J A Epperson Analysis & Advisory LLC

(SEE MY APPROACH TO THIS TOPIC IN MY ONLINE COURSE – “MY XYZ’S OF EXCELLENCE,” DAY 9 – THE LETTER P – PLAN PREPARE PLAN)

All of us at monday.com; Oct 7 this is an 8 min read

Managing a single task is straightforward enough — you put in the work and submit it for review when it’s finished.

In reality, a typical project consists of many moving parts that must work together to meet deadlines. Just one part breaking down can cause delays and financial losses.

Keeping everything on the right track isn’t easy. This is why every project needs to have a system in place to monitor and evaluate its progress.

It sounds obvious enough, but how do you actually do it?

In this article, we’ll provide an in-depth look at what project monitoring and evaluation is, why it’s important, and how to implement it in your organization. We’ll also give you an actionable template you can customize and put what you’ve learned into practice.

What is project monitoring and evaluation?

Project monitoring and evaluation is used to measure a project’s progress. It’s important because it lets you keep tabs on a project and identify potential problems.

Let’s take a closer look at these two concepts.

What is project monitoring?

Project monitoring is the process of keeping a close eye on the entire project management life cycle and ensuring project activities are on the right track.The success of a project depends on a clearly defined structure. Not having a plan would be like building a house without a blueprint — possible, but incredibly difficult with tons of room for error.

A lack of goals and measurable objectives (37%) is the primary reason why projects fail.

(Image Source)

Goals are important for any project because they act as a guide. But just setting an objective isn’t enough. You need to make it a point to check if you’re actually meeting them.

Project monitoring is all about comparing actual performance to the goals you set. If you’re not hitting milestones (e.g., delivering a prototype within a specified time), the project has a high chance of failure.

A project can be divided into five phases: Initiating, Planning, Executing, Closing, and Monitoring and Control.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these phases:

• Initiation: The initiation phase outlines the steps and processes that must be approved before any planning begins.
• Planning: The planning phase determines the project scope and details the processes for the execution phase.
• Executing: The execution phase involves carrying out the activities defined in the planning phase.
• Closing: The closing phase finalizes the project and its completion is communicated to all stakeholders.
• Monitoring and control: The monitoring and control phase involves making sure the project is on track and incorporating any necessary changes. This happens at the same time as the planning and execution phases.

Project monitoring is the ‘monitoring part’ of the monitoring and control phase.

It involves measuring project-related details (e.g., budgets, schedules, scope, etc.) against your goals to ensure you’re on the right track.

Now let’s take a look at project evaluation.

What is project evaluation?

Project evaluation is the ‘control’ part of the monitoring and control phase. It involves looking at the information you gather from monitoring and making decisions based on it (e.g., do we need to adjust schedules or fast track certain processes to meet deadlines?).

Not every project goes according to plan. Costs might exceed the initial budget, team members might miss their deadlines due to scope creep, a stakeholder may suddenly back out, etc.

But project issues are also perfect learning opportunities to identify where things in the project plan started to go awry.

This is what a project evaluation framework is all about. Evaluating why a project is heading off course allows time for intervention.

Best case, you discover an issue early enough to get back on course. Worst case, you gain valuable insights that you can use to improve future workflows.

The evaluation process happens throughout the project — not just after project objectives are met. There may also be more in-depth evaluations at big milestones, like the retrospective at the end of a sprint.

Companies waste an average of 11.4% of their investment on projects due to poor performance. Project monitoring and evaluation is a tool to help you improve a project’s overall efficiency by catching and resolving issues before it’s too late.

Let’s look at how you can get started.

How to get started with project monitoring and evaluation

Project monitoring and evaluation enables you to make better decisions about ongoing and future projects. Here’s some framework and steps you can follow to get started.

#1: Create a plan for monitoring and evaluating your projects

The first step is to create a process for how you will monitor and evaluate your projects. Start with the following steps:

• Organize your projects: You need a platform or system to capture and organize your data in one place. Use project management software to keep tabs on different phases of a project. Here’s an example of how teams are monitoring the project scope in monday.com:

• Identify responsibilities: Who will be responsible for monitoring each phase of the project and conducting evaluations? How will they determine and measure project success? Designate stakeholder roles as early as possible and create a checklist of their responsibilities.
• Record project bottlenecks: What were some issues that you or your project team experienced? Make sure to record those incidents, including how you addressed them and what the outcome was.
• Create an evaluation plan: Will you conduct evaluations every week or after each phase of the project is complete? Collect feedback from your team to get their thoughts on how workflows can be improved.

