Project Monitoring Using Excel

Making use of Excel hasn't been easier in Monitoring and Evaluation

Project monitoring has been made easier because of statistical software packages that just makes the project monitoring process alot more easier. Usually when someone thinks of research analysis, they usually run to SPSS or STATA. However, if you cant afford these statistical softwares you can make do with Excel for the time being. Ms Excel is quit significantly a good programme even for Statisticians at the highest level. What makes Ms Excel so captivating in Monitoring and Evaluation. Well here are a few pointers why this programme can sometimes be such a darling.

Giving Project Monitoring an Ms Excel touch

If you are a driver, you will agree how easy it is to drive your car without really knowing each and every detail of all the functions present in your vehicle.As long as you re comfortable driving and changing the gears, then you know just the basics of driving whatever comes after further in enhances your knowledge of driving. Same goes with statistical analysis using statistical software's like SPSS, Ms Excel or STATA. Ms Excel is relatively user friendly compared to other programmes and still gets the job done. In Monitoring and Evaluation if you are able to get the job done with Ms Excel, you can further enhance your skills later with other more complicated packages....Later that is!! It is important to realize that Ms significantly although sidelined sometimes can provide the analysis of all your Monitoring findings in an effective and sound manner. But first, let us first understand why Ms Excel is such a darling sometimes in Monitoring and Evaluation.

Why Ms Excel?

At first it was significantly difficult to answer that question, But after falling in love with Ms Excel...for a good reason ofcourse, It is just so difficult to say no to Ms Excel for Project Monitoring. There are basically three reasons why you should begin using Ms Excel for analysis. Here are the reasons and don't be shy to chip in if you have to;

1. User Friendly; Entering data or numerical values in the spreadsheets has never been easier. In Ms Excel you just open a spreadsheet and just enter numerical values. How easy is it to do it in SPSS or STATA? you answer that.

2. Graphs are Easy; The graphs in Ms Excel are so easy to do in your Project Monitoring. Graphs are very important because they communicate your findings effectively. There are many reports in the world today where you will find Ms Excel graphs all over the place. Thumbs Up!!

3. Its Cheap and Affordable; Costs are always an issue when it comes to anything you do in this world. Particularly in Monitoring and Evaluation, you want the least cost for the best results. Ms Excel in Most cases is present in almost all the computers in the world. If you want to show your spreadsheets to an individual somewhere, you are 95% sure he has the programme on his computer which will allow him to see your data entries. Not everyone has STATA or SPSS.


Being a Monitoring and Evaluation specialists is just like being a researcher, you want to communicate your findings effectively and draw some significant meaning to them. It really doesn't matter which statistical software you use but make sure that you are familiar with it and it gets the job done. Project Monitoring has never been so much easier.