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Whether you’re in software development, SaaS, mobile app design, programming, or beyond, project management in the tech industry is critical. In today’s today’s quickly evolving, tech-reliant environment, your solutions have the power to make a real impact — meaning it’s important to quickly achieve success before your competitors do it first. No pressure, right? 

As you likely know, tech project management comes with its own unique set of challenges — challenges that can act as real road blockers that slow down the speedy nature of the industry. 

But don’t take it from us, let’s look at the numbers. According to a study from McKinsey and Company, a tech project is considered successful if it: 

  • Was completed on time
  • Was completed within budget
  • Delivered the intended benefits. 

Respondents to the survey reported that only 0.5% of their tech projects met all three of those success factors, with only 7% being delivered both on time and on budget. Additionally, projects that failed to meet at least one of the factors exceeded budgets by 75%, went over schedule by 46%, and resulted in 39% less value than predicted. 

Why do so many tech projects result in (at least partial) project failure? In essence, it comes down to improper project management — but a time tracking solution can easily come to the rescue. 

By tracking time on each project and using the data to better plan for the future, you can solve many project management problems and usher each project into total success. 

Let’s take a look at how a powerful time tracking tool like Harvest can optimize different areas of your tech project and help your team keep a leg up on the competitors. 

Completing projects on time

As mentioned above, time is of the essence in the tech industry. Projects need to be completed inside of the designated timeline, meaning it’s critical to:

  • Accurately plan the project timeline
  • Complete tasks when expected
  • Track progress of the project in real time. 

Luckily, time tracking helps tech teams execute on all three. 

When using a time tracking tool that’s packed with powerful insights, it’s easy to map out your project timeline thanks to intuitive reports into how previous projects performed. Once you’ve built a library of previous projects, you can look back on similar initiatives and better understand how long tasks take — making the planning process accurate, simple, and thoughtful. 

Once your plan is in place, you can easily assign tasks and monitor progress in real time. You can even use custom reports to assess when your project is in danger of running off course — and make corrections before the dreaded scope creep takes its toll. 

Completing projects on budget

Ready for another shocking statistic? A study by the Harvard Business Review found that 16% of tech projects run over budget by a whopping 200% — highlighting the true need for a powerful tool to help tech companies to keep track of resources before things go off the rails. 

Time tracking is a great solution. Time tracking software like Harvest turns timesheet data into intuitive visual reports to help you make decisions and ensure your projects run smoothly. You can set project budgets, see how much has been used in real time, and even use alerts to help your team know when they’re reaching a certain level of costs.

Additionally, you can track internal costs and rates so you can pinpoint which tasks are impacting expenses the most. 

Delivering the intended benefits

It’s no secret how quickly workloads can build up in the tech industry. And as bandwidth decreases, the risk of burnout rises — meaning both your team and project quality can suffer. 

The tech industry typically operates under fast-changing environments, uncertainty, and shifting priorities, so it’s not too surprising that a lack of focus was a top factor in project failure according to the previously mentioned McKinsey and Company study. 

And with one study showing that 42% of tech employees are at risk of burnout, it’s understandable that focus levels can sometimes fall short. 

It’s important to continuously assess the state of your team: Do they have too much on their plate? Or do they have room in their schedule to focus on more complex projects? 

Using time tracking software provides an easy, in-depth view of each team member’s capacity in real time. For example, Harvest’s capacity reporting allows you to see who’s overworked and who’s under-utilized at a glance. This means you can easily assign team members who have the best opportunity to perform their best work, resulting in a deliverable that meets (or even exceeds) expectations. 

Harness the power of tech time tracking with Harvest

It’s clear that the right time tracking tool is essential for tech companies to fully thrive — and Harvest is the top solution. With Harvest, you get all of the benefits mentioned above, plus additional features like flexible invoicing, convenient payment methods, and more.

The best part? Harvest is cloud-based, so it can be accessed from anywhere, making it perfect for remote teams or businesses with multiple locations. Plus, our user-friendly interface can help you get started without any additional help needed.

Take your tech team’s project management to the next level with Harvest —sign up now for a free trial.