Estimating project effort and duration is a core element of any project planning.

The goal of effective project management is to complete the project on schedule. The accuracy of the overall project program therefore depends on the precision of the effort and duration estimates.

What is effort?

In simple terms, effort is simply the amount of hours that workers spend, focused on a particular task, to achieve a particular result.

Effort is often expressed in hours, days or weeks spent by workers.

Stakeholders often want to know how much a project will cost. This mainly depends on how much time the project members spend on the project.

So here is a simple example to explain this concept:

To paint a house you need 6 hours a day of work for 9 days.  The effort  is therefore the amount of time you spend in a day multiplied by the number of days of work required, in this case 54 hours. The effort is therefore 54 hours.

Not just Effort but also time factor

Time is a unique, non-renewable and irreplaceable resource. Time estimation and management can therefore create or destroy a project. It is essential that the project manager knows how to approach them.

It is also important to estimate the time correctly, for two main reasons:

• Project planning and delivery deadlines are based on estimated project duration. An inadequate estimate translates into delivery times that go beyond the expected timescales and may not only affect the company’s financial performance, but may also raise doubts about the project manager’s competence and reliability.
• Deadlines also determine the prices of contracts that, if not met, can affect project profitability.

Often, however, it can be difficult to understand the major difference between effort and duration. So let’s clarify it.

What does duration mean?

Duration is the time required to perform any specific task.

Duration is measured in hours, days, weeks, months, or years and can only be calculated after determining what type and how many resources will go to perform the given task.

Duration is defined as the entire time it takes to complete a specific task, based on the resources allocated to the project.

It is typically measured from when the task begins to the day the task ends definitively. It does not include the free time of resources such as vacations or other non-working days.

Using the same example used in the effort case – painting a house – where you work 6 hours a day for 3 days, the duration for this task will then be 3 days.

Effort and duration relationship

Only when you have an estimate of the effort, you can assess the duration.

This is directly related to the construction of a draft program and involves deciding how many people and resources will be included in the project.

The staffing can, to a certain degree, be changed during the life cycle of the project, but it is necessary to remember that there is a minimum duration required for some activities. For example, it is impossible to make a child in one month by employing nine women to work on the task.

Project effort and duration example

Let’s use as an example a small painting job of a house.

Requirements and estimates

 1 working day = 8 working hours. It means that the painter(s) will work 8 hours a day.

• The job has an estimated duration of 4 working days with only 1 painter working.
• There are many painters available to perform the task and all painters are equally productive. The quantity and quality of the work would then be the same for each painter.

Duration

If 1 painter works, the duration of the job will be 4 working days or 32 working hours.

If 2 painters work, the duration of the job will be 2 working days or 16 working hours.

If 4 painters work, the duration of the job will be one working day or 8 working hours.

Effort

If 1 painter works, the effort for the job will be 4 days/person or 32 hours/person.

If 2 painters work, the effort for the job will still be 4 days/person or 32 hours/person.

If 4 painters work, the effort will always be the same as before, 4 days/person or 32 hours/person.

Project effort and duration relationship

The relationship between the effort of the project and its duration can be better explained using the following formula:

Effort = Duration * Number of resources

This formula will not work every time, but it gives a good idea of the relationship between effort and duration of a project.

The formula will only work if:

• The work can be easily distributed among many resources.
• Resources are not dependant between each other.
• All resources productivity is considered equal.

Conclusions

When working on a project that has a deadline, understanding and accounting for the difference between duration and effort will allow the project manager to plan the time to dedicate to all activities and meet the deadline.

Moreover, only when project effort and duration will be estimated, it will be possible for the project manager to create the cost estimate.

Effort and duration therefore become two key aspects project planning.

In project management, reporting tools can help you achieve efficient and effective communication.

Communication plays a fundamental role in any work process as well as in everyday life.

Whatever the scenario, you always find yourself transmitting a message or an opinion.

There are several reports that are carefully designed so that the communication about the progress of the project is clear, accurate and effective.

In this article we will examine the project manager’s reporting tools in greater detail.

Why is the reporting system imperative?

In the foreword we have already clearly stated the need for effective communication.

This becomes even more important within an organization and in project management.

Thanks to an effective reporting system, the project manager should no longer worry too much about updating the various stakeholders directly and personally.

With an established project management reporting system, you will have a scheduled and formal reporting process that will allow you to update stakeholders on all aspects of the project they need to be informed about.

In this way, you can protect project team members and stakeholders from any unforeseen issues.

Reports are used to learn about the progress of the project and the pace at which it is being carried out.

Also, you can understand what is preventing the project from moving faster and you have the ability to analyze various aspects of the project management plan.

Besides being one of the central aspects of communication, project management reporting can be effectively used by the project manager to maintain a documented history of the project and its processes.

With this “time” documentation, you can carry out analysis to learn lessons, evaluate processes and learn the strengths and weaknesses of how the project was approached.

To briefly recap, the project management reporting should be:

• The successful communication link between all the different stakeholders of the project and the organization
• The collection of important data and information about the project
• The system that guarantees the reception of information from the necessary personnel whenever necessary
• The cornerstone of the project organization’s understanding of the project, its management, its plan and its goal

The 5 main reporting tools for project managers

1. Activity sheet

One of the most important reports for a project manager is definitely the activity tab.

This report will include all the details about the time it takes for resources to work on the project.

The activity sheet, specifically, can keep the following details under control:

• Time invested by each team member
• Work completed on a given day, week or month
• Responsibilities of each team member with regard to their assigned task
• Resource overload or underutilization in the project

This way a project manager gains a thorough idea of the time and effort spent on the completion of a particular activity or the entire project.

