Qualitative to Quantitative - Analyze

In the last post we looked at various tools to help you collect data on your projects. Now it’s time to dive deeper & determine the real-world results of your hard work. Accuracy is very important during this step. While you’re pouring over the data of all your success make sure you’re interpreting the data without bias. “Massaging” the numbers to make yourself look better can compromise trust with your clients & lead to poor decisions based on inaccurate information. In this segment we’ll look at some ways to communicate project success to your clients.

Analyze the Data

Use the collected data to calculate your KPIs and identify trends. It’s important to relate the data you have to actual areas of project success. Providing accurate data analysis of key project aspects can be invaluable to your clients. This step will help your clients understand:

• Project Performance

  How well the project is staying on budget and schedule. Using financial reports, timesheets, project budgets, & other records you can determine how much money was saved, how many labor hours were saved, & how far ahead of the original schedule you finished.

• Cost Efficiency

  Areas where costs can be reduced or optimized. Based on the data you collected, where did your clients get more that was expected? Finding things like combined labor savings, procurement savings, or value engineered items can show your clients your effectiveness as a manager.

• Resource Utilization

  How effectively resources are being used. Identifying labor productivity or budget reallocation for upgrades can be a great way to demonstrate your impact on the project for your clients. 

• Profitability

  The overall financial success of the project. With construction costs rising this is a primary concern of many clients. Simply showing that a project met the expected budget can be a success in and of itself. Using the data you collected, determine how much was actually saved, how expected profitability was increased, or all the ways you were able to boost the value your client received.

Which project aspects you choose to dial in on & present to your clients will be determined on where you were able to find success on your project & what your client identified as their own project KPIs. Keep these in mind while analyzing your project data and strive to show your biggest impact areas. In the next section we look at ways to demonstrate your findings & convey your value to your clients.