Project management is often referred to as an art or science. But no matter what you consider it to be, one thing is for sure; it has to be effective. You can use an intuitive approach to manage projects and lead people, but the outcome is what matters.
Why are KPIs so important for Project Management?
All that matters with project management are the key performance indicators that require your attention. Effectively setting up these KPIs will provide you with a clear path to success. Many intuitive managers consider it challenging to set up KPIs, but that’s because of the outdated concept of these metrics. You don’t have to use a mathematical formula to calculate KPIs and their values. Well, at least we surely didn’t want to hence why we came up with a solution.
Read on: Boost your project management with the right tool
Visualized KPIs save you time and effort
Everyone prefers visuals in comparison to reading. With Vault, we’ve visualized every critical piece of data you’ll need to manage your projects. By doing so, you'll be able to view the bigger picture of your projects and suddenly view any outliers, gaps, etc. If you’ve managed a project with numerous teams and resources, you’ll be aware of how disarranged the data from several sources can be.
Hundreds of hours are spent tidying up spreadsheets that are automatically filled with pieces of data from every iteration, sprint, day, or a more significant block of a project’s schedule. Taking this information and putting it into context so you can evaluate the process is overwhelming.
Keeping this in mind, we initially created Vault for internal purposes as we wanted to make life easier for our project managers. But we then considered all the other overwhelmed project managers and thought it would be a shame not to share it with the rest of the world. Now they’re able to view crucial data in pie, line, or Gantt charts, timetables, timelines, rosters, and lists.
Doesn't it sound innovative? The point is not to confuse it with innovation but to make it seamless and ready to use. When you see that your high-prioritized tasks marked as red dominate that pie chart, you won’t have to calculate anything, you will be able to tell something is wrong by taking a quick look at your ERP’s dashboard.
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How will Vault empower every Project Manager?
Without further ado, let's summarize all Vault's benefits (not only to) project managers. For better clarity, we’ll split specific functionalities into more KPI units.
Project’s indicators
These indicators are related directly to the project’s tasks, not just to a related process.
Schedule
The project's schedule is the primary and arguably most crucial visualization, as you can see if you are on track time-wise. With Vault, you can use a Gantt chart with a Waterfall layout and mark the critical parts in the project. A clear roadmap will prevent you from losing time and resources on potential bottlenecks.
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Status
The project’s RAG status is a great way to decide if the project needs intervention or if everything is as it should be. Status ‘lights’ show you the temperature in four categories: Schedule, Risks, Resourcing, and Issues.
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Productivity
If your created tasks outnumber the resolved ones, the execution team may have a problem. Wrong schedule, allocation, maybe some unexpected time-offs? With an overlaid spline chart, you can tell right away if you need to intervene.
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Tasks
Problems will arise, inevitably. Every Project Manager has to be prepared for obstacles. It's essential to identify the problem, define its status and analyze it after resolving it. With Vault, you can see how many tickets were resolved or are yet to be taken care of and see tasks related to the priority level.
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Resources’ indicators
When we talk about resources in project management, it's mostly related to teams and employees. You have to consider their time as a resource to allocate, redistribute, and manage.
Motivation
Project management can heavily rely on psychology when it comes to productivity. Motivating teams and employees is crucial for bringing out the best in them. As a manager, you can decide who the most significant asset is and manage his or her allocation for the best outcome.
By having a clear overview of employee’s performance, shortcomings, and success, you can improve and maintain a healthy company or team culture.
Allocation
Knowing which member of the team is allocated and to what extent can save you some trouble. Vault uses a five months distribution calendar for a better and clearer view of distributing hours.
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Absentees
Have you ever found out that you’re understaffed on a project and couldn’t explain it? Well, we have, and it’s a no-go in solid project management. The time off the roster in Vault will show you when you can expect a shortage of staff. Days off are given a color and caption so that you can be made aware of the reason for the absence with a glance.
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Financial indicators
Finances are an integral part of every project. Even if you’re a non-profit organization, you still have to measure the use of finances and their allocation.
Profitability
The primary and most important metric of every project is profitability. Vault shows you an accurate overview of expenses compared to the whole budget and is also smartly linked to different parts of the project. For example, labor costs spent per month will tell you if you are over the budget limit for salaries.
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Read on: Have you properly defined your KPIs to your best advantage?
What’s the best way to use this visualization?
The point of visualizing data is to view it instantly, but you can boost it even further. Vault offers a level of personalization so that you can enhance your experience. Adjust your dashboard so that you can view the KPIs that are most relevant for you.
We can customize it for you
That’s right, Vault’s true power lies in our support and personal approach to every client. We’re able to customize the system to ensure it meets your needs. Sounds interesting?
Read on: Get your ERP tailored the way you want
Connect with us for a demo and discover real benefits.
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