 2. Cost and expense reports

Sometimes your perception can be fooled! A project may seem to run as planned, team members work well and activities proceed as scheduled, and deadlines are met.

When the project is completed, however, there comes a time to piece together the total expenses on the project and, surprisingly, it turns out that the cost incurred is well beyond the budget allocated for the project.

In this way, what was thought to be a successful project is actually a loss-making project.

The solution is to make use of a report that includes expenses and project costs and which will be updated frequently.

This report can be accessed by the project manager and stakeholders who approve budgets and the expenditure accounting, whether large or small, should be done in real time.

3. Project Status Report

The project status report will include:

• Completed work
• Delayed expiry date
• Planning variation
• Cost variation
• Problem monitoring
• Risk monitoring
• Pending activities

Besides these aspects, you can add further information relevant to the project in question.

It should be noted, however, that this report should not be too detailed, but should give this information directly, clearly and concisely.

For more information about the various matters, you can hold a dedicated meeting.

4. Resource workload report

Similar to the activity sheet, the resource workload report will keep track of the amount of work assigned to each member of the project team.

Here at TwProject, we have human resources at heart, the core of the successful project, and that’s why we have hypothesized a series of dedicated tools and actions.

 

This report is highly beneficial to the project manager whether in tasks or job assignments.

5. Portfolio reports

This is a report specifically intended for those project managers who manage more than one project at the same time.

This document will show the number of projects that the project manager is managing and will ensure that the important dates of each one are next to the right project, so as to ensure an overview.

This is a fairly schematic report and may be optional for many, but in many cases it may be beneficial to the project manager to keep track of all their projects and what needs their attention at that particular time.

How a software can help?

Project reports are therefore not just checklists, they are much more than that, so how would be great to have a software giving you all the information about your projects during every main step of its life cycle?

Project reporting means keeping communication with stakeholders open, solving problems before they occur and ensuring high quality results.

A project management software like Twproject could give you all the features to monitor and report project progress, costs, work done and so on.

Ultimately, the project reporting system can create historical data to improve future planning and enable comparisons.

 

The quality plan is often overlooked in project development, yet it is strategic in defining the course and results, let’s see how.

CONTENT

• What information should a project plan include?
• What is project quality planning?
• Project quality plan model development

All projects, at their end, must produce / provide something, the so-called project output.

In the start-up phase, the client and the project manager, along with the project team, jointly set the project goals and timelines for completion.

The project deliveries must therefore meet certain general industry quality standards as well as customer-specific requirements.

Therefore, all project outputs – whether they are one or many – must be validated and verified prior to delivery to the client.

The quality should not only affect the output, but also the processes and activities that produce these results.

Generally speaking, if the processes and activities that produce the deliverables do not meet quality standards, it is very likely that the output will not meet the delivery quality standards.

Thus, the quality plan becomes an essential document for the project.

This plan acts as a “quality bible” for the project and all stakeholders should agree to it.

The project’s quality management plan will determine the relevant quality requirements and standards that project deliverables must meet and will define a plan on how to meet them.

In short, it means providing a defect-free product developed with the highest efficiency.

What information should a project plan include?

In order for the plan to be complete, there are a series of information that should not be overlooked. We have drawn up the following list of data to be included in a quality management plan:

• Describe project objectives and quality expectations in general.
• Determine the organization’s quality policies (e.g., ISO 9001 certification) and outline how these policies will apply to the project.
• Identify other quality criteria or policies that must be adhered to and complied with, such as customer or investor requirements.
• Describe how quality requirements will extend throughout the supply chain.
• Define acceptability criteria for project deliverables.
• Define quality management roles and responsibilities.
• Identify which standards will be applied.
• Identify and list the quality metrics that need to be monitored.
• Describe monitoring and reporting processes to provide constant improvement.
• Describe design and review processes.
• Describe testing and quality assurance processes.
• Describe the processes for dealing with defects.
• Describe project acceptance processes.

What is project quality planning?

Project quality planning can be a challenging process, but it allows an organization to clearly set quality requirements and document all necessary procedures for managing expectations in this regard.

The development of a quality plan model is thus a key activity. Without a complete project quality plan it is almost impossible to implement the project and deliver the product on time, within budget and according to stakeholders’ requirements.

Project quality planning is one of the key elements of strategic project management; it is the starting point to create a link between stakeholder expectations and product requirements.

There are several inputs involved in running the project quality planning process. These are:

• Scope statement,
• Stakeholder requirements,
• A list of identified and described risks (the so-called “risk register”)
• Project implementation program.

By using all this input information, the project manager, supported by their team, should develop a model project quality plan.

Project quality plan model development

Although each project is unique, a standard approach can still be used for the development of a quality plan model.

Here are the key steps:

1) Collect input data

As already mentioned, in order to develop a model project quality plan, it is necessary to collect input information, including the scope statement, stakeholder requirements, risk register and the project implementation program. The project manager and the team must ask for all the necessary information and collect the requirements for the product.

2) Set quality parameters

Here you must decide which metrics and parameters will be applied to analyze data and activities throughout the project lifecycle.

3) Analyze data

As soon as the input information is collected, the next step is to perform a cost-benefit analysis. This analysis will help to review all the costs that will be involved in the project and all the benefits stated during the project setup phase. Quality planning activities are aimed at meeting quality requirements within the planned costs and reported benefits. Simply put, the cost of each activity should be compared with the expected benefit and, according to the quality parameters chosen, the ratio should be at least satisfactory.

