Best Project Tracking Software For Mac

The Importance of Project Tracking and Reporting

Time Tracking Software For Projects
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Best Tools For Project Tracking

Mar 31, 2020 We listed best Mac Tracking Apps and you must have one of them on your Mac as an alternative to FindMyMac to help you just in case. Prey Key Feature: Prey offers the Prey Report wherein a detailed report including its geolocation, pictures of the screen and front cam as well as the detailed logins are shown, from the time your laptop was stolen. Jul 03, 2020 Once a project is underway, it’s essential for managers to monitor work and keep teams on track to meet deadlines. What’s more, managers must keep internal and external stakeholders up to date on the progress made against initial baselines set for the project’s scope, budget and timeline. That’s where project tracking software comes in. Managers use project tracking tools to maintain.

Once stakeholders have approved the project plan, the execution phase begins. At this point, project monitoring, tracking and reporting become the core responsibilities of project manager. But everyone on the team must also be aware of monitoring and tracking, so if issues arise, they are addressed. Project reporting documents show how things are progressing.

Effective project reporting requires clear, simple and concise communication. This communication flows in two directions. Not only top-down, from project sponsors and external stakeholders to team members, but also in the opposite direction.

How Tracking Builds a Successful Project Reporting Plan

Many types of project reports are created during the execution phase in order to track the progress of a project. Project status reports act not only as an important communication tools during project execution but also as important historical documents that inform the development of future projects. This makes estimating the scope of future projects less of a shot-in-the-dark, and more of an educated guess.

Project status reports have a few key objectives, including:

Making communication across the organization seamless
Simplifying the communication process
Keeping stakeholders in-the-know as the project moves forward
Delivering the right information, to the right stakeholders, at the right time
Enhancing organizational support for everyone involved

Project monitoring, tracking and reporting are a highly-collaborative process. Without monitoring and tracking the progress of a project, the reporting is not accurate. Therefore, teams must collaborate when creating reports, so communications are clear. This collaboration and communication is facilitated by the right project management tools.

ProjectManager.com Helps Teams Collaborate on Projects

Using tools that help with collaboration when monitoring and tracking makes evaluating a project easier. ProjectManager.com has a visual, timeline-driven Gantt charts, drag-and-drop kanban boards and interactive task lists to help teams collaborate on tasks in the way that works best for them. These three views empower teams to collaborate and execute effectively.

The Three Views for Project Execution

Using the Gantt chart, team members can check out an overview of how the project is going:

ProjectManager.com Gantt chart.

Or, filter the Gantt chart to see tasks only assigned to them:

Clearing filters so you can see the whole project view—instead of just your own tasks—is as easy as a single click on the funnel icon in the navigation bar:

Gantt chart with cleared filters.

The task list view also allows anyone working on a project to filter tasks down to just those for which they are responsible:

The third view to check out is the fully-customizable kanban board. The standard kanban comes with three columns named “to do, doing and done.” You can change the names of columns and add as many as you would like:

A standard Kanban board.

As you open up a task card in the kanban, you have the ability to upload a file, and do an @mention which invites specific people to collaborate on a task:

Expansion of cards opens options to add a to-do list within the task, add files, change progress of the task and even add comments to give a status update:

Expanding a card in the Kanban to customize.

Any changes made in the three standard ProjectManager.com views automatically populate to the other two views. This makes the project management process as seamless as possible for your entire team.

Introduction to Project Planning

The Six Elements of a Project Report

As the execution phase progresses, it’s important to report on progress so the schedule doesn’t go astray. Comprehensive project reports include six elements:

Project Information

Start with the basics. What is the project’s name? Who will be managing the project? What are the available resources? Effective tracking requires detailed information. It’s an unsafe bet to assume stakeholders share your familiarity with the project. Instead, provide information you know they will need, even if it seems like overkill. This helps things run smoothly, and also sets groundwork for the project to be referenced as a precedent when future projects are being planned.

Status Information

Report dates are the most important status information, and should always be front-and-center. Also, data separating status reports from other reports crossing stakeholders’ desks should be visible to grab attention.

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Milestone Review

Milestones are major touchpoints for your project. They serve as a guidepost for remaining work, and the timeline for it to get done. Conducting a milestone review lets stakeholders see actual progress versus what was estimated in the project proposal.

Project Summary

The project summary includes a projected completion date, as well as resources and costs expended. Inclusion of issues causing delays is an important summary component. There should be a clear explanation of how these issues could affect budget and timeline, and work being done to ensure things are corrected to get the project back on track.

Issues and Risks

This section is straightforward. List issues and risks you have encountered. Note how these are being resolved. Finally, outline how resolutions are positively impacting project execution.

Project Metrics

Back up statements with hard numbers and data points. Project planning details should have outlined these metrics. Show how data illustrates the success of your project to date, or, highlight needs for immediate improvement.

Project Monitoring and Reporting Using ProjectManager.com

ProjectManager.com provides a bird’s-eye overview of the project’s health, including: the progress of individual tasks, overall project progress, expected time consumed versus actual time, planned versus actual cost, and the workload of individual team members:

Project overview dashboard with high-level view of health, tasks, progress, time, cost and workload.

You can also create a task report to drill down and see how individual team members are doing, and monitor their progress:

The tasks report generated can be high-level, with an overview of the entire project:

Or, it can be drilled down to the individual level to see how one team member is doing on their tasks. In this case, we’re checking out all tasks to which Kieran Duncan is assigned:

Time Tracking Software For Projects

It’s also easy to check out the milestone view of the Gantt chart to see how the project is tracking against the milestones set during the project planning phase:

Gantt chart filtered to show milestone tasks.

Project Reporting Best Practices

With these elements in mind, there are some project reporting best practices to consider:

Communication is the cornerstone: Status reports are a key element of your communications plan. However, these reports don’t have to cover everything, and be all things to all people. Writing reports in a way that delivers the right information to the right people, at the right time, should be the overarching goal.
Be consistent: Consistency is key. Find a format and distribution method that works for your stakeholders, and stick with it. They’ll appreciate the predictability of the information they receive.
Set targets and measure against them: Establishing metrics is an important part of project reporting and monitoring. Accordingly, these metrics should be how you project progress is measured against goals throughout its life-cycle.
Keep things simple: Keep reports simple to ensure effectiveness. Don’t pull in details unrelated to the issue on which you’re reporting.
Always verify what you’re reporting: It’s a bad idea to assume information is correct without doing due diligence to ensure it is.
Have some standards: Reporting simplification is made easier through creation of standards defining report structure, and how information is presented. Given this, building templates to make the work easier is a great first step.

Throughout any project, it’s important to evaluate reporting to avoid scope creep. As project teams start to work, and silos of activity develop, it’s vital to keep everyone aligned. This ensures project scope doesn’t creep.