What is Productivity in Project Management? How to Increase Productivity?

Productivity in project management is closely related to efficiency and effectiveness. Being efficient implies doing any work best without wasting energy or time. At the same time, effectiveness implies giving the expected output. As project managers, it is necessary to ensure your team is productive. Project productivity in project management is essential to ensure that the client receives the best results. 

If you want to excel in project management, you can go for Project Management training and certification program. This certified course is ideal for any aspiring project manager. In this article, we will discuss the productivity tools for project management, types and examples. 

What is Productivity in Project Management? 

Project productivity is defined as the relationship between the results of a project and the cost or time needed. Productivity measures how efficiently a business or the employees convert inputs, such as capital and labour, into outputs, such as services and goods. 

Project managers are responsible for the performance of their teams. As a project manager, ensuring every team member is at maximum productivity is essential. 

A well-managed team is bound to increase productivity. Increasing productivity will make the project more organized and structured. This helps Project Managers, and their teams improve the quality of their work by ensuring all the other aspects of the project are under control. 

Productivity in project management maximizes the gains of the business. This can either be direct - via improved quality and productivity or indirectly - by gaining various talents, upskilling them, and employing them in the future. 

Components of Productivity 

There are four main components of productivity as below:

1. Strategy - We often tend to set unrealistic goals for ourselves. To avoid this, it is necessary to plan every day strategically. Write down all the tasks you need to accomplish, giving you a clearer vision of what you need to do. 

2. Focus - With too much on your plate, it is easy to lose focus. It is necessary to concentrate on one task at one time. Ensure you don't juggle tasks but focus on one task at a time. 

3. Productive Choosing - There is only a certain amount of time in our hands daily. You must figure out how to wisely use this time. Choose which task needs immediate attention and which can be dealt with later. 

4. Consistency - The key to remaining productive is to have a consistent pace. The goal is not to finish the task as soon as possible. Rather be consistent with the work. 

Importance of Productivity in Project Management 

For the successful completion of any project, productivity is one of the most important factors. Project Managers understand that the productivity of the team members will help the company achieve its organizational goals. Here’s how productivity can be an effective fuel to drive organizational growth.

Adherence to Timeline: Productivity is known to bring tasks to end at their stipulated time, ensuring deadlines are being obeyed at all costs. From planning to implementation, productivity ensures that each task is being accomplished under their set timeframe, resulting better time management and results.

Optimal Resource Utilization: Resource allocation is the key to accomplishing projects effectively. As all employees follow a productive approach towards their work, it simplifies resource allocation, enabling organizations to achieve decided goals while saving costs on outsourcing resources. 

Assured Quality: Higher levels of productivity work as a prominent reason behind delivering a high-quality project. Since productivity makes room for more time and resources, it gets easier to align these resources on other tasks such as quality check, ensuring precision in all deliverables. 

Team Motivation: Besides bringing in a sense of achievement, timely delivery and high-quality deliverables always bring in happy clients leading to a positive working environment for teams and the drive to deliver even more exceptional results.

How to Increase Project Productivity? 

We have talked about the importance of productivity in project management. Now, we will talk in detail about how to increase project productivity: 

Setting Realistic Goals 

This is one of the most important factors - set goals. Set goals which are understandable and attainable for the entire team. Not setting well-defined goals can result in project failures. 

For project management, it is necessary to set straightforward and measurable goals. Setting these goals will increase the productivity of the team immensely. 

Developing a Detailed Project Plan 

If you want to conquer a particular project with the help of a team, creating a detailed project plan that everyone is on board with is very important. A detailed project plan will help avoid any major mishappening. 

If your team has a detailed plan, they can also set personal goals for themselves as to how they want to complete the task allotted to them. 

Monitor Project Progress 

To track the progress of a project, Project Managers create key performance indicators (KPIs) such as:

1. Timeline of the project
2. The budget allotted and used
3. Quality expectations 

Checking these KPIs regularly helps track the progress of a project. In this way, you can find errors and make the necessary changes. 