4) Perform quality control

Throughout the project lifecycle, quality metrics will have to be observed and it will be essential to establish how to control these characteristics during the project implementation process. You can use checklists and templates to guarantee consistency in quality metrics and to take control of the expected quality performance.

5) Progettazione del piano di miglioramento

The ultimate step in developing a model project quality plan is to create an improvement plan that outlines the actions to analyze quality performance and identify activities to improve the value of the project / product. This plan usually includes steps and reasons to apply changes to the project, product setup or process metrics.

 

Ultimately, a quality plan is a fundamental document in a project to ensure its success.

It is about creating a foundation for setting requirements and identifying quality procedures.

Just as in a project you have defined objectives and results, so the quality metrics must also be well set.

Measuring costs and benefits of a project isn’t something that can be left to the feelings of the Project Manager. We are talking about the essence of the company’s business and therefore we need certain elements on which to make assessments.

When managing a project, in fact, you need to make many key decisions.

There’s always something that needs to be done and often it is crucial to the success of the project and the organization itself.

Because of the high stakes, good managers do not only make decisions based on instinct, but prefer to minimize risk to the best of their ability and only act when there is more certainty than uncertainty.

But how is this possible with myriad variables and with an ever changing economy?

The solution is to seek concrete data with reporting tools, graphs and spreadsheets, even better with the help of project management software.

Thus, you can use this data to assess your decisions with a process called cost-benefit analysis (CBA).

A smart use of cost-benefit analysis will help minimize risk and maximize gains for both the project specifically and the organization in general.

What is cost-benefit analysis?

Jules Dupuit, a French engineer and economist, introduced the concepts behind the cost-benefit analysis in the 1840s.

This method became very popular in the 1950s; a simple way to evaluate the costs and benefits of a project and, therefore, to determine whether to carry on (or not) with a project.

As the name suggests, cost-benefit analysis involves summing the benefits of a course of action and comparing them with the costs associated with it.

The results of the analysis are often expressed as a payback period, the time it takes for the benefits to pay off.

Many people who use it, in fact, search for a payback within less than a specific period.

You can use this technique in a number of situations. For example, when you want to:

• Decide whether to hire new team members.
• Consider a new project or change initiative.
• Determine feasibility of a capital purchase.

The cost-benefit analysis for project management is an additional tool available that the project manager can make use of.

Cost-benefit analysis purpose

The purpose of the analysis is to have a methodical approach to understand the pros and cons of the various possible options for a project, including transactions, activities, business requirements and investments.

In short, the cost-benefit analysis offers options and the best approach to achieve the goal while saving on investment.

There are two main goals to be achieved with the use of this analysis:

• Determine whether the project is sound, justifiable and feasible, assessing whether its benefits outweigh its costs.
• Offer a base for comparison of projects by determining which benefits are greater than their costs.

How to use cost-benefit analysis

Here are the steps to perform a cost-benefit analysis.

1) Brainstorming on benefits and costs

Although there are some guidelines on how to draw up a project budget, it is always necessary to spend time thinking about all the costs associated with the project and make a list of them, including any unexpected costs (the ones you can think of).

Then, you will do the same for all the benefits of the project, including any potential unforeseen benefits.

2) Give a financial value to the costs

Costs include both the price of the required physical resources and the cost of manpower involved in all stages of a project.

Costs are often relatively easier to estimate than revenues.

It is important to think of as many related costs as possible. For example, how much will it cost to train team members?

Will there be a decrease in productivity while people are learning a new system or technology and how much will it cost?

Also, it is important to consider the costs that will continue to be incurred once the project is completed.

3) Give a financial value to the advantages

This step is less simple than the second one: first, it is often very difficult to accurately predict revenues, especially for new products.

Second, along with the expected financial benefits, there are often intangible benefits that are still important results of the project.

For example, what is the impact on the environment, employee satisfaction or health and safety? What is the financial value of this impact?

 

For example, is the preservation of an ancient monument worth $500,000 or is it worth $5,000,000 because of its historical significance? Or, what is the value of a stress-free trip to work in the morning?

In these cases, it is also important to discuss with other interested parties and decide how to assess these intangible elements.

4) Compare costs and benefits

The last step is to compare costs with benefits and use this analysis to decide what course of action to take.

For this, calculate the total costs and total benefits and compare the two values to determine whether the benefits exceed the costs.

At this point, it is important to consider the payback time of the investment, to find out how long it will take to reach the “break even point”, i.e. the time when the benefits will pay off the costs.

A simple example, considering a situation where the same benefits are collected in each period, is to calculate the payback period by dividing the total expected cost of the project by the total expected revenues. This way:

Total cost / total income (or benefits) = duration (depreciation period).

How to consider the cost-benefit analysis

The data collected is used to help determine whether the project will have a positive or negative consequence.

It is essential to keep the following aspects in mind when evaluating this information:

• What are the effects on users?
• What are the effects on non-users?
• Are there any external effects?
• Is there a social benefit?

It is also important to take into account the time-value of the money spent. This can be done by converting expected future costs and benefits into current rates.

Of course, there is a risk intrinsic to any business and the risk and uncertainty must always be considered.

This can be calculated with the theory of probability.

Uncertainty is different from risk, but can be assessed using a sensitivity analysis to show how the results meet parameter changes.

How accurate is cost-benefit analysis?

The short answer is that the analysis will be as accurate as the data entered in the process.

Some inaccuracies are caused by:

• Relying too much on data collected from past projects, especially when these differ in purpose, size, etc. from what you are working on
• Using subjective insights during evaluation
• Improper use of heuristics (problem solving that employs a practical method that is not guaranteed) to obtain the cost of the intangibles variables
• Confirmation bias or use only data that supports what you want to find

Generally speaking, a cost-benefit analysis is more suitable for small and medium-sized projects that do not take too long to be completed.

