Unlock success with the right project tracker tool
Project management is a lot like spinning plates. You must position yourself carefully, watch your speed, and keep things moving. Otherwise, it all comes crashing down. However, the consequences of failing to keep up with project work are much more dire than smashed crockery.
Project managers leverage many tools to keep the metaphorical dishes whirling – most notably, the project tracker. With an online project tracking tool, leaders can monitor task progress, assess timelines, and ensure resource reliability while keeping stakeholders updated on the team’s activities.
If you’ve never used one, this project tracker guide will explain everything you need to know to put your first plate in the air.
What is project tracking?
Tracking a project involves monitoring and recording its progress throughout its lifecycle. The tracking process shows the project team whether it’s making appropriate progress toward its goal while giving stakeholders visibility on the status of critical components like tasks, timelines, and budgets.
In addition, project tracking allows the team leaders to perform the following duties:
Review the project schedule, milestones, and due dates to identify and address bottlenecks before they cause delays
Monitor expenditures and resource levels to stay within the project budget and avoid overloading the team
Compare actual progress against the project plan to determine how close the team is to achieving its goals and objectives
Ensure the project team has access to necessary staff and material resources
Decrease risk by identifying threats to project delivery in time for mitigation
Allow stakeholders to measure project variance and track milestones as part of an earned value analysis
Project managers don’t depend on a single tool to track project work. Numerous methods exist, such as Gantt charts to prioritize tasks, key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure progress, and stand-up meetings to update team members and stakeholders on deliverables, risks, and performance.
The approaches you choose depend on the complexity of the project scope and your preferred management style.
What is a project tracker?
A project tracker is essential project management software that records vital data and consolidates it to monitor these essential metrics:
Task progress
Outstanding work
Resources
Budget
Schedules
When the project team updates details of their work and shares the information with leadership via a project tracker app, the contents become the single source of truth, keeping everyone informed of the project status in realtime. A centralized information source helps project managers make decisions based on evidence rather than conjecture.
Project trackers can be as simple as a whiteboard or , but a digital project management app is often a better choice. Tracking software includes options to integrate data with visual dashboards, communication channels, and collaborative solutions while streamlining and automating the process. These functions make it less labor-intensive for the project manager and more accessible for the team.
Why is project tracking important?
Project tracking is essential to delivering outcomes on time and under budget. It provides visibility into project priorities, ensuring the team works on vital tasks first and keeps operational expenditures within financial constraints.
By tracking progress, teams can better manage their workloads to meet deadlines, view resource availability, and monitor task duration. If work veers off course, the project manager can see what happened and identify ways to get everyone back on track. These actions save the organization time, money, and resources.
Most importantly, project tracking builds alignment, helping team members address dependencies so work proceeds smoothly and everyone hits their milestones.
A project tracker acts as a communication tool, building transparency and accountability. When everyone logs their work using the software’s time-tracking functionality, team members can view each other’s progress to help keep themselves on task. The manager can review data to quickly determine the work’s standing and draft a project status report for stakeholders using current information.
Some project tracking software supports sprint planning and Kanban boards to assist leaders in managing projects with an agile framework.
6 steps for tracking project progress
A systematic approach to project tracking sets a team up for a successful project. Here are the steps to start tracking your projects:
1. Identify project objectives
A team’s capacity to deliver favorable outcomes hinges on a clear understanding of the project’s objectives and requirements. Use the SMART framework to define specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound . Once project management establishes those facets, it can outline the project schedule, including milestones and deadlines.
2. Develop the project plan
The next step involves drafting the project plan. Outline the project’s scope and deliverables, then break each outcome into a task list. Assign each job to a team member to establish accountability for work before kick-off.
3. Establish project baselines
Once the project plan is in place, you can define baselines. Project managers primarily oversee three interrelated factors: time, cost, and scope. The key to successfully managing all three is estimation and control.
Begin by estimating costs to define the project budget. Then, review each task’s expected duration to establish timelines. Finally, refer to the project scope developed during the planning phase to set the schedule.
Once the team understands these details, set up the project tracker to monitor work. By actively tracking these three factors, project managers can identify blockers and necessary changes to the project.
4. Populate the project tracker
You’ll save time and labor by leveraging a project tracking template instead of building one from scratch. The best project tracker templates include everything management needs to monitor progress, including:
Project timelines and milestones
Task management
Integrations
Automations
The project manager simply needs to fill in the blanks, and the project management tool is ready to use.
5. Update the tracking software
Project management must train their team to update the status of tasks within the progress tracking software. The process is straightforward. As the users complete tasks, they update their status within the software, and proper integrations will automatically distribute that information throughout the system. Some platforms even broadcast status updates to a team’s Slack channel.
6. Review progress
Schedule regular project review meetings to discuss progress and keep the stakeholders informed. Team members can use these gatherings to find solutions to issues they’re experiencing, avoiding potential delays.
These meetings ensure the team moves forward while assisting project managers in identifying process improvements for the next project.
The best project tracker templates
When you use comprehensive project management software, project tracking is a breeze. Tempo offers many options and integrations to suit various organizational needs.
is a Jira-enabled portfolio and project management tool that tracks and communicates real-time progress from multiple organizational initiatives via visual dashboards and reporting tools. With a holistic view, project managers can monitor progress and resource usage within their team while coordinating with their colleagues, ensuring everyone has the assets and resources they need.
Structure integrates with other project management apps, such as , which helps teams visualize project plans and priorities, and , which delivers insights into employee efficiency and productivity.
For complex projects, try – an all-in-one project management software that harnesses predictive scheduling to help teams adapt to change and manage uncertainty. With workload predictions, dynamic visualizations, and automatic resource leveling and prioritization, leaders can keep their teams on the right track.
