Project Management Metrics, KPIs, and Dashboards: A Guide to Measuring and Monitoring Project Performance
Year: 2017 Language: English Author: Harold Kerzner Genre: Research papers Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Edition: Third Edition ISBN: 9781119427322 Format: PDF Quality: eBook Pages count: 438 Description: The ultimate purpose of metrics and dashboards is not to provide more information but to provide the right information to the right person at the right time, using the correct media and in a cost-effective manner. This is certainly a challenge. As computer technology has grown, so has the ease with which information can be generated and presented to management and stakeholders. Today, everyone seems concerned about information overload. Unfortunately, the real issue is non-information overload. In other words, there are too many useless reports that cannot easily be read and that provide readers with too much information, much of which may have no relevance. This information simply distracts us from the real issues and accurate performance reporting. Furthermore, the growth in metric measurement techniques has encouraged us to measure everything regardless of its value as part of performance reporting. The purpose of status reporting is to show us what actions the viewer must consider. Insufficient or ineffective metrics prevent us from understanding what decisions really need to be made. In traditional project review meetings, emphasis is placed on a detailed schedule analysis and a lengthy review of the cost baseline versus actual expenditures. The resulting discussion and explanation of the variances are most frequently pure guesswork. Managers who are upset about the questioning by senior management then make adjustments that do not fix the problems but limit the time they will be grilled by senior management at the next review meeting. They then end up taking actions that may be counterproductive to the timely completion of the project, and real issues are hidden. For decades we believed that the only information that needed to be passed on to the client and the stakeholders was information related to time and cost. Today we realize that the true project status cannot be determined from time and cost alone. Each project may require its own unique metrics and KPIs. The future of project management may very well be metric-driven project management. Information design has finally come of age. Effective communications is the essence of information design. Today we have many small companies that are specialists in business information design. Larger companies may maintain their own specialist team and call these people graphic designers, information architects, or interaction designers. These people maintain expertise in the visual display of both quantitative and qualitative information necessary for informed decision making. Traditional communications and information flow has always been based on tables, charts, and indexes that were, it is hoped, organized properly by the designer. Today information or data graphics combines points, lines, charts, symbols, images, words, numbers, shades, and a symphony of colors necessary to convey the right message easily. What we know with certainty is that dashboards and metrics are never an end in themselves. They go through continuous improvement and are constantly updated. In a project management environment, each receiver of information can have different requirements and may request different information during the life cycle of the project. With this in mind, the book is structured as follows: ■ Chapters 1 and 2 identify how project management has changed over the last few years and how more pressure is being placed on organizations for effective metrics management. ■ Chapter 3 provides an understanding of what metrics are and how they can be used. ■ Chapter 4 discusses key performance indications and explains the difference between metrics and KPIs. ■ Chapter 5 focuses on the value-driven metrics and value-driven KPIs. Stakeholders are asking for more metrics related to the project’s ultimate value. The identification and measurement of value-driven metrics can be difficult. ■ Chapter 6 describes how dashboards can be used to present the metrics and KPIs to stakeholders. Examples of dashboards are included together with some rules for dashboard design. ■ Chapter 7 identifies dashboards that are being used by companies. ■ Chapter 8 provides various business-related metrics that are currently used by portfolio management project management offices to ensure that the business portfolio is delivering the business value expected.
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Project management metrics- KPIs- and dashboards _ a guide to measuring and monitoring project performance.pdf
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Project Management Metrics, KPIs, and Dashboards: A Guide to Measuring and Monitoring Project Performance
Language: English
Author: Harold Kerzner
Genre: Research papers
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Edition: Third Edition
ISBN: 9781119427322
Format: PDF
Quality: eBook
Pages count: 438
Description: The ultimate purpose of metrics and dashboards is not to provide more information but to provide the right information to the right person at the right time, using the correct media and in a cost-effective manner. This is certainly a challenge. As computer technology has grown, so has the ease with which information can be generated and presented to management and stakeholders. Today, everyone seems concerned about information overload. Unfortunately, the real issue is non-information overload. In other words, there are too many useless reports that cannot easily be read and that provide readers with too much information, much of which may have no relevance. This information simply distracts us from the real issues and accurate performance reporting. Furthermore, the growth in metric measurement techniques has encouraged us to measure everything regardless of its value as part of performance reporting. The purpose of status reporting is to show us what actions the viewer must consider. Insufficient or ineffective metrics prevent us from understanding what decisions really need to be made. In traditional project review meetings, emphasis is placed on a detailed schedule analysis and a lengthy review of the cost baseline versus actual expenditures. The resulting discussion and explanation of the variances are most frequently pure guesswork. Managers who are upset about the questioning by senior management then make adjustments that do not fix the problems but limit the time they will be grilled by senior management at the next review meeting. They then end up taking actions that may be counterproductive to the timely completion of the project, and real issues are hidden. For decades we believed that the only information that needed to be passed on to the client and the stakeholders was information related to time and cost. Today we realize that the true project status cannot be determined from time and cost alone. Each project may require its own unique metrics and KPIs. The future of project management may very well be metric-driven project management. Information design has finally come of age. Effective communications is the essence of information design. Today we have many small companies that are specialists in business information design. Larger companies may maintain their own specialist team and call these people graphic designers, information architects, or interaction designers. These people maintain expertise in the visual display of both quantitative and qualitative information necessary for informed decision making. Traditional communications and information flow has always been based on tables, charts, and indexes that were, it is hoped, organized properly by the designer. Today information or data graphics combines points, lines, charts, symbols, images, words, numbers, shades, and a symphony of colors necessary to convey the right message easily. What we know with certainty is that dashboards and metrics are never an end in themselves. They go through continuous improvement and are constantly updated. In a project management environment, each receiver of information can have different requirements and may request different information during the life cycle of the project. With this in mind, the book is structured as follows:
■ Chapters 1 and 2 identify how project management has changed over the last few years and how more pressure is being placed on organizations for effective metrics management.
■ Chapter 3 provides an understanding of what metrics are and how they can be used.
■ Chapter 4 discusses key performance indications and explains the difference between metrics and KPIs.
■ Chapter 5 focuses on the value-driven metrics and value-driven KPIs. Stakeholders are asking for more metrics related to the project’s ultimate value. The identification and measurement of value-driven metrics can be difficult.
■ Chapter 6 describes how dashboards can be used to present the metrics and KPIs to stakeholders. Examples of dashboards are included together with some rules for dashboard design.
■ Chapter 7 identifies dashboards that are being used by companies.
■ Chapter 8 provides various business-related metrics that are currently used by portfolio management project management offices to ensure that the business portfolio is delivering the business value expected.
Contents
Screenshots
Project management metrics- KPIs- and dashboards _ a guide to measuring and monitoring project performance.pdf
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