What is your project trying to indicate?

Did you know that your project schedule can tell you alot about its progress and status?  When used correctly, Microsoft Project Professional will send all information to Microsoft Project Server and allow you to view everything you need to know about your project (or group of projects) in a glance.

The many colors and shapes of indicators can show you if they project is on time, on budget, or if the project has not been updated for an extended amount of time.  Microsoft Project Server allows for many stories to be told by indicators.

For example, if your project is currently on schedule and within budget, a GREEN DOT indicator can be displayed.  Maybe if the project is starting to fall behind by a few days or couple of weeks, the indicator can be a YELLOW WARNING symbol.  If your project substantially behind schedule or over budget, there could be a RED ‘STOP’ indicator.  The indicator can also be set up to show if the project be encountering issues with the schedule or budget.  But what will all of this do for morale for the project managers.  You don’t want them to feel like the system is unfair to project management obstacles that may manifest within the project lifecycle. (Please see image below for an example of what these indicators may look like)

A solution was recently presented.  Instead of the system reporting negative information on every little thing that might have gone wrong (or will be going wrong), the administrator set up the indicators to allow the PM to report the current status.  If the system agreed to the current status, it would reflect the indicator set by the PM, but if the system did not agree with the PM, it would mark a negative indicator.  However, if the system agrees with the PM on the ‘current’ status, but sees a possible issue in the near future, the indicator color will match the status indicator set by the PM but a flag shape will take place.  This was set up to announce the combined status to Leadership while still allowing the PM opportunity to correct any issues and risks without negative responses from other groups.

Interested in how EPMA can help you with your project schedules? Looking for a PPM Tool? Does your company want a PMO? Contact us today at 1.888.444.EPMA or [email protected].