A project usually starts with a plan. There are goals, a schedule, a budget, and agreements with the client. Yet, a project almost never goes exactly as expected.
That is not strange either. Project management is largely about work in the future. And no one can see into the future. During a project, new insights arise, work may fall short, available capacity changes, or a client may request something extra.
Therefore, project management is not about following a plan that was once created. It is about continuously comparing the plan with reality and adjusting based on that.
Odoo helps to capture that information in one place. But the software does not take over project management. A project manager still has to make choices, manage expectations, and sometimes have a difficult conversation.
What does project management mean?
Project management is the organizing, planning, executing, and completing of work to achieve a specific result.
This usually involves a combination of:
- a clear goal or end result;
- an agreed scope;
- a plan with milestones;
- available people and resources;
- a budget;
- agreements with the client;
- risks and potential bottlenecks;
- control over progress and quality.
A project has a beginning and an end. This distinguishes a project, for example, from regular work. A support department processes tickets every day. A project team works, for example, on an Odoo implementation, a new website, a move, or the setup of a new warehouse.
However, practice is less clear-cut than the original plan. A task takes longer than expected. An employee is unavailable. The client changes their mind. Or during execution, it turns out that a process needs to be organized differently.
Therefore, a project plan is not a prediction. It is a working agreement that you adjust throughout the project when circumstances require it.
A project manager continuously adjusts
A project manager does not only look at whether tasks are completed on time. It is about the overall picture.
Is the project still on schedule? Does the expected final expenditure still fit within the budget? Is the agreed scope still the same? Is the quality good enough? Is the client still satisfied and involved? And does the team have enough capacity to complete the project?
A deviation in one component can have consequences for the rest of the project. If a task runs two weeks over, a milestone may shift. As a result, an employee is needed longer and costs increase. The client waits longer for the result, and other projects may come under pressure.
Good project management does not mean that you try to prevent every deviation. That is usually impossible. It means that you quickly see deviations, understand the consequences, and act in a timely manner.
How does scope creep occur?
One of the biggest risks in service projects is scope creep. This means that the scope of the project gradually increases without a new agreement being consciously made about it.
A client asks an additional question during a meeting. The consultant immediately picks up that question. An employee creates an extra report. A process is set up more extensively than originally agreed.
On their own, these seem like small matters. The problem arises because no one treats them as changes. No additional assignment is made, and the extra hours are not discussed separately. At the end of the project, it turns out that much more work has been done than budgeted.
That risk is particularly high in service delivery. Service delivery says it all: you want to help the client. No one wants to constantly discuss budget overruns, delays, or additional work with the client. Yet that conversation sometimes needs to be had.
The friendliest approach is not always to just execute everything. Clarity prevents disappointment later. An additional request can certainly be executed, but it must be clear what the consequences are for planning, budget, and scope.
How does Odoo support project management?
Odoo helps project teams to structure the work and track progress. The foundation consists of projects, milestones, and tasks.
A project is divided into the following components, for example:
- preparation;
- analysis;
- setup;
- testing;
- training;
- commissioning;
- aftercare.
These components can be set up as milestones. Under each milestone are the tasks needed to complete that component.
A task then receives an owner, a planned date, and an estimate of the number of hours. For larger tasks, a main task can be split into subtasks. This keeps visible what result needs to be achieved and what concrete actions are required for that.
Odoo also supports, among other things, task views, planning, task dependencies, time tracking, and reporting. The official Odoo documentation also describes the ability to track project information, progress, hours, milestones, and financial data from the project dashboard.Odoo documentation on project management
Working with milestones and tasks
Milestones provide structure to the project. They make visible which important interim results need to be achieved.
A milestone could be, for example: “Design approved” or “Testing phase completed”. The tasks under that milestone describe what needs to happen before the result is achieved.
This helps in two ways. The team knows what the next tasks are, and the project manager can better assess whether the project as a whole is progressing.
