Monitoring initiative and project
There is a reason for launching a new initiative or project. Your organization needs or want the expected benefits or outputs. The benefits are greater than the estimated cost. Therefore, the investment is worthwhile. Monitoring is essential for many reasons. Without it, the project is likely to fail and a waste for everyone. It gives visibility to intermediate results. It involves team and stakeholders. And, it enables to anticipate next steps. Without it, the interest and energy will fade. The expected gains will be delayed, or worst not happen. There are several monitoring techniques. They are more or less complex based on factors such as known data, dimensions involved (e.g. a Task list, Velocity, Earned Value Management). Regardless of the method, the starting point is a plan.
The plan is elaborated at the beginning of the project. It is essential to picture the start and end as well as directions to get there. As an analogy, your vacation plan will break down your travel into steps/tasks getting you from home to your vacation location. It will help identify resources required such as car, taxi, train, flight, passport, etc. It will help determine time lines and constrains (e.g. flight schedules, availability, vaccinations, visas). And with all the items identified, the individual estimates sum up to the project estimate. In most cases, there are several ways to reach one goal. Depending on the result in comparison to expectations and available means, multiple scenarios may be looked at before an acceptable plan is chosen. There is always be degree of uncertainty to a plan thus a temptation to optimize the plan. While optimizing is always possible, there is a point when the effort to optimize exceeds the adding value. A good plan is one that the team and stakeholders recognize will reach the expected outcome and benefits. This plan become the reference for monitoring the execution of the project. This is referred to as the baseline.
Another common point is monitoring progress. The first level of monitoring, to not say minimal, is the monitor progress as in completed or not. Keeping track of tasks completion enables several useful activities. It provides insight to intermediate results. It shows if the end goal remains achievable. New inputs trigger upcoming tasks and decision points. Goal Nabber different ways to visualize and update progress suiting different needs and styles. The Project Map shows all the task on one image as a portal to the tasks. The Kanban Board show the task by status. It and useful to update through team stand up meetings. Or, a Gantt Chart showing the tasks against the timeline. Conflicts or need to adjust the schedule can become visible. The graphic interfaces make it easy to update. By using the most suitable way of presenting, the project team interaction is enhanced and can be centered on the project output. The frequency of engagements and updates will influence the pace. Less frequent is likely to attract less interest, engagement and results. Too frequent could turn into overkill with a similar effect on results. One approach is to make it your personal routine with a balanced engagement with the team.
In future articles, we’ll develop additional monitoring techniques. In the meantime, we wish you good and smooth progress.
To learn more, you can join one of the “Try Together” web conferences. Or benefit of a free trial period to try this and other features available in Goal Nabber: