Would you drive a car without a dashboard? Without a speedometer, a fuel gauge or even a route planner?
If this exercise seems complex or even dangerous, consider that managing a project without KPIs is just that. Admittedly, the consequences are not on the same scale. On the other hand, this deliberately hard-hitting example illustrates the importance of using KPIs to manage your projects.
To see the benefits, you need to learn how to use them appropriately.
We have therefore designed this guide to help you maximize the use of KPIs in project management, by also considering the monitoring indicator as a key element.
1. What are project management KPIs?
A KPI, or Key Performance Indicator, is a performance performance indicator. It generally takes the form of a number or percentage.
It can be used to measure project progress and facilitate decision-makingacting as a true monitoring indicator.
KPIs in Stafiz
2. Choose appropriate and relevant project management KPIs
A) Make an assessment
Make take stock of your project and capabilities as a company is a necessary step in choosing KPIs.
You must precisely identify :
Progress already made on the project
The data you have or can access
Collection and processing tools at your disposal
Resources forKPI analysis
Collecting KPIs means being able to read, analyze and analyze and interpret them. KPIs are tools designed to help you manage your project. adjustments and corrections.
B) Setting objectives
KPIs are performance indicators that sive objectives. Otherwise, they become so-called "vanity metrics", which only serve to flatter the ego, without helping project management.
Take the time to define what you want to achieve with their use. Here are some questions to help you identify goals:
What expectations do stakeholders have of the project's results?
Which indicator will define my project as a success?
What are the potential risks for my project?
What is the optimum frequency for measuring KPIs to ensure effective responsiveness?
C) Identify the data to be measured
SMART Method
Once you've determined your objectives, you need to define the data to be measured.
These must be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and temporarily limited. Otherwise: SMART.
Make sure your KPIs meet these requirements:
Linked to a lens
Understandable by all employees who use it
Customized to the needs of your company and, above all, your project.
Reducing selection to the bare minimum
Collecting and using KPIs in project management consumes resources. It requires time and staff: collection, processing, reading, analysis...
For this reason, avoid choosing a KPI because your colleagues or competitors use it.
If a KPI is not useful for your project management, there's no need for it! Choose KPIsthat are truly suitedto your project. Note that the more indicators you follow, the more itcomplicates your projectand increases your workload.
The 3 KPI groups
As mentioned in this article on defining evaluation criteria, measuring project performance requires 3 criteria: quality, deadlines, costs.
💡 Scroll right to see the 3 KPIs
1. Quality KPIs
These indicators measure degree of satisfaction and employee satisfaction.
Here are some examples of quality KPIs in project management:
Customer satisfaction
Net Promoter Score
The number of errors
The number of complaints
Employee turnover
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2. Deadline KPIs
As costs deadlines are often scrutinized to measure a project's success.
Here are some examples of KPIs for measuring deadlines in project management:
Here are some examples of KPIs for measuring costs in project management:
The budget gap
Actual cost
Return on Investment (ROI)
At Stafiz, we have developed our tool to facilitate the measurement of KPI deadlines.. For example, we can help you go one step further by enabling you to measure progress rate and task progress rate.
For us, invoicing is an integral part of project management. However, this aspect is often neglected. We offer you an indicator to identify everything that can be invoiced to date, and everything that remains to be invoiced.
In the same way, we are aware that costs represent one of the most strategic indicators. We have therefore developed this aspect in particular, enabling you to monitor and control your costs :
Calculate project profitability using gross margin, net margin and margin rate indicators. To find out more, read our article on calculating profitability.
Calculate sales forecasts using progress forecasts
Calculating production versus billing
Presentation of income statements for specific and consolidated activities
In addition, we offer granularity to analyze detailed costs by project, team or department.
Make sure the team is ready to work with the chosen KPIs.
Take the time to talk with your employees. You need to be sure that they understand the selected indicators and that they see the benefits of working with these tools.
What's more, you can be sure that you selected KPIs. After all, they need to be a reliable source of information you can rely on. This may require specific implementation:
Setting up collection tools
Dashboard creation
Collaboration with other stakeholders (e.g. technical teams)
3. Implement a follow-up strategy
A) Defining objectives
You have already defined objectives for the selection of your KPIs.
Here, you need to define objectives to support the implementation of your follow-up strategy.
What motivates you to track your KPIs? For example:
Improved delivery times
Lower production costs
Improving delivery quality
Developing a specific skill in an employee
B) Choosing the right tool
Once you have established your objectives, you can list your needs in order to compare and select tool that meets your needs. Consider the following elements:
Features and functions
Ease of use and deployment
The level of support available: the implementation of certain software applications requires a high level of expertise, and support may be necessary.
The price
At Stafiz, our strength lies in our ability to design design of an interface adapted on several levels:
Project management
Project portfolio management
Program management
Visit centralized information provides global visibility It eliminates the need for manual tracking from different sources. This is often time-consuming, tedious and inaccurate.
Finally, we offer dedicated support to help you clarify your needs and configure the tool according to your needs.
C) Day-to-day management
Day-to-day management the whole point of tracking KPIs in project management.
Building dashboards
Dashboards will prove to be invaluable tools for managing your projects thanks to KPIs. They enable you to group KPIsand make them readablevisual, to contrast them or provide more context by associating.
To find out more, read our article on creating dashboards for project management.
Get a consolidated view
At the micro level, KPIs will enable you to identify your progress in terms of deadlines, costs and objectives. At Stafiz, we've designed the product to provide you with an aggregate view of this information. This is particularly useful for program or portfolio management. The idea is to provide you with the information you need to help you organize and optimize your resources.
Managing projects grouped together in a program
This organization consists of managing a set of interconnected projectsaligned with and serving the company's strategic objectives.each other serving the company's strategic objectives.
Stafiz makes it possible to group several projects into a single program, and in particular helps to consolidate financial and billing data.
Managing a project portfolio
For project portfolio management, Stafiz offers a comprehensive overview of the situation. You'll be able to identify :
Time-defying projects
Projects that deviate from the margin
Projects that deviate at the task level
This project portfolio approach makes it possible to compare the performance one project against another. By analyzing what's working and what's not, you're part of a process of continuous improvement.
Coordinating human resources
Visit steering, resource optimization and satisfaction are strategic aspects of project management.
Stafiz has therefore developed functions to meet this need:
Resource allocation and planning
Notification and improved visibility for employees.
Information is better distributed. In this way, view management ensures that everyone has access to the right information according to their scope and rights. As a result, each employee is empowered.
Day-to-day management gives you all the skills you need to be flexible and adapt to lead the project to success.
Stafiz enables reactivity because the tool facilitates access to reliable, accurate data, all calculated automatically. Everything happens in in real time: you get an immediate overview of status and risk of deviation. Regular monitoring is essential to identify what's working and what needs to be improved.
Demonstrate flexibility and responsiveness
A project is bound to evolve. As a project, program or portfolio manager, your role is to identify areas for optimization.
Certain indicators can help you in this process. Evaluating the gaps between forecast and actual (in terms of time, budget and resources) will help you optimize your strategy.
To maximize the use of KPIs in project management, you need to precise definition of your objectives as well as a number of strategic choices.
Identify KPIs to your project and and choosing the right tool can be a real challenge. The right use of KPIs requires intensive preparationpreparation an accurate inventory and a constructive collaboration.
That said, strategically selected KPIs selected, collected and analyzed will enable you to manage your activities in order to adapt your strategy. At Stafiz, we've taken all these criteria into account to build a complete, flexible and efficient product for your project management.
