Project delivery only becomes steerable once you measure it – and while the project runs, not only afterwards. This article belongs to layer 3 of the project-delivery guide – “measurable data” – and describes the metrics you use to run projects: what each says, why it matters, and honestly: whether you reach it with teamspace and via which analysis.
Prerequisite for almost everything: Margin, contribution margin and earned value only compute if the internal cost rate of employees is maintained (HR portal, per period) and hours are booked promptly. See Hourly rates, salaries and remuneration and Book project times.
Three guiding disciplines, three questions
The metrics of project delivery sort into three attitudes – each answers a different question:
- Margin as the lead metric: Are we earning on the project – or burning it?
- Early warning, not a post-mortem: Is the project on plan – and if not, do I see it early enough?
- Resources before tasks: Are the scheduled employees sensibly utilised?
Margin – are we earning on the project?
| Metric | What it says | With teamspace? |
|---|---|---|
| Project margin / contribution margin | Income minus the project’s costs – how profitably it runs. | ✅ Direct – teamspace calculates the contribution margin automatically and always up to date (based on the internal cost rate); analysis in Project analysis, Employee analysis, Customer analysis. |
| Realisation rate | Billable ÷ worked hours – how much of the work turns into revenue. | ⚠️ With analysis – teamspace captures worked and (via billing methods) billable times; you derive the rate from the project-time analysis, a ready-made “realisation rate” column is not guaranteed. |
The methods behind this are explained in Project controlling methods; how to operate the reports is shown in the project reports.
Early warning – are we on plan?
| Metric | What it says | With teamspace? |
|---|---|---|
| Earned value | The value of work completed against planned and actual costs – a forecast of whether the time and cost frame will hold. | ✅ Direct – from planned costs, actual costs and the value of work completed, teamspace computes the schedule/cost variance as well as time and cost efficiency. |
| Budget consumption | Budget used against progress – is the project running too expensively for its stage? | ✅ Direct – a real-time planned/actual comparison (costs, project times) against the automatically calculated progress. |
| Schedule variance | Delay against plan in days or per cent. | ✅ Direct – planned/actual on start/end/duration, plus the schedule variance from earned value and the trend line of the Milestone trend analysis. |
Lever: The real early warning is not a figure but a mechanism: via the traffic-light method (green/amber/red per threshold) and automatic warnings (by email on request), you see deviations without constantly checking. Which projects are currently triggering warnings is shown by the
Project status analysis. This is set up under Run projects.
Resources – are we sensibly utilised?
| Metric | What it says | With teamspace? |
|---|---|---|
| Resource utilisation | How heavily the scheduled employees are utilised – over- and under-load. | ✅ Direct – the reports Capacity planning, Employee overview and the Capacity analysis tab show the utilisation; see Analyse capacities. |
In short: what teamspace delivers – and what you contribute
- Straight from the system: project margin (contribution margin), earned value, budget consumption, schedule variance and resource utilisation – plus the traffic-light and warning mechanics. These figures arise automatically once the plan, hours and cost rates are maintained.
- With a little setup: the realisation rate (derived from the time analysis) and the traffic-light thresholds you set per metric to green/amber/red.
- With context from you: the target margin band and every target – teamspace delivers the actual, you bring the target.
The common thread stays the same: earned value and margin are only as reliable as the promptly booked hours and the maintained cost rates. As maturity rises, single figures turn into automatic analyses and early warnings – see the maturity levels in the guide.
Related topics
- Project delivery in teamspace Project delivery Introduction
- Project controlling methods Controlling Concept
- Analyse projects Project management Concept
- Earned value analysis on teamspace.de