In these cases, the analysis can lead the people involved to make appropriate decisions.

For large projects that run for a long period of time, there may be a number of problematic external factors that need to be taken into account in a cost-benefit analysis, such as: inflation, interest rates, etc.,

There are other methods that complement the cost-benefit analysis in the evaluation of larger projects.

Overall, however, the use of this methodology is a crucial step in determining whether or not a project is worth pursuing.

Cost-benefit analysis reliability

The cost-benefit analysis also suffers from reliability when a project has cash flows that vary from period to period.

Furthermore, the revenue that will be generated by a project can be very difficult to predict and the value that people attribute to intangible benefits can be very subjective.

Also, the production of a cost-benefit analysis requires a thorough awareness of project risks.

The intangible benefits analyzed can easily be underestimated or overestimated.

The benefits might also not arise or the risk that the benefit will not be achieved is too high.

The risk has two main factors that compose it:

Risk = Probability x Gravity

Here the level of risk of an event is proportional to the probability of its occurrence and the level of risk of an event is proportional to the size of the impact it generates.

For example, the office in which the project team works could be destroyed by an aircraft (a “risk event”).

The probability is clearly very low, but the severity is very high.

However, for most people the low probability outweighs the high severity, which leads to the conclusion that this risk event is not worth creating a risk response plan.

 

Ultimately, cost-benefit analysis is a data-based process and must be tackled appropriately.

With the help of sufficiently robust project management software, it will be possible to collect, analyze and distribute information effectively, so that the greatest possible benefit can be gained from a cost-benefit analysis.

An update report on the status of the project is a core part of every successful communication strategy and project management to update the team and all stakeholders.

Many project managers are likely to use certain project management models or programs or software to manage projects who generate the reports directly.

Whatever format is used, compliance with a regular and formalized process is essential and saves time and costly data errors.

In addition, by being consistent in the reporting process, it keeps everyone aware of the information they can expect on a regular basis.

As a project manager, you need to create regular status updates to inform stakeholders about the progress of the project. We will see how in this article.

How to create effective status updates

Reporting on project status updates is a way to keep track of and manage the project, as well as distributing this data to those parties who need it.

It is a vital communication tool and can provide a documented project history, which consequently simplifies the planning of future work.

Some other objectives of status updates include:

• Improve communications within the organization
• Simplify communication process
• Keeping stakeholders informed
• Provide key messages to the intended target audience
• Improve organizational team support

Whether the status update is sent face-to-face during a meeting or by e-mail, it is always a good idea to know the best practices in this area:

1. Communicate: status update reports are part of the communication plan. These should not be used to communicate everything about the project, but should be used to provide the right data to the appropriate party at the right time.

2. Consistency: use the same format, distribution cycle and method, without getting things confused.

3. Set metrics: when planning the project, You need to have this method figured out clearly about how to measure your progress and then follow it while reporting project status updates.

4. Simplify: the report must be effective, so it must not be filled with unnecessary details in order not to confuse stakeholders.

5. Verify: the audience does not want opinions or unsupported facts, so it is only necessary to report objective data and talk about what is of interest to stakeholders.

What to include in a project status update

Here are some of the things you will need to include in a project status update.

1. General project information

First of all, the foundations will have to be established: what is the name of the project? Who is the project manager? What is the number of resources? All this information is essential to keep track of the project throughout its lifecycle. Do not assume that all stakeholders are familiar with this information.

2. General status information

Here you will include what the general status of the project is, if it is – generally speaking – in line with the program or if it is going off track. The traffic light method, for example, uses red, yellow, and green color coding to indicate the status of the entire project:

Green = On track

Yellow = Struggling

Red = Requires immediate attention

3. Milestones review

Milestones are the main phases of a project. These are a good way to break the larger project into smaller, more manageable parts. In a project status update you should present where you are in relation to those milestones.

4. Project milestone outline

Include a brief overview of the expected completion date and costs of the project – at the current time.

5. Problems and risks

Also be sure to include the activities that are having problems and how they might impact on the deadline and costs, what you are planning to do to solve these problems and what the results will be once they will be solved.

6. Project metrics

It is vital to back up the report with tangible figures to objectively demonstrate the statements you are making. These status reporting metrics, as mentioned above, must be agreed upon during the project planning phase. It is impossible to know if the project is successful without measuring its effectiveness with data that can be compared over time. These metrics are a way to show whether you are on the right track and to assess what, if any, may require attention.

Status Updates: Last tips

Be concise and organized

Planning project status update meetings in advance will be very helpful to get a successful meeting. Any discussion must be relevant to the topic and any other problems or questions that may arise must be brought up at another time – unless there is an urgent reason not to do so.

Manage questions and concerns

Questions and doubts are legitimate and do not represent a challenge to the authority and role of the project manager. Therefore, a defensive response is not just a waste of time, but is inappropriate and jeopardizes the professional position of a project coordinator. It is important to listen openly and respond to questions and concerns, even if they have been addressed before. No question is “stupid” or nonsensical.

Admit when you don’t have all the answers

If you don’t know something, you must say it. You can’t have all the answers – unless it comes from poor preparation. But it is the job of a project manager to know HOW to get the answers. So, you need to have a process to follow and offer a deadline for a thorough answer.

