Helpful Info to Get from a Project Data Repository
A project repository is only as good as the guidance you can pull from it. Beyond the always useful lessons learned, here are examples of helpful information you can extract from a well-designed project data repository.
- Issue frequency and trends. A list of the most common project issues along with trends of when they occur during the project is helpful for building a proactive and sound project risk plan. Also, the trending data shows where your project methodology might need shoring up.
- Staffing trends. The history of availability of operational staff for project work and the timeframes for onboarding contracted staff is useful for creating a staffing plan. Seasonality trends is also helpful. For example, finance staff might not be available the first week of each accounting month, or staff shortages might occur during holiday periods.
- Vendor performance. When choosing a vendor to augment resources, information on their performance in your environment supports informed strategic staffing decisions. Key metrics include the time from request until resources arrive on site, the consistency of staff staying on site without being replaced with different resources, successful delivery against objectives, and cost.
- External entity response times. The turnaround from request to response from external entities helps establish reasonable schedules. Examples include licensing or certification confirmation from government entities and the fabrication of custom parts from vendors.
- Cumulative impacts of change requests. Other helpful data is baseline project duration and cost along with the average effects of change requests on those values. You can judge the business’s volatility and the quality and completeness of the provided requirements, which helps forecast total project cost and timeframe. For example, if change requests historically add 10% to the cost and three months to the duration, you might consider applying those trends to future project budgets.
What other insightful data items have you extracted from project data repositories? Share with us in the comments.
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