12 KPIs every project manager should know

Metrics are the only way to truly know if your project is on track. These essential key performance indicators will help you monitor and better manage the health of your projects.

Projects fail for many reasons — budget overruns, scheduling delays, supply chain issues, and scope creep, among other things. If you’re not tracking project health in all key areas, your projects are prone to fall prey to these types of issues and fail. Approximately 54% of all organizations working on projects fail to effectively track their key performance indicators (KPIs) in real-time. Understanding KPIs and their value is vital to project success.

When used correctly, KPIs provide valuable insight into how projects are progressing compared to their intended goals. But not every metric is relevant to every project. The trick is to know which of the numerous KPIs matter most to your particular project — from those used to measure progress over time, to those that keep tabs on budget, performance, the quality of deliverables, and so forth. While KPIs come to bear used once your project is under way, establishing which KPIs are best for your project should be undertaken in the planning stage before work actually starts.

Here are some important KPIs and when they should be used to monitor the health of your projects...

Read more: CIO