According to a report published by the Project Management Institute (PMI), 49 percent of all IT projects are delivered late. The report identifies the two major factors that contribute to project delays as:
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Poor project estimates.
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Failure to adhere to project schedules.
While poor planning can be attributed to inexperienced leadership, the majority of projects get delayed because technicians often postpone work until the eleventh hour instead of completing work in small iterations as detailed in the project plan.
A great way for project managers to stay on top of project schedules is to keep track of progress using a Project Burndown report. This report lets you keep a close eye on project progress, enabling you to predict when projects are likely to be completed.
A Project Burndown report measures the actual work completion trend (shown in red) for each day against the ideal work completion trend (shown in blue). This enables project managers to gauge if the project will be completed on schedule or if stop-gap measures—such as procuring additional technology or personnel—are required.
How to read the Project Burndown report:
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If the actual work completion trend line coincides with the ideal or projected work completion trend line, then your project is progressing as scheduled.
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If the actual work completion trend line is above the ideal work completion trend line, then your project is behind schedule. (Refer to the actual work completion trend line on 21 Nov 2018 in the above report.)
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If the actual work completion trend line is below the ideal work completion trend line, then your project is ahead of schedule. (Refer to the actual work completion trend line on 22 and 23 Nov 2018 in the above report.)
The Project Burndown report, along with over 400 other reports, are available out of the box when you integrate ServiceDesk Plus with Analytics Plus. Get started today with a free, 30-day trial of Analytics Plus.
Note: We recommend that existing users upgrade to the latest versions of both ServiceDesk Plus and Analytics Plus to enable this report.