Little time spent on small talk and chatting to get to know each other

In general, during a meeting dedicated to project status updates, the focus of the meeting is clear and, as mentioned above, any discussion outside of this issue should be addressed in another setting. However, if, for example, there are new people in the group, it is important to introduce them, so a few precious minutes can be invested at the beginning of the meeting for this kind of informal talk.

Status Updates: Conclusions

Ultimately, we can say that reports on project status updates are a key part of project management.

In most cases, therefore, it is important to have a method that saves valuable time and makes reports easier to build and more accurate to present, providing the right data at the right time to the right people.

The tips and best practices detailed in this article will certainly help you when preparing a project status update report.

Ethics for a project manager is a very modern topic and highly relevant to their career, although talking about ethics may seem to be something much more relevant to an ancient branch of philosophy.

Ethics covers, in fact, many aspects of the PM’s work: it is not sufficient to know the technical methodologies, but it is necessary to know how to apply them in an appropriate way to the difficult dilemmas of the real world.

What makes this particularly difficult is that, unlike processes and methods, there are no rigid and fast rules on what is right and wrong.

People, politics and moral questions are often chaotic and confusing, so guidance is needed.

And that’s the role of a project manager’s code of ethics and professional conduct.

What is ethics?

Simply put, ethics can be summed up as follows: making the right choices.

However, it is not always easy to know what the right thing to do is; sometimes you have to face tough moral dilemmas, where there is no single good choice between a lot of bad options and, often, there are only nuances of compromise.

Many people find it difficult to accept ethical ambiguity because it forces them to take responsibility for their choices and actions, rather than following convenient and settled rules and customs.

That’s why a code of ethics can provide the principles that can help to make choices in a consistent way.

By consistent we mean consistency with oneself, with the prevailing norms in culture, society, organization and professional community.

So…

What are the ethical dilemmas that a project manager faces?

The main ethical challenges a Project Manager will face in their career include:

• Building a “good” professional career.
• Properly assert their rights and at the same time defend those of the people around them.
• Meet their responsibilities with fairness and respect towards all parties concerned.
• Determine what is right and wrong, especially when it is necessary to balance different interests.
• Operate with honesty and integrity, especially where your interests may conflict with those of other stakeholders.

Why should a Project Manager act ethically?

At first glance, one could “earn” more by acting out of self-interest. However, this advantage resulting from unethical conduct is likely to be short-lived.

The benefits of good ethical conduct are long-term.

This will help you build a lasting and sustainable career because many of the opportunities you gain (or lose) depend on your reputation.

Here are three main benefits of following a code of ethics:

1. Ethics as moral map: A project manager will face many choices in their career that they will not be able to determine from a purely technical point of view. A code of ethics will therefore provide a consistent basis for making these choices.

2. Ethics as a tool for thinking: It is often difficult to judge who is right in a discussion when both sides can support their point of view with sound technical arguments. Both positions might equally lead to acceptable results, but sometimes the difference lies in the domain of ethics rather than reason. Here ethics will help to isolate the core of choice.

3. Ethics as source of professional benefit: The project manager needs team members, and the organization in general, to trust them and their work. So behaving ethically – as well as credibly – helps to build this indispensable professional trust.

The 8 elements of professional ethics

As project manager there are in particular 8 elements of professional ethics to be taken into account:

1. Integrity

Integrity can be summarized in these simple concepts:

• Doing what’s right, not what’s easy.
• Honoring commitments and promises given.
• Being the person you say you are.

2. Respect

When you treat team members and other people with respect, ethical behavior becomes much easier – almost automated. Difficulties arise when an action that respects one person or group will necessarily make another person feel less respected.

3. Discretion

Always related to respect, but in particular with regard to privacy, the feelings of others and confidential information and intellectual property of the organization.

4. Responsibility

Everybody makes mistakes, even the project manager. There is no problem with that if the person who made the mistake also takes responsibility and learns the lesson.

5. Honesty

Of course, we should not repeat that, as professionals, we must act honestly, but unfortunately episodes of dishonesty, even serious ones, are not so rare.

6. Openness

Openness goes hand in hand with honesty, but one thing is not lying, another is telling the whole truth. A good project manager requires transparency and complete openness with stakeholders if you want to make solid choices and that everyone has all the information available. If it is not an informed decision, it is not a sound decision.

7. Equity

When you sense something unfair, it is natural to experience feelings ranging from mild irritation to real anger. Therefore, the project manager should take an impartial position in any decision-making process and treat all people with equal respect.

8. Generosity

This does not necessarily mean physical generosity with gifts, rather it is generosity of spirit.

It is important to be aware that professional codes of conduct inevitably incorporate ethical standards that derive from the prevailing culture within which the organization that created them is located.

And each culture has its own set of ethical and moral standards.

While people are essentially the same all over the world, our cultural backgrounds differ dramatically, through influences such as history, geography, religion and politics.

That is why the project manager who is faced with an international team must also take this into account.

Looking at the last condition, we can still conclude that the code of ethics for a project manager is a valuable tool that defines a guideline in deciding what should and should not be done in every situation.

Project management metrics are fundamental to implementing sustainable project management practices and processes in any organization.

The key is to keep them simple and relevant to the organization.

Project management metrics are also central for improving the way projects are managed and delivered, as well as showing improvements over time in project management maturity.