A task that is marked as completed does not automatically mean that the project is on schedule. Other tasks may have been left undone. Or perhaps much more time has been spent than planned.
Therefore, the progress of tasks must always be viewed in relation to the planned hours, the milestone, and the final project result.
Comparing planned hours with actual hours
Employees register their worked hours on the correct task. This provides insight into the difference between the original estimate and reality.
Suppose that eight hours are planned for a task. After six hours, the task is 50 percent completed. Then the question is whether the remaining work can be completed within the planned eight hours.
Perhaps the estimate was too optimistic. Maybe the task has expanded. Or perhaps someone is working on a problem that has not yet been recorded as a separate issue.
Hour registration is therefore not only intended for billing. It is also management information. Without timely and reliable hour registration, a project manager often sees too late that a project is starting to deviate.
Odoo can link registered hours to projects and tasks. Depending on the commercial agreements made, hours can then also be used for billing.More information about Odoo project management for hours and billing
Project updates make deviations discussable
A project update is a periodic moment when the current status of the project is recorded.
A good project update includes, for example:
- the overall progress;
- the planning and the main milestones;
- the agreed budget;
- the hours spent and expected final expenditure;
- ongoing issues;
- risks;
- outstanding decisions;
- action points;
- agreements with the client.
The difference between budget and reality must be clearly stated. Not only how many hours have already been spent, but also how many hours are expected to be needed.
A project that has consumed 60 percent of the hours and is 60 percent complete looks different than a project that has consumed 60 percent of the hours while the progress is at 35 percent.
We prefer to translate action points from the project discussion directly into subtasks of the main task they relate to. This way, they do not get lost in minutes or a mailbox, but become part of the work that still needs to be done.
Project updates are also valuable after completion. They show what choices were made, when risks became visible, and why a project ultimately ran over or went well.
Give a project a score periodically
In addition to the detailed project information, we ask the project manager to periodically give the project a score.
This score is not a replacement for the project update. It is a simple alarm signal. A project can contain a lot of information on paper, while the project manager already senses that the project is not going well.
We use six criteria for this:
| Criterion | Weight | What are we looking at? |
|---|---|---|
| Planning | 25% | Are we following the agreed planning and milestones? |
| Budget | 20% | Does the expected final expenditure still fit within the budget? |
| Scope | 15% | Is the scope under control or is the project growing unexpectedly? |
| Quality | 15% | How many errors, rework, and repetitions are there? |
| Customer | 15% | How satisfied and engaged is the customer? |
| Team | 10% | Does the project team have the project under control? |
A project manager can give each criterion, for example, a score from 1 to 10. The weighted total score then provides one view of the project health.
The advantage of this is that you can compare projects with each other and quickly see where attention is needed. A project with a 7.5 can run fine, while a project with a 5.8 immediately requires discussion. The score makes the conversation more concrete.
What Odoo does not solve for you
Odoo makes information available. The system can show how many hours have been booked, which tasks are open, and whether a project is financially off track.
But Odoo cannot independently determine whether a customer request falls within the agreed scope. The system also cannot explain on behalf of the project manager that a change has implications for budget or planning.
Clear responsibilities and good communication are needed for that.
A project manager should therefore not only look at the Odoo dashboard but also regularly discuss with the team and the customer what is actually happening. The software supports that conversation with up-to-date information and established agreements.
Conclusion: project management is continuous adjustment
Project management is not a one-time exercise where you make a plan and then only check if everyone adheres to it.
A project changes. The available capacity changes. Customer wishes change. And sometimes it turns out during the work that the original estimate is incorrect.
The task of the project manager is to make those changes visible and to adjust in time. Odoo helps by breaking projects down into milestones and tasks, recording hours, documenting project updates, and tracking budget, progress, and risks.
The greatest value arises when that information is actually used. Discuss deviations. Document customer agreements. Make additional work visible. Translate actions into tasks. And regularly give the project a score.
Odoo makes project information transparent. Control only arises when you make decisions based on that information.
