In project management, it is crucial to track and monitor the progress of the project to make sure every task gets completed on time for the timely delivery of the project.
When it comes to managing more than one project at a time, it becomes really hard to effectively manage and track. The process of managing and tracking tasks, resources, and time for executing and completing more than one project at a time is known as MPT.
There is some software available to manage multiple projects, but a Project management Dashboard spreadsheet can easily build to effectively manage multiple projects.
What is a Multiple Project Tracking Template?
Before we proceed, it is important to understand what is project tracking, and how it works. This term refers to evaluating total progress or total work done on a specific project.
As we know, a project consists of small pieces of tasks that lead towards a project this technique is called work breakdown structure; so, when we talk about project progress it means we are considering all tasks that have been completed. On standard practices, it is highly recommended to conduct a project audit for evaluation of overall performance.
There are different tools and techniques which are being used for this tracking, here we will discuss project management tracking templates. Below is its format which is important to understand how it works.
Format of Multiple Project Tracking Template in Excel
This tracking spreadsheet consists of three sheets, first, one is used to input the data(staff members, task, time limitations, etc), second is used to display the project plan, and the third one illustrates overall progress and status in numerical diagrams and graphs.
As an employee complete his task, he reports on this spreadsheet, the sheet will automatically calculate its performance on the basis of the data that he entered on the sheet and display the task status on the sheet.
Basically, these task reports and statuses lead toward project progress, and when the last task is completed and its data is entered in the sheet, it will calculate the whole database and shows whether a project is completed or not.
Project progress tracking answers the following questions about the project;
- What activities have been completed?
- Which activities of the project are currently in progress?
- What activities are coming next?
- What problems the project has faced to date?
- How the overall project is going?
Elements of Multiple Project Tracking Dashboard
The following key elements must be included in the multiple projects tracking template dashboard to efficiently manage and track the tasks of multiple projects;
Multi-Project Details – It represents the project name, customer name, and name of the project manager to quickly understand the project and easy communication.
Multi-Project Selector – It must look like a dropdown menu to choose one project or multiple projects to see a list of their activities and details.
Multi-Project Tasks Status – It shows the progress of each task of a project. How many tasks have been completed are categorized in different ranges such as 1 – 25%, 25 – 50%, 50 – 75%, and 75 – 100%.
Multi-Project Status – It shows the overall progress of each project.
Multi-Project Gantt Chart – It shows the tasks of each project separately as well as on a common Gantt chart.
Multi-Project Summary – It provides the status of multiple projects at a glance, adding new projects and managing their labels can also be handled here.
How to Track Multiple Projects in Excel Template?
Multiple project tracking tools can be made using excel spreadsheets. More than one spreadsheet is required, and each spreadsheet serves a different purpose. The following are the spreadsheets that are necessary for the effective monitoring and tracking of simple projects at once.
Details Spreadsheet
The purpose of this sheet is to provide a summary of multiple projects. There should be different navigation buttons in this sheet to view details such as Project Gantt Button, Data Sheet Button, and Project Plan Button.
Project Plan Spreadsheet
It will be the dashboard of this template that will show project plans and timelines of multiple projects on a Gantt chart. Dropdown menus for project tasks, task status, and project status will be added to this sheet.
Project Summary Spreadsheet
It will show the overall details of each project such as high-level KPI metric, number of tasks, start and end dates, number of days required, and progress of the project.
Project Data Spreadsheet
In this tab, details of each project will be written such as a list of all activities, activities dependencies, dates, duration, and progress. The filter can be used to visualize one project at a time for insight and understanding of any project.
Project Tracking Template Recommended Practices
Here are some highly recommended practices for project tracking excel templates, that will help you to get error-free results:
Planning
A professional project plan is a guarantee of project success because without proper planning we can not evaluate whether our project getting progressing or not.
However, a project plan has SMART Goals, objectives, purpose, Tasks, budget, stakeholders, timeline, milestones, etc. And to evaluate the progress we use KPI Dashboard.
Realistic Approaches
Always using a realistic approach means we should set our goals, end result, and deliverables as achievable. If we set goals that are impossible to achieve in the proposed delivery schedule time and according to budget, this will be a disaster. Another example of poor planning is, setting timelines again and again
Evaluate Risks
It is important to evaluate risk factors and make a risk management plan to deal with them. Because if you do not have any risk plan then there you can not react to problems.
First, you have to know that there are 2 types of risk factors 1st is known on this risk factor we make our mitigation plan and the other is unknown. So to deal with this 2nd factor we make a contingency plan.
Consistency
Make sure to check project reports on a daily basis that will aware you of your project’s progress. Project monitoring involves checking each activity or task’s progress. This will help you to keep an eye on the overall project.
Accuracy In Monitoring
If the task execution process takes so long than expected make an analysis and conduct a meeting with RACI to understand their problems. This practice will boost productivity. However, accuracy in monitoring is everything. Check all statistical data before a decision.
Types of Project Tracking Template Excel
There are different types of tracking dashboards that are highly recommended for tracking. Below we will discuss the;
Project Tracker Dashboard
This Project Tracker Template Excel is based on an excel dashboard that helps you to manage your different projects on a single excel sheet. Basically, different charts like the Gantt chart and project status report are directly connected to this dashboard. Download.
Agile Project Plan
An agile project plan helps you to determine project delivery times by working on project details and features.
Gantt Chart
Gantt chart is Popular tracking software in the project management process. The basic function of this tool is to provide a platform for project managers and team members where they can put their daily task progress reports and stats. After that this software produces an analytical report in form of graphs and charts.
Project Budget Tracker Excel
Budget is the core of a project, so tracking a project budget helps you to keep your project under the budget. As well as this tracking spreadsheet also helps you to track different project budgets on a single spreadsheet.
Project Time Tracking Spreadsheet
A project timeline plays a vital role to evaluate project progress that shows project progress and its real-time stats. This statistical data help project managers and top management in the decision-making process. This time tracking spreadsheet determines whether a project making progress and developing according to the plan or not.
To-Do List Excel Tracking
Another project management software that is easy to set up and use for project tracking. This to-do list tracker helps you to track those items or actions that have been done or are overdue. Also, you can customize this tool according to your project requirements.
FAQs
How do I track multiple projects at once?
Below there are 5 steps to follow:
Make a comprehensive plan to manage a project.
Conduct meeting with your team members and ask for suggestions, and discuss problems.
In 3rd step, set priorities among Tasks, or make a task management plan.
Review your plan according to the project’s progress.
Divide tasks among team members according to their skills.
How Do TO Track Multiple Small Projects?
Very simple. Follow the below steps:
- Draft project basic outlines for all small projects.
- Now, put project goals, objectives/deliverables, and milestones in the datasheet of Project Tracker Template Excel.
- Now deploy the project tracker template excel which starts tracking the task’s progress, evaluates costs, and finalizes timelines.