Project management metrics help to:

• Measure and understand the maturity of the organization
• Manage projects and resources more effectively
• Show performance improvement over time

 

All metrics should be:

• Simple and logic for the organization
• Clearly, correctly and unambiguously measurable
• Supported by real data

 

There are some key requirements and guidelines for the consistent implementation and measurement of the project management metrics and these are:

• Repeatable and sustainable project management processes
• Process compliance monitoring
• Data collection through the use of a project management tool
• Timely and unambiguous communication of the baseline and any subsequent changes in metrics or the data collection process
• Not having too many metrics, especially if they are similar

 

The implementation of the project management metrics will have to address some challenges that need to be managed with appropriate processes and controls:

• As compliance improves, figures may not change or show improvement initially
• If the metric definition or measurement process is changed, data from previous years should be recalculated.
• If the base data changes, the metrics also change and must be recalculated.

6 relevant metrics for project management

Several project management metrics can be defined according to the objective and complexity of a project.

However, the following six metrics generally encompass the most important measures:

 

• Productivity: this metric allows project managers to measure the use of a project’s resources. Compare the total effort with the planned effort, which has a direct impact on profits. Delays in timing, staff or supplier under-performance and unavoidable circumstances can affect productivity metrics.

 

• Project scope: the project scope is usually defined directly, but changes and additions can shift even the efforts of the best project manager. You need to keep track of change requests to control them and keep the project on time and within budget.

 

• Quality and customer satisfaction: quality assurance is a real customer-oriented metric. Ensuring low defects throughout the project, as well as acceptable quality in the end, should be one of the goals of every job. Early detection of defects can also help prevent the failure of the whole project. Don’t forget that customer satisfaction in a project is always essential.

 

• Employee satisfaction: just as the end customer must be satisfied, so must the employees and team members working on the project. The morale of employees is directly related to the success of the project. Research has shown that a satisfied employee works better and more efficiently. High employee turnover costs, ranging from 50% to 200% of an employee’s salary, should also be sufficient reason to care about people working directly on a project. Here you can find good suggestions on how to motivate the project team.

 

• Cost: cost analysis and management is often vital to the success of a project. Cost management is related to other variables, such as quality, scope and productivity, so if it varies above or below projections, the project may be affected. Typically, costs are closely observed throughout the project, so if costs increase unexpectedly, variables such as scope or time are adjusted and the project can still achieve its objectives.

 

• Gross margin: Normally, the final objective of a project is to contribute to the organization by increasing its profits. The gross margin is the difference between the total income generated and the total costs spent on the project. A project should have a target gross margin established in the planning phases of the project and should be measured throughout the project life cycle. Project managers who reach or even exceed the target gross margins are often extremely valuable.

Monitoring these six project management metrics can help project managers gain greater control and, consequently, a better chance of success.

Over time, organizations can obtain information about which methods are successful and which require more precise fine-tuning in their specific case.

Project metrics implementation

Once the metrics have been clearly established to meet an organization’s needs, it’s time to start implementing them.

The first step is to communicate with all stakeholders to help them understand the process, its significance and how metrics can help improve projects.

Providing clear examples and creating a metrics plan with guidelines that everyone understands can help clarify ideas and prevent delayed information.

So, once all these steps are taken and everyone is on the same page, you can start implementing the plan.

Throughout the process, it is also crucial to correct the plan when identifying unusable metrics.

Finally, implementing project management metrics can build historical data to help improve future planning and allow for comparisons.

As you accumulate project metrics in your organization’s portfolio, you are building a valuable database of internal benchmarking data.

These metrics can be compared with other projects in the same organization to see where process improvements can be made or compliance requirements can be introduced.

In addition, you can also compare the metrics with reference data from other companies in the same market.

The final challenge is to ensure that the project status includes metrics that prove the value of project management.

And as Peter Drucker said half a century ago: “If you can measure it, you can improve it”.

Everyone knows that individual decision making is faster and easier than team decision making, right?

Yeah, as long as the decision maker is fully informed about all the details of a decision and is impartial, the process is certainly faster.

However, if the decision maker is not omniscient and impartial – and this applies to most cases – then the involvement of more stakeholders and specialists undoubtedly leads to better results.

“Collaboration” thus becomes the keyword, even in the decision-making process, and collaborative decision-making, not surprisingly, is at the heart of the world’s most successful teams.

What really is collaborative decision-making

Collaborative decision-making happens when a team of individuals comes to a consensus.

This consensus should be reached on the best possible solution, based on a series of proposals.

Not only does this approach promote a team working atmosphere, but everyone involved is more committed to the successful implementation of the solution.

Below are some steps to make the decision-making process collaborative.

How to make the decision-making process collaborative: Choosing a facilitator

Most initiatives require a facilitator to ensure that the objectives are achieved. Collaborative decision-making is no different.

Without committed leadership the process is at risk of failure.

This facilitator will have the task of managing aspects such as:

• Ottenere il buy-in e l’impegno delle principali parti interessate
• Creare definizioni di successo e fallimento per l’iniziativa
• Allineare l’iniziativa con altri obiettivi
• Favorire il lavoro di squadra ed il dialogo costruttivo durante l’intero processo

Il facilitatore garantirà inoltre che il gruppo rimanga concentrato sul problema in questione e lo guiderà attraverso il processo di identificazione e selezione della soluzione.

How to make the decision-making process collaborative: Identify and understand the problem

Without a clear identification of the problem at hand, the whole decision-making process may fail and this may lead to team discouragement and confusion.

The first step towards success is therefore to ensure that each member can articulate the problem clearly.

 

Then, the next step is to list the unknowns surrounding the problem and to track what information has yet to be discovered.

It is also vital to involve the people directly concerned by the problem.

This advice may seem obvious, but if you look at how the most bureaucratic decisions are made, it is not what happens in reality.

However, people who are affected by a decision are generally more connected to the topic than the experts themselves; therefore, they can offer a variety of experiences and valuable information, interpretations and perspectives on the topic.

