Track the work delivered on a project with the manage project delivery business process area
Applies to: Dynamics 365 Project Operations, Dynamics 365 Finance, Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, Dynamics 365 Field Service, Dynamics 365 Human Resources
This article describes how you can use Dynamics 365 products to support your organization's business processes for delivering work on a project.
The manage project delivery business process area is key to tracking the work that is delivered on a project. It helps ensure that the final outcomes are provided to stakeholders in a diligent and timely manner. During this phase, all the tasks, activities, and milestones that are outlined in the project plan are performed and completed. Depending on the nature of the project, work might include various activities, such as the examples in the following list:
- Design
- Development
- Testing
- Documentation
- Quality assurance
We recommend that you use a structured approach to track, record, and manage the effort that team members and resources invest in these activities. In this way, you gain valuable insights into how the project is progressing and how project objectives are being met.
This business process area also covers the evaluation of project performance, estimation of task completion times, and identification of potential bottlenecks. In addition, it facilitates the assessment of resource allocation, and therefore helps optimize workforce use and enhance project efficiency. Through the systematic capture of project time, organizations enhance their ability to deliver projects on schedule, allocate resources effectively, and boost overall productivity.
Ideally, the structure of the manage project delivery business process is defined during the early stages of project implementation. By outlining the manage project delivery process as project parameters, timelines, and resource allocation are being established, you ensure that accurate data collection begins from the project's inception. Although the process might naturally evolve as the project progresses, it's important to lay its foundation before the project work begins.
Stakeholders
Many people across the organization should contribute to the decision-making process and design of the manage project delivery area. The following list provides examples of such stakeholders:
- Project management stakeholders – Examples: Program managers, Portfolio managers, Project managers, and Resource managers
- Executive stakeholders – Example: Executive sponsor
- Finance department
Manage project delivery process flow
The following diagram illustrates the manage project delivery business process area.
Each solid gray rectangle on the diagram represents an end-to-end business process. The solid blue rectangle represents the business process area. The diagram shows the subprocesses for the business process area. The arrows on the diagram show the flow of the business process in an organization. If a subprocess can lead to more than one other subprocess, the parallel subprocesses are shown as branches.
The flow diagram covers the following steps.
Start
Project to profit end-to-end process
Manage project scope and schedule business process area as an upstream process
- Plan project scope and schedule
Resource a project business process area as an upstream process
Manage project delivery business process
Execute project task
Enter time
Time entry need adjustments?
- A parallel branch for Yes leads to Correct time.
- No leads to Submit time.
Approve time?
- A parallel branch for Yes leads to Approve time.
- No leads to Reject time.
A parallel branch from Approve time leads to:
- Recall time if a user must recall a previously approved time entry.
- Estimate task effort if tasks require further update.
Manage project scope and schedule business process area as a downstream process
- Revise project scope and schedule
End
Manage project delivery benefits
Many key benefits can be used to monitor and measure the success of implementing technology to support the manage project delivery business process area. The following sections outline the key benefits that an organization might monitor and measure for manage project delivery.
Accurate project tracking
In Dynamics 365 Project Operations, you can track, with a high degree of precision, the time that is spent on various tasks and activities in projects. The real-time data gives project managers and stakeholders a comprehensive view of project progress. Therefore, it helps them make informed decisions and any adjustments that are required.
Optimized resource allocation
By aligning project time data with resource availability, managers can ensure that resources are efficiently allocated. Therefore, they can prevent overbooking and underuse.
Accurate cost estimation and budget management
Dynamics 365 Project Operations helps with accurate cost estimation and budget management by linking time data with resource costs. This integration helps organizations maintain tight control over project budgets and expenses.
More transparency
Dynamics 365 Project Operations promotes transparency, because project stakeholders can access real-time data about the project's progress and use of resources. This transparency fosters accountability among team members and instills trust in project management.
Increased efficiency
The delivery of project work facilitates streamlined communication and progress tracking for both team members and project managers. Because task updates are centralized in one location, users can quickly report their dedicated efforts toward project tasks. Project managers can then efficiently review the submitted work, and either approve or reject it. Therefore, this approach allows for prompt updates about project progress.
In addition, you can create pro forma invoices from time that is submitted and approved for the project. In this way, you decrease the time and coordination effort that are required to invoice for work that is done on projects.
Increased reliability
The delivery of project work through Dynamics 365 Project Operations streamlines and standardizes time entry and reporting processes. This approach increases the reliability of data and processes, and therefore helps prevent duplication, mismatch, or omission of data.
Next steps
If you want to implement Dynamics 365 solutions to help with your manage project delivery business processes, use the following resources and steps to learn more. (Links are added, when the articles are ready.)
Manage project contracts
Manage project delivery (the article that you're currently reading)
Related information
You can use the following resources to learn more about the manage project delivery process in Dynamics 365.
Dynamics 365 Project Operations - Project Management and Time Entry (Dynamics 365 Community Blog)
Find definitions of terminology that is used in content for manage project delivery in the Glossary of terms in Dynamics 365 business processes article. For example, this glossary includes the following terms:
Contributors
This article is maintained by Microsoft. It was originally written by the following contributors.
Principal authors:
- Tim Horgan | Technical Specialist
- Andreea Bunduc | FastTrack Solution Architect