Project management (PM) analytics is a tool used by project management teams to create systematic quantitative data analysis or statistics for obtaining information and enhancing evidence-based decision making. Analytics helps PM teams handle complex projects and work within the prescribed budget and timeline. These tools give project managers the ability to do more than simply checking off tasks as they are completed and capturing data. PM analytics allows teams to process a significant amount of information and determine how projects are performing while allowing managers to improve project success rates and make better informed strategic decisions.
Project management analytics can be done either through the integration of third-party analytics tools or native capabilities within the project management software itself.
Project management analytics benefits
Project management analytics benefits include:
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Showing the effect of a project on the rest of an organization and ensuring that projects are completed on time and within specifications
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Avoiding unforeseen pitfalls and assessing the feasibility of various options
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Giving users the ability to attach meanings to numbers from available data and predict outcomes
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Letting managers know how each day of delay in a project can affect company profits and helping them forecast outages and equipment shortages
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Identifying the effect of changes in staffing, processes and specifications on costs and outcomes
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Helping plan, monitor, and review quality throughout the project
Predictive analytics could take project management analytics even further by, for example, using past customer behavior to predict how changes in project specifications will be received by customers and other stakeholders.
