Project Managing and Monitoring Software

Project Monitoring

Project monitoring is a significant part of project management. All project activities should be carefully monitored while the project is being accomplished. This helps project manager to keep informed of work progress, foresee possible problems and apply timely correctives. It is important that project monitoring is simple and not time-consuming. Project monitoring software may really help to simplify this process.

First it is necessary to define project goals and plan the activities. Project managing software helps to create a detailed action plan, make a task list and assign the tasks, set due dates for each task, define project milestones and deadline. Then project monitoring system should be adjusted to keep track of various activities and tasks. Project managing software may also be used for project monitoring. Let's see how it may help to monitor the project progress depending on chosen project monitoring method.

• Reports . Reports should be brief and to the point. Reporting should be easy, otherwise it would be rather difficult to make employees submit reports timely.
  Multi-user project management software allows to create a personal to-do list for every employee. Then an employee may easily transform a to-do list to a report just marking performed tasks as "done". Reports collecting may be organized in different ways. For example, employees may submit reports daily or weekly, or the project manager may get notified of every done task.
• Diaries . Keeping diaries is an alternative method of work progress monitoring. Every employee may make records of daily workflow: what planned tasks have been performed, how much time each task has taken, if some unplanned jobs have been done.
  Project manager has access to employees' diaries via project monitoring software. Also the employees may use their diaries for personal time tracking and evaluating their own work.
• Meetings . Electronic documents exchange cannot replace communication, that's why meetings are important for building confidence, mutual understanding and establishing collaboration within project team.
  Project managing software allows to keep group schedule, which helps to find suitable time for meetings and discussions.

Whatever project monitoring method you choose, the main thing is analyzing and using the collected information. The information may be used for:

• Informing project sponsors or superior managers of project progress;
• Adjusting time and cost estimates;
• Defining time frame more exactly;
• Improving future planning and scheduling.

VIP Task Manager is an integrated project management and monitoring solution. It may be used for planning and scheduling, as well as for project monitoring, applying correctives and analyzing information. It helps to make, collect and analyze reports, keep and check work diaries, find suitable time for meetings, conferences and other group activities. VIP Task Manager may be useful on all stages of project lifecycle.