini-status reports. At the least this could be an email or jotted down note that includes:
* Current Tasks – A short list of current tasks, so you know what they are doing at the moment.
* Project Progress – A list of what the person has completed in the fortnight just ended; and what they expect to complete in the next fortnight.
* Variation – An explanation for how their tasks have varied in terms of starting or finishing early or late, and where tasks have taken more or less time than expected.
* Issues – A brief description of any issues affecting the individual, including the action being taken.

The topic on project scheduling below introduces the concept of milestones. For now it is important to note that the achievement of a milestone is a good time to think about how the project is progressing, what has been learnt so far and what is still to be achieved.

There must be a way to report issues and catastrophes which is separate to the regular reporting cycle, as issues and catastrophes are generally too urgent to wait for the due date for the next status report. Open lines of communication are important. It is also good practice to expect people to be able to describe clearly and succinctly:
* What the issue is.
* What impact it could/will/has had on the project.
* What could be done to resolve it (multiple alternatives).
* What alternative is recommended by the person raising the issue, and why.

In addition to monitoring time and cost, you should be monitoring the ‘quality’ of the project’s performance. This often involves scrutinising project deliverables as they are developed. When this is the case, these ‘review’ steps need to be incorporated into the project activities, to ensure they are not overlooked.

The most important thing at this early stage of the project is to decide how you will monitor the project, otherwise there is a good chance you will start the project without monitoring progress at all.