Learning how to keep projects on track is one of the biggest struggles in project management.
Industry stats say that only 34% of all projects are completed on time and on budget. If you think about it, that's a morale-destroying figure. It basically means only every third project makes the finish line in the way it was originally planned.
But it doesn't have to be this way.
To prevent a project from spiraling out of control, project managers can turn to the four strategies we outline in this guide. These strategies promise to give you the best chance of keeping things on track right until the end. Staying close to the project and constant monitoring (with the watchful eye of an owl) are just two ways, but you shouldn't forget the all-important soft skills that go into managing a project team!
1. Stay on top of the project
Planning a new project may take anywhere between a few days to a few weeks. But executing the project can take at least five times longer.
This means project managers spend most of their time making sure everything is going right by monitoring and pushing the project along in the vital execution phase.
Now, while "stay on top of it" sounds simple enough in theory, in reality, it's actually much harder to achieve. But if you want to give yourself a fighting chance, you need to set up some sort of monitoring structure.
That structure doesn't need to be complicated, but it needs to take the form of sort of framework that's easily applicable on a daily basis.
Before we jump to the frameworks, let's establish what the key questions you need to keep answering are that will help you stay on top of the deliverables and timelines.
These questions should include (at a very minimum) the following:
Who’s stuck?
Who’s too busy?
Who’s idle?
Now the frameworks are the processes you'll use to get the answers to those questions.
Initially, you might think the best way to do that is to set up a meeting (cringe!), but let's face it, that's not very efficient, is it? After all, a “quick” one-hour meeting with six people eats up seven work-hours when you factor in context switching.
A better approach might look like this:
Daily standups (Light & Quick)
Short daily standup check-ins can be useful, especially early on when a project’s rhythm is still forming. If you choose to go with this option, the only thing you need to watch out for is that you stay consistent. If people don't attend regularly and take an active part, it becomes useless.
Task updates (Low-disruption)
The easiest way (without a doubt) to monitor project progress is to have your team update their tasks in a project management system, on the go. Top project management tools like ActiveCollab automatically notify team members of updates, and let entire project teams log task time, leave comments, and mention people to notify key stakeholders of blockers and timeline changes. Everything that happens within a project is visible in the activity stream, and notifications are sent to relevant task owners or subscribers the minute changes happen.
Scrum updates (Accomplish, do & blocked)
Another option is to follow the daily Scrum-style updates to track progress, which invite your team to respond to these three questions every day, whether it be in person or via a collaboration tool like ActiveCollab:
“What did I accomplish yesterday?”
“What will I do today?”
“What’s blocking me?”
Reports & dashboards (Real-time reality check)
Another effective project tracking strategy is using reports and dashboards. If you're lucky enough to have accurate, real-time data (like one of the most popular project tracking tools, like ActiveCollab users do), you can use that data to create customized dashboards and reports. These can be used for monitoring the progress of project tasks and budgets, as well as the productivity levels of entire project teams or individuals.
In ActiveCollab, every task can include estimates, labels, and time logs. If your team consistently uses these features and records the numbers in the project tracking tool, you can answer critical project tracking questions instantly, like:
Which tasks are overdue?
Who’s overloaded, at capacity, and underutilized?
Which tasks have been completed or added?
How much time has been logged for the project?
How much budget do we have left, and are our estimations accurate?
Tip: You don't have to constantly ask for feedback. You just need to put a system in place that supports transparency. One like ActiveCollab that removes friction and makes project tracking quick and easy for your team (entering the data) as well as you (managing and leading the project).
2. Watch out for Bottlenecks
Do you know what's one of the biggest threats to building a project's momentum? It's not a lack of effort; it’s bottlenecks.
Bottlenecks come in all shapes and sizes. They happen when one task, role, or process slows down another, and everything gets delayed. No matter how detailed you were in your initial project plan, somehow, roadblocks always seem to rear their ugly head from some unforeseen corner or another.
