Project Tracking: A valued tool for multiple multidisciplinary projects

If you're managing a project, it's important to stay informed about work progress so that you can share updates with your team. Project tracking is a great way to keep a detailed watch on every stage of a project and note any completed milestones or potential setbacks. Learning more about project tracking and its best practices can help you develop the organizational skills you need to succeed in a project management position, particularly in complex knowledge-based environments such as healthcare and clinical research [1,2]. This becomes ever more critical as you increase the number of projects being managed and their different milestones, deliverables and team members [3].

Project tracking is a way to follow, monitor and manage the progress of a series of work tasks. You can use project tracking to better understand if you're making enough progress to submit the project by its expected deadline and within budget, a core principle of project control in health services and clinical research management [4]. Tracking your project allows you to lay out each task and milestone to determine which you've completed and any upcoming items to accomplish. You can also use project tracking to remain updated on the resources you've utilized, supporting more accurate forecasting and allocation of staff time and costs [5]. Monitoring your project's progress helps you locate any potential obstacles that could impact your ability to submit deliverables on time, allowing early corrective action, an approach strongly associated with improved project outcomes in healthcare settings [6].

There are several methods and tools you can use to track a project based on your preferences and organizational needs. However, these tools do not always fit multidisciplinary projects such as those common in medical writing, clinical development, and healthcare research, where outputs are document-based but costs are frequently driven by effort and time rather than physical deliverables [7]. For example, medical writing projects deal with specific deliverables in the form of documents, yet their estimated costs are typically based on anticipated person-hours. In contrast, clinical project management initiatives are often budgeted directly on hours expended, requiring flexible tracking approaches that integrate both deliverable- and effort-based metrics [8].

Importance of project tracking

Reviewing a project's performance regularly empowers you and other team members to remain updated on required tasks and resources, improving transparency and shared situational awareness [9]. This supports stronger communication among employees and promotes a more collaborative and productive working environment, factors consistently associated with improved performance in healthcare and research teams [10].

Common benefits that showcase the importance of tracking the progress of projects include:

• Keep everyone informed of a project's status: Centralised tracking systems allow team members to view timelines, responsibilities, and deadlines in one location, reducing ambiguity and coordination failures [11].
• Resolve challenges more efficiently: Comparing actual progress against projected timelines enables teams to adjust priorities, redistribute resources, or revise plans to mitigate risks to delivery [6,12].
• Motivate team members: Visibility of progress and task completion allows individuals to see how their work contributes to broader project goals, reinforcing engagement and motivation, particularly in knowledge-intensive work [13].

Project trackers

A project tracker tool can support the management of multiple complex or competing projects simultaneously. While manual tracking is possible, shared electronic tracking systems improve coordination, accountability, and reporting across distributed teams [14]. However, overly complex tools can introduce administrative burden, consuming time that would otherwise be spent on delivery, a recognised risk in healthcare project management [15].

Features to look for in a project tracking tool

Effective project tracking systems in healthcare and research environments commonly include:

• Data-tracking systems: Automated aggregation of task and time data supports accurate assessment of project status, forecasting, and variance analysis [4].
• Dashboards: Visual displays of project metrics enhance situational awareness and support timely decision-making by project leads [16].
• Gantt charts: Timeline visualisations help map dependencies and milestones, although they may become complex in multidisciplinary projects with overlapping deliverables [17].
• Time-tracking tools: Time-based data collection improves workload estimation, budgeting accuracy, and post-project learning, particularly where staff effort is the primary cost driver [5,18].

Developing a clear project plan, setting realistic timelines, and maintaining regular team communication are all widely recognised best practices in healthcare project management and clinical research coordination [1,6,9]. Together, these approaches help teams focus on substantive project risks rather than becoming absorbed solely in line-by-line task monitoring.

All these factors were considered when developing the Niche project tracker. By integrating project and time tracking, the system aims to support multidisciplinary delivery, enhance transparency for clients and collaborators, and improve the accuracy of future project estimation through systematic data capture, an approach aligned with evidence-based project management principles [4,18].

References

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2. Cleland DI, Ireland LR. Project Management: Strategic Design and Implementation. 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2007.

3. Cooke-Davies T. The “real” success factors on projects. Int J Project Manag. 2002;20(3):185–90.

4. PMBOK® Guide. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge. 5th ed. Newtown Square (PA): Project Management Institute; 2013.

5. Kaplan RS, Anderson SR. Time-driven activity-based costing. Harv Bus Rev. 2004;82(11):131–8.

6. Atkinson R. Project management: cost, time and quality, two best guesses and a phenomenon, it’s time to accept other success criteria. Int J Project Manag. 1999;17(6):337–42.

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8. Emanuel EJ, Wendler D, Grady C. What makes clinical research ethical? JAMA. 2000;283(20):2701–11.

9. Edmondson AC. Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Adm Sci Q. 1999;44(2):350–83.

10. Salas E, Sims DE, Burke CS. Is there a “big five” in teamwork? Small Group Res. 2005;36(5):555–99.

11. Malone TW, Crowston K. The interdisciplinary study of coordination. ACM Comput Surv. 1994;26(1):87–119.

12. Flyvbjerg B. Survival of the un-fittest: why the worst infrastructure gets built—and what we can do about it. Oxford Rev Econ Policy. 2009;25(3):344–67.

13. Hackman JR, Oldham GR. Motivation through the design of work. Organ Behav Hum Perform. 1976;16(2):250–79.

14. Wyatt JC. Clinical data systems, part 3: development and evaluation. Lancet. 1994;344(8934):1682–8.

15. Greenhalgh T, et al. Diffusion of innovations in service organizations. Milbank Q. 2004;82(4):581–629.

16. Few S. Information Dashboard Design. Sebastopol (CA): O’Reilly Media; 2006.

17. Meredith JR, Mantel SJ. Project Management: A Managerial Approach. 7th ed. Hoboken (NJ): Wiley; 2011.

18. Drummond MF, et al. Methods for the Economic Evaluation of Health Care Programmes. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2005.