Metrics definitely have an important to the team as a whole as well as the project manager. This gives everyone a clear view of where everyone is and what areas need work. Weekly metrics give people a clear understanding of what needs to be done that week or for the next few weeks. It also helps those see what tasks need to be prioritized and what can be done at a later date. Project managers can intervene when there are issues with metrics that aren’t done and ways to make some tasks go faster if the individual working on a specific task is having issues. There is always room for improvement which is best shown when everything is out in the open. Metrics will also help see how much improvement is needed to do better than other companies. What areas need work will be more apparent in this situation and there won’t be any misleading information with everyone in the room.
Metrics are an important way to measure how healthy a project is. High level metrics like cost and progress allow the company to track the work that has been done and make decisions about the future of a project. There is another question on the forum about the importance of tracking the cost of a project. It is important because a company needs to make money, so if their projects are getting too expensive, then they need to know when to end a project that is just becoming a money pit. Monitoring project progress is also important to make sure that progress is being made and that the project is not stagnating. Every metric, from the most high level, to the most detailed, exists to ensure the project will be a success.
Metrics are numbers that tell you important information about a process under question. They tell you accurate measurements about how the process is functioning and provide base for you to suggest improvements.
It is said that only when one can express their understanding in terms of numbers is the understanding satisfactory and meaningful.
Usually measuring results with one metric is not a good enough strategy .A combination of metrics is used to measure the effectiveness of the process .
One point I found interesting however is psm34’s comment. I had not really considered what and how upper management deems quality or not. I don’t work in the business world, yet, but i had assumed everyone would be on the same page. If the upper management thinks were off track, or could be doing better, when really its just reaching for that “A+” instead of the "A" then that could become a bit aggravating and unnecessary. When working with large budgets, such as the multimillion dollar projects, it is easy to lose track of how much is being spent and where the money is going. When the metrics is showing that a project is running well management can focus its efforts on the projects that are struggling. Most higher-level management positions are dealing with a multitude of projects and metrics helps management know where issues are in order to increase their personal efficiency. any metrics as they can because they will use these metrics to decide their next steps. Metrics can tell a company they aren't selling as much in X region, so they can put more effort there as there's an untapped market.
Productivity – This metric allows project managers to assess the utilization of resources. It compares the total effort to the budgeted effort, which has a direct impact on the bottom line. Metrics is what allows the project to be tracked quantitively vs qualitatively. It takes away bias and personal opinions replacing them with numeric values of accomplishment. These allow companies to begin to understand what needs to be done with a project. If a project is returning negative values, they know to look at spending and time management.
