Project KPIs That Everyone Should Track
Key performance indicators (KPI) for project(s) is very crucial in project management as it helps project stakeholders in measuring the success or failure of project activities of their interest. In the previous post, we looked at important project KPIs which must be tracked on a regular basis. These KPIs need to designed and defined to track, evaluate progress of project activities towards project/department/organization goals agreed upon by important stakeholders.
Types of KPIs used differ based on various aspects such as
- Type of stakeholder involved
- Type of business
- Business operations/ strategies
- Management approach
In any case, the KPIs must be clearly defined according to SMART criteria (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound). ZilicusPM, project portfolio management software provides different ways to track KPIs for different stakeholders such as
- Project KPIs for project team members
- KPIs for project managers
- KPIs for portfolio managers
- KPIs for resource manager
- KPIs for project customers
Project KPIs That Everyone Should Track
Let’s look at project KPIs for project team members. As mentioned above, project KPIs are defined keeping business objectives, department goals in mind. KPIs can be really useful in driving highly performing team. For an individual project team members, s/he need to know whether s/he is making right progress for the activities assigned to him/her. So in the first place, project team member need to know and track project activities assigned to him/her. Typical KPIs for project team members are about project tasks, project issues, project risks, project changes, project timesheet, project expenses.
Although ideally, all projects should be managed holistically, it is possible that team members and in some cases project managers are not well versed with holistic way of managing projects. It is understandable and true for accidental project managers. ZilicusPM has a way wherein one can turn off the project management modules for the company, if team is not comfortable with. Of course, one can turn these modules again as and when team knows about say project risks, project changes, project issues, stakeholder management, time tracking, cost management, expenses tracking, etc. Essentially, ZilicusPM provides various project KPIs that everyone should track, including KPIs for project team members, project manager, portfolio manager, stakeholders, customers, resource managers.
Project KPIs That Everyone Should Track Using ZilicusPM
ZilicusPM enables tracking of various project KPIs applicable for project team members such as
KPIs That Project Team Member Can Track
Project Schedule KPIs for Team Member
Number of Pending Tasks for Me Across Projects
This KPI shows number of my pending tasks across multiple projects. Number of pending tasks for an individual team member is also an indicator of how many tasks one can manage or whether s/he is unable to manage. e.g. for certain type work, organization may say there can be 5–6 tasks which should be pending at any point in time. If there are more than 10 tasks, then there is something wrong with the assignment (team member or manager assigning those tasks).
ZilicusPM not only shows me the count of the pending tasks but also gives me the list of all pending tasks with more information like projects that each task below to, current status, when the task is due for completion; It also let team member update the task status, task progress, right on the page. Even one can enter time (time tracking) for any given week.
Number of Completed Tasks in a Project Assigned to Me
Project team members have tasks assigned to them; tasks have start date and due date. Ideally tasks should be completed before due date. Some organizations track number of completed tasks for a project at any point in time; it can be used as a basis to make payment on daily/weekly/monthly basis.
Number of Upcoming Tasks for Me in a Project
Even if a project team member has pending tasks on his/her name, s/he as a tendency to check and know; whether s/he has any upcoming task. It also works well for those who want to plan their activities for next few days or week. ZilicusPM gives you a way to know if you have any upcoming task in a given project and you can also check planned start date and due date.
My Tasks Scheduled in This Week
When a project team member come to office every Monday, s/he would like to know what s/he is expected to work in current week. ZilicusPM provides you a way to know tasks scheduled in current week. This view is available right on the home screen at the bottom portion. Again this view helps team member to plan their activities well.
My Meetings Scheduled in This Week
Above screenshot also shows project meetings scheduled in current week. This is also helpful for a team member to know what all project meetings s/he are scheduled in current week, whether to attend them, with what preparation /data s/he should have ready to attend the meeting.
Project Issues KPIs for Team Member
If your are a professional services, you keep working with your clients to deliver project, implement solutions for them. More often than not, you will keep receiving feedback, complaints, tickets from customers about the services being rendered. There is no better way than using issue tracking mechanism to track such reporting of problems, complaints or bugs (in case of software projects). KPIs about issue tracking become very important for the project as well as team members involved. ZilicusPM gives you the way to track issues, as well as KPIs around issues.
Number of Pending Issues Assigned to Me Across Projects
One such KPI is pending issues assigned to me. Team member needs to know how many issues that s/he is assigned and need to resolve. ZilicusPM shows number of pending issues for a given team member, right on his home screen of ZiliusPM application. S/he gets much clearer picture of those issues assigned and pending on his/her name. If your department KPIs are such that, there can not be more than 6 pending issues at any point in time, team members know what to expect or when to act, as far as issues are concerned.
