(10.0.P1)

Gathering metrics on a project is the most sophisticated project management process and can be the hardest. Since metrics can be hard to define and collect, they are usually ignored.

All projects should be gathering basic metrics information regarding cost and duration. This step of the TenStep process focuses on collecting metrics to determine how well the project and project deliverables satisfy the client’s expectations and how well the internal project delivery processes are working. Depending on the results, corrective action or process improvement activities can be undertaken to make the processes more efficient and effective.

Managing metrics and managing quality are related. It is very difficult to improve the quality of your deliverables or your efficiency of your processes if you are not gathering metrics. Metrics are used to give some indication of the beginning state of quality (quality of deliverables and quality of project processes) and whether quality is increasing or decreasing.

Metrics management can be used effectively on medium and large projects because there is enough time to capture the data, analyze the results and make appropriate changes. Gathering sophisticated metrics on smaller projects will have limited value unless the metrics can be reported and leveraged on an organization-wide basis.

Project teams should have some idea of what they will do with the metrics once they are captured. If you do not intend to leverage the metrics to help manage the project, there may not be a reason to gather anything other than the basic cost and duration information (unless the metrics are required and utilized at the organizational level).

Project level metrics are important, but the most value in capturing metrics is gained if the metrics are used to drive improvements on an organization-wide basis. The accumulation of consistent metrics from all projects can be used to drive process improvements across the organization. Ultimately the information can be used to create a set of best practices and standards that will help all projects.