Benchmarking projects involves comparing project processes and performance metrics to either industry best standards and practices or successful completed projects. In some instances, benchmarking comparisons are done in relation to other companies, but in terms of project estimates, these comparisons are typically done against other projects within the portfolio or program of the same organization. Benchmarking is a useful project management tool for helping project organizations select, plan, and deliver projects.
Benchmarking best practices could mean making current or upcoming projects better in terms of making them:
- More efficient (run on schedule or ahead of schedule)
- More cost effective (keeping on-budget or under budget)
- More customer-centric or more customer service oriented
- And/or more profitable overall
Project benchmarking involves measuring specific indicators like time, costs, and/or quality against previous project data. For benchmarking, historical project data is used to measure performance of a current or upcoming project.
To benchmark projects within ARES PRISM, historical project estimates or actual completed costs can be pushed to an add-on of PRISM Estimating software called CosMo. It can also be pulled from PRISM Cost (project cost management software), or uploaded from spreadsheets.
Within CosMo cost modelling and benchmarking software, project managers can define multiple indices and exchange rates for cost data normalization. All projects are stamped with their location on a map within the software and multiple cost coding categories can be stored for better data organization and navigation. This categorization enables bringing historical cost data to a common reference point easily, making analyzing the metrics and KPIs that matter the most simple.
Benchmarking historical data creates an organized database of a company’s best practices, whether the data is process data, cost or financial data, or other performance data.
Within CosMo, projects are organized by type, so that users can quickly check their attributes, cost information, and any supportive attachments like drawing files or project schedules. The benchmarking software allows project managers to handle large amounts of complex project data easily, saving organizations time and money. In CosMo, benchmarks can be created within seconds in a variety of reports for different target audiences. Create high-low charts to provide insights needed for defendable data from project histories in various industry standard formats to show stakeholders and executives. Benchmarking software offers project organizations a strong competitive advantage.
Learn more about getting comparative project insights today with a demo of PRISM Estimating and its benchmarking add-on, CosMo.