Project Tracking Guide and Best Practices

Summary of Project Tracking Policy

The project tracking policy requires that project managers must continuously track and monitor the progress of IT project against the project plan.

Once a project has advanced to the execution phase of performance, a project team and the necessary resources should be in place ready to perform, and the project plan should have been developed and baselined. The project manager is responsible for implementing the project tracking policy.

Implementation Guidelines for Project Tracking

During the implementation phase, the focus shifts from discovery to participating, observing, and ensuring that the plan is being successfully executed. The project plan serves as the basis for the project’s monitoring, controlling, and reporting activities. By following the plan and gathering relevant data for status meetings and reports, information will be available to accurately identify issues and problems early, minimize project risks, and monitor, control, and report progress.

Project Tracking Requirements

Projects often fail due to inattention to basic control principles. Too many times a project team is so busy getting on with completing the project that not enough time is spent tracking status and anticipating potential problems that may arise. Then, once a problem is suspected, the team may act too slowly to resolve the problem. Project tracking can help avoid this scenario by defining processes to:

Track and monitor project activities to measure actual performance planned performance.

Review and communicate status and future actions on both a formal and informal basis.

Monitor and mitigate potential problems, thus reducing their likelihood of occurrence.

Establish a change management process to control changes to the project’s objectives, specifications, and overall definition.

Establish an issue tracking process to ensure that there is a central repository for project issues that are addressed in a timely fashion.

Establish a corrective action process to document and track plans to correct an issue that impacts the stated plan and to establish guidelines for re-planning.

Project tracking requirements will vary by project, based on the size, cost, complexity, and impact on the business. The management of a project includes processes for tracking and communicating project status and performing risk assessments. The formality of this tracking process may change based on the specific project. The project manager has responsibility for tailoring all elements to meet the specific needs of the project.

Project Management