How to make the decision-making process collaborative: Develop a positive dialogue and discover alternative solutions

Instead of lingering over the negative impacts of the current problem, the team should focus on finding a solution.

It is easy to be overwhelmed with pessimism when attention is completely focused on the negative aspects.

The team should then focus on the details that can be changed and each team member should be free to provide their most original ideas without being judged.

Sometimes the best solution may not be found by the most obvious source or the most renowned experts.

How to make the decision-making process collaborative: Collect data

Once potential solutions are collected, data must be obtained to support them.

The project team should assess and analyse the value of the data collected against the ability to support the predefined successful measures without getting lost in other details of little importance for the specific situation.

How to make the decision-making process collaborative: Consider alternative solutions and make a selection

Now the team is finally ready to choose the best solution to the problem.

The facilitator can help team members to structure their thoughts on each proposed solution using specific tools, such as the decision matrix.

Clearly, there is a chance that an immediate consensus may not be reached and in that case it may be useful to complete the process with other types of tools, such as a cost-benefit analysis.

This will help the team to select the solution that best fits the business objectives.

How to make the decision-making process collaborative: Draw up an implementation plan for the chosen solution

The selection of a solution does not mean that the work is completed. Without implementing the proposed solution correctly, the problem will remain unsolved.

An effective implementation plan takes the final goal into account and focuses on creating steps and activities that will set the solution in motion.

The team should not be frightened if unexpected barriers or obstacles are discovered; this is a common event in the implementation phase.

As with the rest, any problems can be addressed by applying the same collaborative decision-making process.

 

Organizations of all sorts and sizes will benefit from a collaborative approach to decision-making.

In today’s competitive marketplace, teams must address problem solving in new ways and avoid the dangers and threats that uncertainty, disagreement and confusion can create.

Facilitated and collaborative methodology of a team-led decision making is the shortest path to lasting problem solving and to maintaining or fostering a strong teamwork culture.

Ultimately, pursuing a more collaborative approach is likely to increase the effectiveness of any important decision making process.

Increasing collaboration begins with identifying colleagues who are more likely to provide useful input and then listening sincerely to these ideas before making a final decision.

More importantly, in a collaborative decision making process most decisions are of much better quality and the commitment to those decisions is considerably higher, making collaboration the first choice in a decision making process, and not the last one.

The traceability matrix, also called Requirements Traceability Matrix or RTM, provides documentation of the links between the proposed requirements, concerning the project output, and the test phase.

Simply put, it is a document to map and track requirements and to ensure that an adequate level of testing is achieved for each of these requirements.

Indeed, when developing a product or service, you want to make sure that this output matches what was requested. To ensure this, the traceability matrix and tests are essential.

Traceability is the process of reviewing all defined test cases for any requirement.

Traceability allows one to determine which requirements generated the most defects during the testing process.

The traceability matrix is, essentially, a tool that helps to ensure that the purpose, requirements and results of the project remain in line with what was initially agreed.

Why is traceability of requirements necessary?

The requirements traceability matrix provides an accurate connection between requirements, test instances and defects.

Generally it ensures good output quality as all functionalities are tested.

Quality control can be achieved when the final product is tested for unexpected scenarios with minimal defects and all functional and non-functional requirements are met.

From that moment on, quality improvement can also be achieved.

Benefits of using requirements traceability matrix

The benefits of utilizing a traceability matrix are many, here are the most important ones:

• The final product is tested and includes all the required functionalities that meet users’ needs and expectations. The end customer must get what they want. There cannot be any negative surprises for the user, if this happens it would not be a nice experience for anyone.

 

• The final product developed and delivered to the customer must include only the required and expected features. The extra functionalities present in the product may initially look interesting until an overburden of time, budget and effort to develop them is experienced. Extra features can also become a source of defects and cause problems for a customer during or after use.

 

• The activity of the project manager and their team can be set out clearly because they work first on the implementation of the requirements, which are of the highest priority, according to the client’s needs. If the high priority requirements are given clearly, the output elements can be developed and implemented in this order of importance. In this way the entire project plan can be set up clearly.

 

• At the time of testing all the most important and top priority features can be examined, without losing time with unnecessary testing. This helps to produce a quality product that meets expectations.

 How to efficiently run tests with the help of a traceability matrix

To effectively run tests with the help of the traceability matrix, it is important to follow four basic rules:

Have a good communication channel

In case of modifications suggested by stakeholders or users, they must be promptly reported to the project team. Without this timely communication, accurate testing cannot be guaranteed.

Determine test scenarios priority

Identifying high priority test scenarios can be a challenging task. Trying to test all scenarios is in many cases an unachievable task, so the goal of the test must be very clear from the business and end-user point of view.

Process implementation

Testing process must be clearly defined taking into account factors such as technical infrastructure and implementations, team skills, past experience, organizational structures and processes undertaken, project estimates of costs, time and resources. A uniform implementation of the process considering the mentioned factors ensures that every person involved in the project is on the same page.

Effective implementation of the testing strategy

An effective testing strategy, supported by a traceability matrix, plays an important role in planning ahead for all types of critical challenges, which further helps to develop a better product.

How to create a requirements traceability matrix

In the process of creating a requirements traceability matrix, the following operations must be conducted:

• Set objectives: Only one question needs to be answered is: “What purpose will the traceability matrix serve?” Here is an example of an objective to explain the concept: To create a traceability matrix to keep track of test cases and bugs that will be affected if changes are made to the requirements.
• Collect artifacts: Once the objective is determined, it is necessary to know what artifacts you will need to achieve it. To create a traceability matrix of requirements, you will need to:
• Requirements
• Test cases
• Test results
• Bugs

The next step will be to collect these artifacts.

