What are KPIs in project management?

• Project schedule

• The approximate time it takes to complete a project

• Labor costs accrued each month

• Current development backlog

• Current resource allocation

Project managers use KPIs as a performance management tool to ensure that their team, or teams, are on track for completion of and within budget for the necessary tasks or features of a project.

This helps teams to unite and shoot for a common goal or objective. Measuring performance gives project managers key insights into what operations of a project are running optimally and what operations are sub-par and need adjustments or further development.

Key performance indicators help organizations to collect essential data to further the improvement of projects. KPIs, in general, are agreed upon by all supervisors and sometimes stakeholders before a project starts.

The goal of most KPIs is to have them be quantifiable measurements that can be analyzed and then shared across an organization's different departments or teams.