The problem with these culprits is that when one weak link shows up, it impacts the entire chain, project schedule, messes up your inital project planning process, and puts your project delivery at risk.
But bottlenecks are not news to project managers. Most seasoned professionals know they are inevitable, and that's why truly great project managers calculate and factor in slack time into all tasks to prevent early project failure.
Some other prevention and management tactics you can turn to include:
Limit Work in Progress (Prevention tactic)
One of the best ways to prevent bottlenecks is to set a Work In Progress (WIP) limit. The idea behind this tactic is simple: Cap the number of active tasks in any one given time so your team can focus on finishing the priority items first before they move on to starting new ones.
The reason why this works is that when too many tasks are in progress, it usually means there is a lot of context-switching, so productivity tends to plummet, and quality suffers.
Project management software like ActiveCollab helps visualize this for project managers via the project overview dashboard and the “In Progress” column in the Kanban project view that immediately displays work underway.
Balance capacity and flow (Prevention strategy)
Great teams and project success are built around balance. That’s why capacity planning and effective resource allocation are vital for a risk-averse workflow. If one group (say, developers) produces six finished tasks per week, while another (say, testers) can only handle three per week, it’s obvious where the bottleneck will happen.
With the right project tracking software (like ActiveCollab), capacity and workload insights can help you monitor team performance and do resource management in a way that helps you boost team productivity and output. Monitoring progress of task completion and due dates will let you assign tasks and reassign them quickly, the minute you see something isn't going to be delivered on time.
This kind of clarity and transparency will help you make sure nobody is spread too thin while others wait for input.
Tip: You might think adding more people to a complex project that's running late will help speed things up and get the project back on track, but this isn't always the case. More people mean higher costs, so this will only work if you have the budget.
Reallocate, redeploy, or redesign (Management strategy)
When bottlenecks do appear, reaction type and time matter. Look at which tasks can be reallocated or redeployed. If neither of the two is an option, then it might be time to redesign your project plan.
When reallocating tasks, reassign them to team members where they can make the most impact. For example, a marketer can help polish UX copy, or a developer might be able to jump in to support testing.
And if the fix means rethinking project goals, streamlining workflows, or establishing realistic timelines, change the project plan structure.
If one senior developer reviews every key feature task, they present a huge potential for bottlenecks. The solution? Keep them focused on this high-value work and don't overwhelm them with any admin work or minor tasks that can be assigned to junior team members.
Monitor flow and adjust in real time (Management strategy)
Not all tasks are made equal. Big task items can jam your workflow faster than the small ones, and they can do so much faster than you expect.
That’s why you need to track this group of work items continuously. Project tracking tools like ActiveCollab give you real-time visibility into where delays start so you can fix them fast.
The insight you gain from tracking projects to the finest detail (down to task dependencies) empowers you as a project manager to balance workloads, improve timing, and remove friction when priorities change.
Tip: Bottlenecks happen in every project team. If you want to stop them from being a threat, start seeing them as warning signs instructing you to change course. And instead of losing sight of the actual work you need to deliver, find ways to prevent or manage them. Make your team accountable for deliverables and for communicating project progress (or in this case, project stalling) early.
3. Control quality and deliverables
When people have a lot of work on, they tend to cut corners, intentionally. And when this happens, quality pays the price. The problem is, in most cases, the project manager doesn't notice until it's too late.
If we're honest (and we will be), when things get hectic, it's easy to lose focus on quality. Project managers spend most of their time thinking about budget and deadlines because they're the most visible and easy to quantify, analyze, and communicate. What gets measured gets done.
So, unfortunately, quality takes a back seat. And when it does, it hurts your position in a competitive market because loads of your competitors are mass-producing mediorcare campaigns and products, so how will you ever position yourself as better? If you accept low-quality deliverables, you simply won't.
But there are a couple of things you can do to stay on top of quality.
Involve the client
This is one of the best ways to make sure the deliverables are at the standard your client expects.
The idea here is to involve the client in the development as well as the approval process. They have the largest stake and should approve each major task and decision.
