Progress Management – The key to project success

Tram Ho

Original:プ ロ ジ ェ ク ト 管理者 に な っ た ら 進 捗 管理 が マ ス ト!


It can be said that good progress management towards productivity is the key factor for successful software project development.

In this article, we will thoroughly explore what progress management is, together explore the benefits that progress management brings, how to effectively manage progress as well as how to do it. teamwork to move closer to overall success.

Table of contents

  1. Progress Management – The key to project success
  • What is progress management?
  • Benefits of progress management
  • PM (Project Manager) needs to have progress management capacity
  1. Points to keep in mind when managing progress
  • Clarification – Split the task
  • MTG progress periodically
  • Use a progress management tool
  1. Teamwork to manage progress
  • Build a relationship of trust
  • Understand the status / personality of each member in the team
  • Use the right people in the right place
  1. Conclusion – Progress management decides the fate of a project

Progress management is the key to project success

In any project or product development, it’s important to get the product or service done on time. Therefore, managing the schedule is the key to ensuring the project will be completed on time and successfully.

What is progress management?

Progress Management (English: Progress Management) is the management of whether the work plan and the actual work in the project are not different. In a project, the progress management will be done regularly and continuously; If the schedule does not match the schedule, then immediately proceed to review the schedule and change the work content. Progress management is very important because if progress is delayed and do not meet the delivery date of the Customer, it can lead to loss of credibility or directly affect the sales revenue.

In the manufacturing industry and IT industry system development, progress management is also often considered part of quality control. If progress is not properly managed, it is very difficult to implement quality control correctly, otherwise, if quality control is not done correctly, it can cause errors or system recall. At this time, the story is not only about the prestige of the Company, but also costs more labor and labor time, which will cause serious damage to the company. That is why it is important for any company, in any industry or industry, to closely manage progress.

Benefits of progress management

The three main benefits of progress management: Knowing which tasks to prioritize / which task – Knowing workload and schedule – Detecting and solving problems early (if any).

Here, together we will analyze in detail each of these benefits.

Know which jobs / tasks to prioritize

When working on a project, it is ineffective to start with work with the lowest priority.

In order to carry out the project effectively, at the planning stage it is necessary to figure out which work should start, which jobs should be prioritized and clearly define each stage. Clarifying each stage and necessary human resources, based on which detailed planning is an extremely important step to improve productivity. If team members can start from high-priority work, efficiency can definitely be improved.

Understand workload and schedule

We must not be unfamiliar with having many members working on a project. If progress management is good, you can immediately know the workload as well as the fast / slow status that team members are handling. This makes it easier to perform actions like offloading work for a particular member, or following more closely on members who are lagging behind.

Early detection and resolution (if any) of problems

When implementing a project, if something arises, the person most responsible will be the project manager (PM). If PM regularly communicates with team members through progressive MTG sessions, potential problems can be detected and resolved early. Therefore, it is highly recommended that PM hold regular progress meetings.

PM (Project Manager) needs to have progress management capacity

The project manager needs skills to support team members to work effectively. Because, if the manager is incapable of managing the progress, it may lead to product delivery deadlines or inability to know the progress of each member.

In a nutshell, the project manager must constantly confirm the product delivery deadline as well as each member’s work schedule, and think about what can be done to speed up the progress, in case the progress is delayed. then how to overcome it.

Points to keep in mind when managing progress

Some people will ask: I want to manage progress, but how should I?

In order to be able to successfully manage progress, it is important to adhere to the following 3 points: “Clarify / Split Task”, “MTG Periodic Progress” and “Use Progress Management Tools”.

Clarification – Split the task

Basically, a project is maintained based on certain stages, for example, when task 1 is finished, move to task 2, then to task 3. If only managed through these 3 tasks, it is not possible. who knows whether task 1 has finished, or when task 3 can be started … and the general intangibility may lead to a situation in which the product is not delivered to the Customer in time.

Therefore, the task should be broken down to manage. If you can clearly identify where task 1 comes from, where task 2 is located … and classify each task as “Completed”, “Unfinished” for example, you will clearly see the remaining tasks. .

