Project Management Performance records

Posted by SkillMaker in Jan, 2017

What is Project Management Performance records?

A Project Manager keeps performance records to help in monitoring and controlling performance on a project and to ensure that its stays on track. These records may be paper-based or, more usually, digital.

Performance records typically include documentation on project baselines (see ‘Project baselines’ topic) as well as progress reports and assessments against aspects such as:

expenditure against the project’s budget
work progress against the project’s schedule
current scope of work against that defined in the Statement of Scope
working hours spent on the project against those initially estimated
staff turnover in the light of available staff and staffing needs
newly identified risks against those defined in the Risk Management Plan.

The nature and size of a project helps to determine precisely what performance records are to be kept for it and the way (and the frequency with which) these records are monitored. As a general rule, a Project Manager and his/her team need to monitor and document performance often enough so that any deviation from the baseline plan can be identified quickly and early. Rectifying action can then be taken before any performance problems adversely affect the project overall. What performance records are to be kept — and how frequently they will be monitored — will normally be defined as part of the project’s specification during the initiation stage of the project.

Performance records should be kept throughout the project; these records can be compared over time to make sure that performance remains consistent. At a later date, an auditor can use these records for auditing purposes. They will also be useful source documents when any major decision about the project is to be made. As well, they may prove most helpful when managers are estimating the time, cost and resource requirements for projects of a similar type.

Additional resources

For more information about performance records, visit:

http://www.lewis-knopf.com/newsletters/financial-toolkit-article/keeping-good-project-records-makes-sense/