Sometimes, we end up relying on lessons learned or reviewing similar legacy projects to predict how a current project might pan out. Unfortunately, these hindsight methods fail to capture the complex interrelationships of numerous project factors that combine and influence delivery success or failure.
But where to start with using data analytics?
Let’s explore five superpowers that data analytics give project managers and how integrating it into your project management practices can enhance delivery success.
Data provides project teams with accurate information allowing managers to better quantify, and model emerging risks. This, in turn, allows smarter mitigation strategies to be implemented and better strategic decisions to be made on where to focus resource, cost, and time to negate threats.
To move a project towards data-driven decision-making, it’s crucial to have an approach and the necessary tools to manipulate and present data in a digestible form. Data gathering, mining, synchronising, and various types of analytics are ways to collect key data and use them to derive crucial insights.
A tailored decision-making framework enhances multiple context analysis and leads to ingenious and efficient solutions / strategies. Ultimately, you can improve your project across multiple fronts through using actual records and insights to make better decisions.
To enhance this, data analytics can take over and provide a definitive view on understanding the short and long-term trends on project expenditure. Earned value management (an ISO 21508 standard for measuring project performance and progress), can detect profit eroding activities providing a valuable forecast to help project managers review tasks, revise spending, and reverse losses on a project.
And the bulk of analytical information allows forecasting project work far more effectively. Moreover, an impressive data library is a real superpower for a project manager, helping to lead the scheduling of a project’s budget, estimates, short-term actions, and long-term activities in pursuit of goals.
However, it does require project managers having enough data to be able to predict and develop solutions to positively impact their projects and keep them on track to their cost, time, and quality envelopes.
But having enough data is only one half of a superpower. To make it full, project managers also need to implement data correctly. Accurate information analysis will save costs, improve risk management, leverage strategic planning, and ultimately enhance project performance.
Until recently, such analysis has been limited by the high cost and sub-par performance of data collection, scrubbing, and interrogating capabilities. The rapid improvement today in data processing, the growth of data science, and the reducing cost of analytical software means such barriers for project managers are lowered.
Project management data analytics is a powerful tool for modern managers delivering major bodies of work. And for those making their first foray into data analytics, remembering the five key superpowers they offer can help overcome any trepidation.
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