The key here is to be clear about what to do, when to do it, and task management so that team members don’t get confused.

MTG progress periodically

Project progress, team member workload … should be shared among all project members, not just the manager. Therefore, having regular progress meetings is extremely important. In addition, at the meeting progress, if all members can discuss with each other how much work has been completed, how much work is left, or if any member is having problems … can improve project productivity. Even if a serious problem arises, it can be detected and handled early.

However, in the current era, working methods are increasingly diverse, it can be difficult to meet regularly for reasons such as employees in different regions, remote employees … So, while meeting progress of face to face is best, if not, choose Chat or Video format. Most importantly, project members can exchange and communicate with each other.

Use progress management tools

Highly recommend you to use a dedicated management tool if you want to manage progress effectively.

If you have a budget for progress management, don’t hesitate to use paid tools and apps. Conversely, if you don’t have a budget, you can always use the free software or create your own with Excel.

Teamwork to manage progress

Progress management – it’s not enough if it’s just the capacity of the project manager. It is working with team members that can help manage progress smoothly.

Here are some important things to do in order to work effectively with team members.

Build a relationship of trust

Without building up a relationship of trust between team members, the atmosphere of the whole project will get very bad. There are many unknown things, but it is difficult to ask people around, assessing the deadline but not daring to ask for help … As a result, the things that should be asked will be solved immediately, taking days. research, overloaded work leads to chronic OT, work efficiency also goes down.

On the contrary, if it is possible to create a comfortable atmosphere of helping each other, the above problems will not have a chance to happen, the team members can completely focus on their work. If you don’t know where to build a trusting relationship, start with a “smiling face” when communicating with team members. This is a basic but extremely important teamwork skill. With a scowling, grumpy face, the atmosphere will surely be extremely stuffy, invisible, group members are also very afraid to discuss or ask questions. In addition, if a team member makes a mistake, it should not be unilaterally blamed, but should have constructive discussions and instructions so as not to repeat the mistake next time.

Understand the status / personality of each member in the team

Each member of the group has their own personality and circumstances. Understanding this to assign tasks to each appropriate member is the closest way to successful progress management.

For example, with a member estimate of the work that is still young, the sense of compliance with the deadline is not high, if you set the deadline to complete the task on the day of product handover to the customer without additional time buffering, it may arise. That component is under-estimate, the actual work volume is more than the original assumption, requires more reciprocal time, leading to not timely handover deadline. To avoid such problems, depending on the personality / personality of each member, there is a way to manage progress accordingly, in the case of this member, you can think of setting deadlines to buffer more time. have to fix hard deadlines.

In addition, for erroneous members, it is possible to consider adding a “self-review” section in the respective task, or for members who are too serious, tend to spend more time than necessary for a task. you can show that member don’t need to do that … Showing the member how to improve work efficiency can be said to be a good approach if you want to manage progress.

Some team members may have situations such as raising children, or having to go to the hospital regularly. If you do not consider the circumstances and assign large workloads or assign tasks that need to be reciprocal early in the morning, late at night for those members, it will definitely create a huge burden on the whole team, which can lead arrived not in time. The key to successful progress management in this case is meeting each team member, finding out how much work each member can handle, how much time it takes … assign work accordingly and effectively.

Use the right people in the right place

Each person has its own suit and inappropriate suit. To be productive, it’s important to know how to use the right people in the right positions.

For example, if you develop a new game app, in addition to app development you need to sell your product to make money. There are two people, Mr. A specializes in programming, has good communication skills, is good at negotiation and Mr. B – high in programming and data entry skills but not good at communication. Then, obviously it would be more efficient if you appoint Mr. A as the director cum technical PIC, and Mr. B as the Technical Leader. If the allocation is reversed, it will inevitably lead to stress on both sides and more time to deal with.

Conclusion – Progress management decides the fate of a project

To complete projects on time, managing progress is of utmost importance.

Organize the MTG on a regular basis to understand the situation of each member, create a happy, open atmosphere for the whole team, put the right person in the right place based on consideration of individual personality / circumstances. … Certainly work efficiency will be enhanced and the project will be closer to success.

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Source : Viblo