This is the easiest and quickest way to keep quality spot on and in check. When clients see work as it evolves, they can provide feedback instantly, and course correction can take place immediately. That way, everyone can avoid costly mistakes.
Service teams that use the ActiveCollab project management tool can invite clients into projects with controlled visibility. This means clients will only see tasks they are invited to see. They can review progress, comment directly on deliverables, and approve milestones without sending endless email threads.
The other great thing about taking this approach is that you give clients a level of clarity and transparency that builds immediate trust.
Also, when the project team and the client are on the one platform, clear communication is a given, everyone is on the same page, and the final deliverables tend to be more aligned with the original project scope.
Set up a Quality Assurance (QA) process
Having a Quality Assurance (QA) process in place is a fairly standard practice for most complex projects, especially ones with high budgets.
Good QA processes define clearly what “done” actually means and looks like for each project deliverable, and they set standards that everyone needs to follow. However, this needs to be established early on, ideally, during the project planning phase.
In ActiveCollab's project tracking software, you can create QA checklists, assign reviewers, and link testing or feedback tasks directly to the main workflow. You can then move each item through visible stages, from draft to internal review to client approval, so nothing slips through the cracks.
The key is to build QA into your workflow in a way that leads to project success. It can't be something that's added at the end. The idea is to make quality a shared responsibility, and the QA process should help bring up potential issues and potential risks before they become irreparable, costly mistakes.
4. Keep your soft skills in tip-top form
A project manager’s role is to follow the project plan closely and guide others on what to work on and when. When deadlines start to slip, it’s their job to step in, adjust priorities, and see what can be done.
A huge part of project and task management is more about managing people than managing tasks. But since you don’t usually have direct authority, you need to lead, inspire, and influence through other means: through a set of soft skills.
Here are a couple of tips on the approach you should take when managing your project team and all the moving pieces.
Avoid individual incentives
Some project managers turn to things like incentives to encourage and push their project team to deliver the kind of work clients are after. However, this is not recommended with project teams. Research has shown that incentives only work in sales, NOT when you need teams to work together on producing an output (as is the case with project teams).
Drive with enthusiasm and motivation
A more effective way to guide your team to a successful delivery is to keep enthusiasm high, provide support, and reward the team as a whole - never at an individual level.
The best project managers know that projects don't move because you've put the pressure on, but because your team genuinely wants to deliver the goods. So the key here is motivation. When you lead with enthusiasm and genuine support, your team feels valued, and that's when they'll put in the hard yards.
ActiveCollab: The go-to tool for keeping projects on track
Keeping projects on track has nothing to do with luck or a good plan. Sure, a good project plan will initially set you up for success and it'll give you a good foundation to start with, but it won't give you any deadline guarantees.
What will, is effective communication, regular check-ins, and a central source of truth that comes in the form of project management software they will let you monitor and manage project progress.
ActiveCollab is the project management tool that brings order to the chaos of every project schedule and project team.
With features that actually support both your team and your clients, ActiveCollab essentially combines multiple tools into one neat platform. It lets you take care of project timelines, capacity planning, time tracking, and management, and it lets you bring your clients on the ride with you.
Whether it's spotting bottlenecks, allocating resources, or tracking milestones and deadlines, ActiveColab makes project monitoring easy for project managers and their entire team.
With ActiveCollab, you'll have one home base that houses all the answers to your project progress questions. Project tasks, budgets, and communication with your internal teams and external clients adn stakeholders all live in one spot, so you don't waste time chasing after info – ever!
But the best part about ActiveCollab is that it adapts to the way your team actually wants to work. Whether you're juggling multiple client projects, scaling your agency business, or dealing with changing requirements. It brings planning, collaboration, and accountability all into one tool, so you can monitor and execute every project with confidence.
If that's the kind of project management software tool you've been looking for, it's time you gave us a go.
Sign up for a 14-day free trial or book a demo with one of our people and take a tour of the tool that will save your budget and your deadlines!