#2: Monitor performance in real-time

Whether you’re managing a construction project or launching a new product, you need a real-time view of what’s happening to monitor your projects and make informed decisions.

Here’s an example of how the team at monday.com monitors and manages project implementation in real-time:

(Image Source)

Monitoring performance in real-time enables you to track each team member’s progress and allocate resources accordingly.

The last thing you want is to work with outdated information, which is exactly the kind of issue that M Booth, a digital PR agency in New York City, experienced.

Their team was copying and pasting information from Basecamp into a spreadsheet to see everything in one place. But problems arose when one platform was updated and the other wasn’t. This meant that some employees were working with outdated data.

#3: Evaluate project reports

Was the project delivered on time? Or were there unexpected setbacks?

Answering these questions is what project monitoring and evaluating is all about. But you need to collect the right data and assess the results to find the answers.

Pull reports from an ongoing or completed project and evaluate your key performance indicators (KPIs) — metrics that gauge your project’s performance.

Reviewing reports can help you understand how your team is performing against their goals and pinpoint where timelines started to deviate.

Here’s a quick glance of a project report created in monday.com:

(Image Source)

#4: Improve workflow processes

If a project didn’t meet the deadline, dig deeper to find out why. What were some of the setbacks? How were they eventually resolved?

Don’t stop there though. Use our incident management template to record any incidents and how you addressed them.

(Image Source)

If anyone on your team runs into a similar issue for future projects, they can refer to the board for a solution.

#5: Focus on learning and improving

Project monitoring and evaluation lets you keep tabs on projects, evaluate their progress, and improve processes. Just making one change can have a huge impact on future projects.

For example, the team at monday.com turned hours of tedious meetings into a single 20-minute session just by adding more boards.

But we also recognize there’s always room for improvement, so the team is constantly focusing on learning and improving. That’s the additional reward of project monitoring and evaluation.

Even after implementing a new change, don’t celebrate just yet. Continue learning from and optimizing your evaluation system to make your work processes even more productive.

Conclusion

In a perfect world, all of your projects would go according to plan. Everything would be completed on time and within budget.

But that doesn’t always happen in reality — employees may miss deadlines due to personal emergencies, external stakeholders may back out without explanation, etc.

Project monitoring and evaluation enables you to identify and mitigate issues that may impact the project scope, quality, timeline, or budget. You can then take those insights and use them to optimize processes for future projects.

Use a project tracker template to monitor projects and get a high-level view of where everything stands — all from one place. You can easily customize the template and create a tailored plan that fits your workflow.

Get a project tracker template now!

Learn more about Planning and Preparation on Day 9 of My XYZ’s of Excellence – 26 Days to Excellence in Business Leadership and Life “One Day at a Time” online course.

Infographic brought to you by Wrike

(SEE MY APPROACH TO THIS TOPIC IN MY ONLINE COURSE – “MY XYZ’S OF EXCELLENCE,” DAY 9 – THE LETTER P – PLAN PREPARE PLAN)

 Guest Author, December 28, 2016

As your organization changes, your project management needs will change, too. Growth is great, but it makes the need for clear communication and task management more important than ever.  

If you’re already paying for a project management solution, it can be difficult to justify the cost and time it will take to implement a new one. Plus, adoption can be a concern in organizations where staff members are slow to accept new processes and procedures. 

So how do you know if it’s worth it to upgrade your project management tool? Here are four signs that it’s time to find new software:

You’re using several different tools

How many steps does it take for your team to complete a task? If you’re using a separate task management system, time tracker, and sending emails, there’s a good chance communication is falling through the cracks. Using several different, disconnected tools opens the door to wasted time, duplication, and missed opportunities.

If it’s been awhile since you’ve updated your software, you might be surprised to learn that many products cover several project management needs in a single system. Look for a tool that can house all of your processes and communication from the same interface to avoid confusion and missed opportunities.

Your work isn’t accessible in the cloud

Most growing companies benefit from moving their project management system to the cloud. If you’re ready to move to the cloud, you’ll benefit from faster communication, easy implementation, and ubiquitous access to all of your work. The best part? Cloud-based project management tools can save you from the upfront cost burden of a perpetual license.

