Why project management software? This is another post on common problems that cause organizations to look at and evaluate project management software.

And that is...reporting metrics to management. Is this something that you should be thinking about and why?



In spite of all our problems, I do believe that organizations as a whole are gradually getting better at this project management thing. And that means that management wants to know what is going on. How many projects are experiencing problems? How many are on time and on budget? How much time are spending towards which projects? Do those projects align with our goals? Who is doing what? What is our efficiency? What did we actually accomplish last year? And we could go on and on...

What happens when these questions are asked and there is no centralized, more formal project management software system? I've been there myself personally. It's called hours (if not days) of finding and putting together the information. Or it is called hours upon hours of constantly making sure I was on top of everything. Even then, I couldn't answer all the questions. How many hours did we spend on each project? That was called a SWAG.

What happens when you have to report up to a parent organization or to an organization in another geographic location? It is difficult without any type of formalized metrics tracking for your projects.

These are real issues that many organizations face. Do you need project management software to solve these? No, of course not. You could solve these with other tools and processes. But project management software is designed to handle these types of specific problems.

How can you go about solving this problem with project management software? Here are some suggestions.

1. Identify the metrics you need. Document them. Make sure they are real (don't track what isn't going to be used).

2. Focus on process not software. Build a process that supports your specific objectives and metrics. Train on that process not just on "how the software works."

3. Take it in phases. Don't try to do it all at once. Get people comfortable with the new system and process. Identify the metrics you are going to start to track. Gradually add to it.

4. Hold people accountable. You need to hold people accountable for putting the information in so that you can get the metrics. If they don't have to do it, often times they simply won't.

5. Revisit and revise. Continually revisit the process and software setup. Are you getting accurate metrics? What needs to be adjusted?

Follow these tips and you'll be surprised where you are at in even six months time.