Project management goal: Track progress

[H. M. Nasim]

Though Microsoft Project makes monitoring and tracking the progress of your schedule easy, there are several steps to take before you can begin monitoring project progress.

Monitoring your project can generally be broken down into reviewing and tracking project progress. Variances from the original plan (or baseline) are identified and managed to keep the project within scope, on time, and within budget.

This article is one of many project management goals on the Project Road Map.

Example One: The accidental project manager  :
You've created your schedule, everybody is busy working on the tasks that you've assigned them to, and you assume everything is going as planned.

That's your first mistake. No project goes as planned. There are problems, and you should start looking for them now rather than later. The longer you wait to find problems, the worse the problems get.

Keep the following in mind as you monitor the progress of your schedule.

*Create a baseline for your project    After you've created your schedule, consider creating a baseline for it. A baseline is similar to a version of your project that can be used to compare against the progress of your tasks. The baseline allows you to make a comparison between the original schedule and a later version.

*Collecting data manually    Although the fastest and easiest way to collect project status information is to by using Project Server, you might want to collect this information manually.
For example, you might not have Project Server installed, or your project might be so small that it takes you little time to collect the data yourself.
When you decide to collect project status data manually, remember that you also have to enter the data into your project plan manually.

Expect resistance Resistance to the formal tracking of project management data is normal. Fortunately, there are a few methods you can use to minimize this type of resistance.

Here are three simple steps to help you start monitoring your schedule.

1. Create a baseline for your project. Click the Project tab, and then click the Set Baseline.

2. Communicate, communicate, communicate. It is not easy for people to send you work status. Simple ways to get status would be during weekly team meetings or other stand-up meetings. Collecting status on a weekly basis is ideal for most projects. Collecting status more frequently than weekly, however, can be counterproductive. You can also set weekly reminders in Outlook 2010 to receive basic status information from people."

3. Use Team Planner. The Team Planner view in Project is designed to resolve many of the issues relating to who is doing what on your team. Bringing this view up in a team meeting can help expedite the process of gathering status information.

[H. M. Nasim]

More details: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/project-management-goal-track-progress-a291ec8b-d405-47c0-8cb3-77560bc918cd