New hires have a hard time learning the ropes

If you’re spending more time training a new hire to use your project management software than on their actual job, you have a problem. Your project management tool should be easy to learn so new hires and veteran employees can get acclimated quickly and start being productive. Your vendor should also offer training and troubleshooting documentation, so you don’t have to explain the ins and outs of every workflow to every team member.

Your organization is changing

Growth is a good thing, but sometimes it makes things complicated.  When you add new team members and projects, your project management software can’t always keep up — especially if you’re using an outdated system. You need to find a system that can grow with you. Many tools are scalable and offer different plans for small, medium, and large businesses, as well as the ability to add and remove users without hassle.

You have too many meetings

Isn’t the point of a project management tool to cut down on busy work and unnecessary meetings? If you’re gathering the team in the conference room for project updates and brainstorming sessions every day, your software isn’t doing enough to help. A project management solution should house discussions, progress updates, tasks, deadlines, file attachments, and more. Use those meetings to set broader priorities and solve problems. Your team can use the extra time to complete tasks and focus on delivering top-notch work.

If you’ve made it through this list and it’s clear that you need to update your project management tool, talk to your team about what features they need and what pain points they have with your current system. Use their feedback to guide the research process.

---

Author Bio: 

Megan Pacella is a contributor for TechnologyAdvice.com, with specializations in B2B marketing and sales. She has also written for USA Today, Bearings Guide, 10Best Nashville, and other publications.

---

Ready to Upgrade Your Project Management Tool?

Download our free collaboration software buyer’s guide. It includes questions and features you should carefully consider when selecting a new tool. Or, start a free trial of Wrike’s Project Management Solution! (We double-dog dare you!) FREE GUIDE

Struggling to keep pace with the twists and turns of today’s market?Learn how the Agile movement helps companies adapt to customer demands, competition, and disruptive technologies.What department are you working at now?Select hereCreativeIT Ops & TechnologyMarketingProject/Program managementProfessional ServicesOtherWhat is your job level?Select hereC-Level & PartnerVP/Head ofDirector, Sr. Director, Associate DirectorGroup Manager, Lead, CoordinatorManager, Sr. Manager, Supervisor, StrategistOtherGet the ebookWe promise to play nice with your email address and phone number. See our Privacy Policy.

Do you know why you got into the business you’re in? Have you ever done an assessment of who you are and what your core beliefs are?

Do you realize that trying to succeed at a business which has its purpose, mission and values incongruent to your own core beliefs, will ultimately cause frustration and disappointment.

I hate frustration and disappointment, how about you? In order to stay congruent with my own core belief of needing to help others, I took my book and made it into a 26 day online course. I think the course is amazing!

Just for you, I took the first module “Day 1 – Assess and Acknowledge” and added some general information to create a really cool sample look. It’s available to you for free. Click here and go take it out on your boat if you’d like. Use the tools included to do a serious assessment of who you are and how to acknowledge that truth to see if you fit in with your current job/business.

The Free Module is right here. I’m giving it away so you can test drive it, no pressure, knock yourself out, this one’s on me; go ahead, you’ll love it.

What’s in this first module? The first module is all about “Assess and Acknowledge.” What better way to start a course about personal success than to help you learn who you really are. So, who are you, really?

The next module is all about helping you understand your “why?”

Other modules focus on giving you tools to understand your level of commitment all the way to changing yourself and becoming a success?

The course spends a lot of time on developing measurable milestones and setting goals and objectives and specific task and project planning. Can you plan effectively? Have you ever heard of the planning tools called Monday.com or Wrike.com? They work for small or large businesses.

Do you know where you’re going? Are you sure you don’t have your ladder leaning on the wrong wall?

Are you smart enough to know when to delegate things that you shouldn’t spend your time on?

Are you prepared for success? How badly do you want success and happiness? And more life enhancing modules to help you become a success you must not miss.

Twenty Six modules, key business concepts designed to help you find your way to a more successful business and life. I’ll let you check out the first module of the “One Day at a Time” online course free, it’s taken from the book My XYZ’s to Excellence – 26 Days to Excellence in Business Leadership and Life. Try it now.

Click Here.