Providing Right Tools 

Providing project productivity tools will surely help the performance of any team. Using proper tools can help keep the employees organized and increase efficiency. Check out Project Management Professional (PMP) certification and ace your PMP exam in the very first go and better understand effective project productivity tools. 

Streamline Communication

Streamlining communication is very effective as it saves time and helps employees develop effective relationships among themselves. You can practice streamlining communication by making roles explicit, using confirming phrases, and setting rules for communication channels. 

Optimizing Resource Allocation 

Resource allocation is the method by which assets are assigned and managed to support the company’s strategic planning goals. With optimized resource allocation, there is going to be a boost in productivity. 

Creating a Healthy Work Environment 

Having a healthy work environment helps increase the project productivity of a team. With a happy mindset, the employees are more likely to think creatively, support each other, take calculated risks, and remain organized. 

Delegate and Empower Team Members 

One of the main things in project management is the delegation of work. The Project Manager must identify the strong points of every team member and delegate work accordingly. This helps boost the morale and empowers the employees. 

Encouraging Team Collaboration 

Team collaboration is an approach to project management that stresses innovative thinking, teamwork, and equal participation of all team members. Encouraging team collaboration ensures that the work is being completed more efficiently. 

How to Measure Productivity in the Workplace? 

Measuring productivity in the workplace is crucial for organizations to assess performance, identify areas for improvement, and make informed decisions. Project productivity can be calculated using the productivity formula in project management.

Productivity = Total value of work (in $) / Total hours worked (in hours)

Types of Productivity Measures 

There are four main types of productivity measures. Here we will talk about them in detail:

Labor Productivity 

Labor productivity can be defined as the production of every worker or every hour. This type of productivity is largely driven by technological progress, strategies for management, workforce inputs, etc. The growth in labour productivity can be measured by any change in economic output every labour hour over a defined period. 

Total Factor Productivity 

Total factor productivity (TFP) showcases a business’s productivity by determining how much it produces and what it requires to get that result. It can be calculated by dividing the total production by average costs. 

It is used for determining the performance level of any business as well as its efficiency. A lot of factors affect the TFP of a company. The better the management, human resources, and technology, the better the result. 

Capital Productivity

Capital productivity is the measure of how well the physical capital is being used to offer services and goods. It measures the effectiveness and efficiency of capital investments for generating operational outputs. 

A higher capital productivity number showcases the proper use of physical capital for producing goods or services. On the other hand, a lower capital productivity number showcases the inefficient use of physical capital. 

Material Productivity 

The output is compared to the used material when measuring productivity in terms of materials. Chemicals, fuel, or heat are materials used to produce goods or services. It gives the measure of the amount of output generated for every unit of input. Online PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner certification will support you in your learning about various other productivity measures. 

Examples of Productivity in Project Management 

The measure of labour productivity is the project productivity measure for a project. This is done based on the productivity formula, with parameters usually tracked on projects. The following are some of the examples: 

Earned Value 

Using the formula of productivity given above, let’s consider an example. For instance, a project has the earned value of $350,000 and 2000 hours of work:

Productivity = $350,000 / 2000 = $175 / hour 

Productivity will only measure labour but not efficiency, which includes all costs. 

Line of Code

Productivity in project management can also be measured by looking at project productivity metrics, such as lines of code. For instance, any software project which produces 500,000 lines of code in 2000 hours:

Productivity = 500,000 / 2000 = 250 lines of code / hour 

Conclusion 

Productivity is a very crucial component for the successful completion of any project. The standard approach for determining productivity is to compare a total result with a single or an overall input with an overall output over time. Project productivity management plays a crucial role in completing a project.

If you want to build your career in project management, learning and implementing good productivity is essential. Check out KnowledgeHut Project Management online course, which is ideal for any aspiring project manager. This course will help you get a head start in your project management career.