Number of Active Issues Assigned to Me In a Project
When it comes to specific project, team members may also be asked for how many active issues s/he is working on, what is the status of those issues. ZilicusPM show pretty clearly the list of active issues assigned to that individual.
Number of Issues Reported by Me
If you know how team members in quality department work, or efficiency of quality measurement is evaluated; this KPI is pretty easy to understand. More often than not, project team members in the quality department are rewarded for high quality issues/bugs/incidents they report; it is done with the objective to improve quality of the product/service being launched/offered. This KPI for project team member can be used to measure efficiency of issue reporting.
Similar to above KPIs there are other KPIs used by organization to track issues closed by an individual team member; as well as number of active issues for a project team.
Number of Issues Closed on My Name
Number of Active Issues In a Project
Project Risk KPIs for Team Member
Number of Pending Risks Assigned to Me Across All Projects
Another KPI is pending risks assigned to me. Team member needs to know how many risks that s/he is assigned and need to work according to mitigation or contingency plan. ZilicusPM shows number of pending risks for a given team member, right on his home screen of ZiliusPM application. This list also shows risks which are submitted by team member and also pending for a project manager to review. However such risks will only get listed for the login of project manager as PM needs to review the risk and delegate to appropriate team member for further action.
Nevertheless, with this KPI project team member gets much clearer picture of those risks assigned and pending on his/her name. If your department KPIs are such that, there can not be more than 4 pending risks at any point in time, team members (and even project manager) know what to expect or when to act, as far as project risks are concerned.
Number of Risks Reported by Me
This KPI is similar to project issues but it is in the context of project risks. There are organization who acknowledge and reward team members, PMs who flag risks thoughtfully and in turn help organizations to have mitigation/contingency plan thereby saving resources (in certain cases project failure too). The KPI like number of risks reported by a team member used by organization to evaluate proactive risk management approach.
Number of Risk Assigned to Me
For an individual team member, if s/he knows number of risks assigned to him/her, can be well prepared to handle risks with guided mitigation or contingency planning. A department or organization may have a performance process wherein it can set a guidance of say maximum three risks could be assigned to an individual team member. This measure is helpful in tracking applicable KPI.
Number of Catastrophic Impact Risks Assigned to Me
What is more worrisome for a project with a risk having catastrophic impact and high probability. A team member if assigned a risks with catastrophic impact must know the severity and critical nature of the risks. If an organization has a KPI that not more than one catastrophic risks can assigned to a team member and it should not remain pending for more than four weeks.
There are other KPIs related to risks that a project team member can track using ZilicusPM
Number of Severe Impact Risks Assigned to Me
Number of Medium Impact Risks Assigned to Me
Number of Low Impact Risks Assigned to Me
Number of Insignificant Impact Risks Assigned to Me
Project Change Request KPIs for Team Members
If your organization offers professional services, you work with your clients to deliver project, implement solutions for them. More often than not, you will keep receiving change requests from customers for the product/services being rendered. There is no better way than using change management process to track change requests. KPIs about change requests can be important from the change management perspective as they may impact topline or bottomline or even team morale. ZilicusPM gives you the way to track changes, as well as KPIs related to change requests. Below is the list of some of these KPIs around project change request.
Number of Change Requests Reported by Me
Number of Change Requests Assigned to Me
Number of Change Requested Closed on My Name
Project Timesheet KPIs
Companies that deals with contractors (esp. hourly wage contractors), resource deployment in projects, you need a mechanism to track time spent by all your contract or regular resources or team members. If you want your ream members to regularly track time, you will need appropriate timesheet/ time tracking KPIs. ZilicusPM enables project team members track time as well as track KPIs around timesheet. Here are some of the KPIs you can use to track time keeping of your team members.
Number of Timesheet Submitted by Me
My Pending Timesheet
Number of Approved Timesheet Submitted by Me
Number of Rejected Timesheet Submitted by Me
Project Expenses KPIs
Similar to time keeping one can track project expenses. You can use ZilicusPM to set and track project expenses related KPIs. Below is the list of KPIs around project expense sheets.
Expense Submitted by Me
My Approved Expenses
My Rejected Expenses
My Reopend Expenses
Miscellaneous KPIs
Number of Pending Action Items from Meeting for Me
Number of Ongoing Projects for Me
My Non-Project Activities
Is there any other KPI you want for your project team members to track? Let us know about it. Next post we’ll look at KPIs that can be used by project managers.
Originally published at Zilicus Blog | Project Management Software.
