Skip to main content

Project Tracking for a beginner Project Manager

What advise would I give a beginner project manager to track a project? I thought about it and I figured, a PM should always have an answer to the following three questions (3 S's)?
  1. What are we building? (Spec)
  2. By when do we need to finish it? (Schedule)
  3. Are we on track? (Status)
Spec: Do you know what we need to build? Do you have a clear spec in your hand? Does the team know what they need to build? Are there clear on their individual tasks?

Schedule: Do you have specific dates for each of the tasks and milestones? Does the team know these dates?

Status: Do you know if the team is going to meet the dates? If not, does your management know you are not going to meet the dates and why?

If you don't have answers to these questions, you are in trouble, or you will soon be. Get started right now...
Labels:

Comments

  1. workforce blogsJanuary 29, 2025 at 10:29 PM

    The article provides an insightful guide to project time tracking for beginners. It covers essential tips and tools to help new project managers stay organized and effectively monitor progress. By focusing on key aspects like setting goals, tracking milestones, and managing tasks, it helps ensure the success of projects from start to finish.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Microsoft Visio has stopped working..."

I had to search various forums before I could find a solution, so I decided I'll write it up for the benefit of all. Problem: When you exit Microsoft Visio 2007, you get the following error: "Microsoft Visio has stopped working; A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available" Reason: This problem happens due to the failure of "Send to Bluetooth" add-in in Microsoft Visio 2007 in Windows Vista systems. Solution: We need to disable the "Send to Bluetooth" add-in. But when you try to disable the add-in in Tools >> Trust Center >> Add-ins, you get the following error. "The connected state of Office Add-Ins registered in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE cannot be changed". The trick is to start Visio as an administrator. The steps are: Go to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12. In this folder, right click Visio.exe...
11 comments
Read more

Do you estimate in Days or in Hours?

Some of you might say, neither. So let us just assume I am in a situation where I am required to use some unit of time to measure my estimates in. Then which is the best unit to pick. Should we estimate in Days or in Hours? In a lot of teams, I have noticed that people use hours to estimate work. And then I have also seen they come up with a multiplier which reflects productive hours in a day. This can vary from 3 hours to 6 hours per day based on a team’s situation. But then I notice an interesting thing. If you closely look at the estimates, you’ll see a pattern which can easily tell you the multiplier used by the team. If the team thought 4 hours per day was the productive time their members have, you’ll typically see the estimates in multiples of 4. If they used 6 hours as productive hours multiplier, most of the estimates are in multiples of 6. So that means, we originally think in terms of days, and then convert them to hours based on whatever multiplier we use. The the quest...
Post a Comment
Read more