Progress is not always easy to measure during a negotiation, mediation, or an attempted collaboration.  Sure, it is easy to measure lack of progress as it is laden with clear negative emotions and also the lack of a resolution or jointly decided upon conclusion but positive progress is not as easily defined.

As I am currently involved in research on crisis and hostage negotiations, fortunately scholarship has addressed this issue within this particular context.  Although law enforcement crisis and hostage negotiation is a niche area of conflict resolution that unless you are working in it, it seemingly does not have direct relevance, it can still provide learning lessons.

Measuring progress is not only necessary for the parties involved in the direct negotiation to allow them to stop and see how far they have come, it is also often necessary as it is a validation tool to superiors (we all have bosses to answer to!) to continue negotiating.

The following list is adapted from a variety of sources^ based on crisis and hostage incidents while I added a brief explanation on how it can apply to your conflict resolution situation as well: