Project Management Metrics, KPIs, and Dashboards

A Guide to Measuring and Monitoring Project Performance

Harold Kerzner

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781119427322
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Industrial Engineering
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Harold Kerzner's essential strategies on measuring project management performance

With the growth of complex projects, stakeholder involvement, and advancements in visual-based technology, metrics and KPIs (key performance indicators) are key factors in evaluating project performance. Dashboard reporting systems provide accessible project performance data, and sharing this vital data in a concise and consistent manner is a key communication responsibility of all project managers.

This third edition of Kerzner's groundbreaking work, Project Management Metrics, KPIs, and Dashboards: A Guide to Measuring and Monitoring Project Performance, helps functional managers gain a thorough grasp of what metrics and KPIs are and how to use them. Plus, this edition includes new sections on processing dashboard information, portfolio management PMO and metrics, and BI tool flexibility.

• Offers comprehensive coverage of the different dashboard types, design issues, and applications

• Provides full-color dashboards from some of the most successful project management companies, including IBM, Microsoft, and others
• Aligns with PMI's PMBOK® Guide and stresses value-driven project management
• PPT decks are available by chapter and a test bank will be available for use in seminar presentations and courses

Get ready to bolster your awareness of what good metrics management really entails today—and be armed with the knowledge to measure performance more effectively.

1
The Changing Landscape of Project Management

Chapter Overview

The way project managers managed projects in the past will not suffice for many of the projects being managed now or for the projects of the future. The complexity of these projects will place pressure on organizations to better understand how to identify, select, measure, and report project metrics, especially metrics showing value creation. The future of project management may very well be metric-driven project management. In addition, new approaches to project management, such as those with agile and Scrum, have brought with them new sets of metrics.

Chapter Objectives

• To understand how project management has changed
• To understand the need for project management metrics
• To understand the need for better, more complex project management metrics

Key Words

• Certification boards
• Complex projects
• Engagement project management
• Frameworks
• Governance
• Project management methodologies
• Project success

1.0 Introduction

For more than 50 years, project management has been in use but perhaps not on a worldwide basis. What differentiated companies in the early years was whether they used project management or not, not how well they used it. Today, almost every company uses project management, and the differentiation is whether they are simply good at project management or whether they truly excel at project management. The difference between using project management and being good at it is relatively small, and most companies can become good at project management in a relatively short time, especially if they have executive-level support. A well-organized project management office (PMO) can also accelerate the maturation process. The difference, however, between being good and excelling at project management is quite large. One of the critical differences is that excellence in project management on a continuous basis requires more metrics than just time and cost. The success of a project cannot be determined just from the time and cost metrics, yet we persist in the belief that this is possible.

Companies such as IBM, Microsoft, Siemens, Hewlett-Packard (HP), and Deloitte, to name just a few, have come to the realization that they must excel at project management. Doing this requires additional tools and metrics to support project management. IBM has more than 300,000 employees, more than 70 percent of whom are outside of the United States. This includes some 30,000 project managers. HP has more than 8000 project managers and 3500 PMP^® credential holders. HP’s goal is 8000 project managers and 8000 PMP^® credential holders. These numbers are now much larger with HP’s acquisition of Electronic Data Systems (EDS).

1.1 Executive View of Project Management

The companies just mentioned perform strategic planning for project management and are focusing heavily on the future. Several of the things that these companies are doing will be discussed in this chapter, beginning with senior management’s vision of the future. Years ago, senior management paid lip service to project management, reluctantly supporting it to placate the customers. Today, senior management appears to have recognized the value in using project management effectively and maintains a different view of project management, as shown in Table 1.1.

TABLE 1.1 Executive View of Project Management

OLD VIEW	NEW VIEW
Project management is a career path.	Project management is a strategic or core competency necessary for the growth and survival of the company.
We need our people to receive Project Management Professional certifications.	We need our people to undergo multiple certifications and, at a minimum, to be certified in both project management and corporate business processes.
Project managers will be used for project execution only.	Project managers will participate in strategic planning, the portfolio selection of projects, and capacity-planning activities.
Business strategy and project execution are separate activities.	Part of the project manager’s job is to bridge strategy and execution.
Project managers just make project-based decisions.	Project managers make both project and business decisions.

Project management is no longer regarded as a part-time occupation or even a career path position. It is now viewed as a strategic competency needed for the survival of the firm. Superior project management capability can make the difference between winning and losing a contract.

For more than 30 years, becoming a PMP^® credential holder was seen as the light at the end of the tunnel. Today, that has changed. Becoming a PMP^® credential holder is the light at the entryway to the tunnel. The light at the end of the tunnel may require multiple certifications. As an example, after becoming a PMP^® credential holder, a project manager may desire to become certified in

• Business Analyst Skills or Business Management
• Program Management
• Business Processes
• Managing Complex Projects
• Six Sigma
• Risk Management
• Agile Project Management

Some companies have certification boards that meet frequently and discuss what certification programs would be of value for their project managers. Certification programs that require specific knowledge of company processes or company intellectual property may be internally developed and taught by the company’s own employees.

Executives have come to realize that there is a return on investment in project management education. Therefore, executives are now investing heavily in customized project management training, especially in behavioral courses. As an example, one executive commented that he felt that presentation skills training was the highest priority for his project managers. If a project manager makes a highly polished presentation before a client, the client believes that the project is being managed the same way. If the project manager makes ...