Data Driven Project Delivery

Hands working on a tablet displaying charts and graphs.

Jeff Miller | October 26, 2022

In today’s world, we are inundated with data, and it is becoming extremely difficult to make sense of it all.

Projects continue to get more complex, and timelines continue to shrink to execute the work. Every day, our project managers face a sea of data from project tracking and performance tools, trying their best to make sense of what the data is telling them in order to deliver your projects on time and on budget. This includes the accounting system, teams’ work breakdown tools, productivity tracking tools, supply chain tracking tools, the project schedule, etc. In the past, all these tools were completely stand-alone, and each had its own way of reporting project performance data to help owners and project managers make good decisions. Sorting through all that data to try and make sense of it, as well as trying to figure out how it all relates to each other, can be cumbersome and time-consuming.

To simplify this process, Interstates brings all the most critical project-related data into a single data warehouse and then utilizes Microsoft Power BI to analyze it. This tool allows the project manager to see the data for every project in a simple dashboard, whether they choose to view it at a high level or drill deeper for more details to identify possible issues. The data is updated from each tool daily, so the user is never in the dark.

Data is consolidated from each tool and can be displayed side by side, as well as automatically flagging issues your PM may want to investigate further. While it doesn’t replace the need to spend time with project team members to understand what’s really going on, Power BI points you in the right direction and helps you ask the right questions. Additionally, Power BI gives the entire operations team visibility into the project world. When your operations team can see potential issues, they can alert and mentor project management through fixing those problems, ultimately improving performance on your project.

The goal of data-driven project delivery is to improve the overall client experience, which fits our mission of Understanding Needs and Delivering Results. As a client, you expect our project managers to keep you informed about how the project is coming along and alert you to any red flags. Power BI helps us meet these expectations, and because it allows us to see potential issues earlier, we can react before they become a real problem. This means more projects delivered on time and on budget.

Let us show you how data-driven project delivery can help you with your next project!