Setting up a project management and reporting tool for an R&D team
In brief
The research and development team at a semi-public organisation in the construction sector had no structured tool to track its projects or produce consolidated reporting. Tracking relied on scattered documents and informal exchanges between the people involved.
The challenge
Without a shared tool, each research project was tracked in its own way, depending on the habits of whoever was leading it. Management had no consolidated view across all ongoing projects, making priority decisions difficult to justify objectively. An additional complication came from subsidised projects, each with its own reporting requirements from the relevant funder, different from projects financed from the organisation's own resources.
The approach
A project management and CRM tool was selected and configured around the R&D team's actual needs, rather than a standard commercial use case. The tracking structure, fields, statuses and reports were defined together with the team itself, to reflect how research projects actually progress, from the initial idea through to the results.
The tool was designed to support two levels of reporting at the same time: a shared report providing an overview of all projects, and a tailored report for each subsidised project, meeting the specific requirements of the relevant funder.
The tool was also designed to make it easier to search for specific profiles and areas of expertise across projects, so it is quicker to identify who, internally or externally, already has the experience needed for a new project.
The result
The R&D team now has structured, shared tracking of its projects, subsidised or not. Management receives consolidated, regular reporting across the full research portfolio, making prioritisation decisions easier. Finding internal and external expertise for a new project is also faster and relies less on people's memory.
What this shows
This project shows that a project management tool only adds value when it is built around how a team actually works, rather than around a generic model adopted as is. Combining shared reporting with tailored reporting makes it possible to meet external requirements without losing the internal overview.
A project management tool only helps when it reflects how your team actually works. If projects are tracked across scattered files and management lacks a reliable overall view, let's first define what really needs to be tracked.