• Create a traceability matrix template: For a requirements tracking matrix template, an Excel spreadsheet can be used and a column can be added for each artifact collected. The columns in Excel will be as follows:

 

• Artifacts addition: Now you can add requirements, test cases, test results and bugs in their respective columns depending on the results achieved.
• Update traceability matrix: The updating of the traceability matrix is an ongoing work that continues until the completion of the project. If the requirements change, it is mandatory to update the traceability matrix. If a new test case is added or a new bug is found, you need to update it in the traceability matrix of requirements.

 

Bottom line, the requirements traceability matrix is the way to map and track all customer and stakeholder requirements with test cases and defects detected.

It is a single document that has the main purpose of not losing track of test cases and therefore ensures that all the functionality of the final product is covered and tested.

Project criticalities aren’t really missing and managing them is what a Project Manager should be able to do in complete control.

Project managers need to be multitaskers and must be able to manage multiple single elements of a project at the same time, keeping everything under control.

However, even in the case of projects led by the most efficient managers, critical issues may occur during the planning and execution phases of the project. These problems are difficult to avoid, but often easy to solve.

To help you understand and give you an insight into what might be the most common issues to manage, in this article we will provide an overview of the 7 main challenges project managers may face.

Manage project criticalities: Break during project planning process

A skilled project manager knows that planning is one of the most important steps in the project management process.

However, sometimes project managers fail to spend adequate time at this stage and try to skip to solving the problem immediately. rather than planning and creating more effective strategies to avoid the issue, they prefer to solve it when it appears.

Instead, better planning means having more control over the project and more peace of mind when it comes to implementation.

So, please listen to the advice, it is important to never start a project before analyzing the problem, exploring possible solutions, finding the best one, and planning all the activities and resources needed to solve the problem.

Always keep in mind that some risks may affect the project in an important way and therefore find alternative solutions when they appear or you are certain that they will appear.

Clearly there is a difference in planning between longer-term and shorter-term projects: the former tend to require detailed planning, while the latter require a more pragmatic and agile approach.

Manage project criticalities: Scope Creep

It is very important to have a clear outline of the project before running it. However, even when a good planning process has already begun, the scope of the project may change during execution.

This change of scope, or scope creep, can be particularly threatening because it can result in the project deviating from deadlines and/or budget.

When this criticality occurs, in order to manage it, it is above all important to focus on the objectives and the real need to which the project must satisfy:

• Have the goals changed?
• Was it due to planning or execution?
• Is it really necessary to change the scope?

If the answer to these questions is yes, a meeting with all project stakeholders should be scheduled so that everyone can find the easiest and most convenient unanimous solution.

Taking the time to refocus your project, reallocate resources, create new activities, reprogram them and let everyone know what happened is essential in this situation.

All documentation must be updated so that everyone can work under the same conditions and be fully informed on every aspect.

Manage project criticalities: Budget is exceeded

The project has been planned, the necessary resources have been defined and, consequently, the final project budget established.

So, if all these steps have been followed correctly, why, despite such good planning, is the budget exceeded?

This could be due to three reasons:

• The planning process wasn’t as efficient as it seemed,
• There wasn’t an efficient monitoring and control process during the execution phase
• The project was influenced by external sources (environment, regulations, currency exchange, etc.) even unforeseen ones

When a project exceeds the budget, you need to find out what happened and try to reallocate the remaining resources so that you can continue to continue to maintain the same expenses.

A sound practice during project planning is to set a small “buffer” budget for exceptions, i.e., to have a reserve in case contingencies emerge that are beyond the project manager’s control.

Manage project criticalities: Missing or inefficient communication

A bad or missing communication plan results in unresolved conflicts, which could have a negative impact on the project.

A project is executed by a team of members, each of them responsible for specific tasks and deadlines.

If one member is not on track and the rest of the team or the project manager doesn’t realize this, the project will definitely be delayed. In the worst cases, larger problems will occur if the gap persists.

Having recurring meetings and records of these meetings sent to participants and stakeholders is a great idea to keep everyone on the same page.

Manage project criticalities: Missing deadlines

In a project, tasks depend on other sub-tasks and many of them cannot begin if a previous task has not yet been performed.

So, essentially, a missed deadline could lead to 1,000 other missed deadlines in a domino effect and, in the end, a late delivery of the final project result.

This is why time and deadline management is crucial in a project.

A good software with a clear Gantt and easily accessible is very helpful in this regard.

When delays occur, it is important to first analyze whether the expired activity is part of the critical path.

If not, you can check other activities within the critical path that can be carried out and reallocate resources so that you can keep the same end date.

Manage project criticalities: Lack of responsibility

Each task usually only needs one person in charge, i.e. a person who takes charge of the specific task and anything related to its completion.

A project manager must therefore clearly define the responsibilities and decision-making power of each team member and the expectations of stakeholders for that particular activity.

Manage project criticalities: Decentralized information

It is key to keep everyone up to date on the status of the project at all times.

Lack of accessible, available and reliable information can lead to project errors and delays.

Also, disorganized information, such as multiple versions of the time process, several document folders, many emails, can lead to decentralized information that creates confusion for all team members.

One solution to this problem is to use a project management software to help coordinate employees in multiple positions and, if applicable, in different time zones.

 

A project manager will build and develop effective project management skills with quality training and direct experience in the workplace.

Furthermore, the project team should not be passive but at best will proactively help the project manager to manage the various projects and their critical issues.