It is understandable that companies may want to cut expenses by performing manual documentation of data in a spreadsheet format for project organization. However, although a spreadsheet can provide these services it is not as diverse in efficiencies as web-based project management software powered by a commercial database. This type of software can provide multiple services such as employee scheduling, project scheduling, communication platform, organized documentation, and many more.
Spreadsheets are known as a domain for manual data documentation which can be used for project management however, here are the reasons it is inefficient:
- Manual data collection and documentation
- No automatic assignment of tasks
- No automatic updates and reports
- No project updates or tracking
- Manual financial calculations of resources
Further we will discuss why using web-based project management software within your company is more efficient and worth the investment:
Project Progression
The requirement of project manager’s to constantly question employees on the status of their project is an inefficient method prone to human error. This collection of information must also be diligently inputted into Excel by the one individual each time a round check-in has been performed. The frequent questioning of employee’s progress may cause them to feel a lack of trust towards their superiors. However, project management software can be utilized to avoid human error and maintain this trust within the team.
Dependency and Documentation
Utilizing spreadsheets within your company causes a great dependence on one individual to input and update data. This does not make it easy to track changes and alter timelines which are important functions when managing a project. The reliance on one individual and lack of tracking changes can very easily lead to errors in documentation. The implementation of web based project management software can track changes automatically and eliminate reliance on one individual.
Project Summaries
To provide a summary of all aspects of your project without the use of a project management software can become complex with multiple open tabs including emails, data, and documentation.
In contrast project management software provides a detailed summary of the lifespan of your project. This type of software has the capacity of managing all departments of an organization, not simply just the IT department. The functions of this software include but are not limited to; financials, project updates, scheduling, document organization, communication systems, and tasks.
Building Reports
Spreadsheets are simply a domain where data is inputted and stored, they do not provide a built-in reporting system. However, project management software builds reports for you so your time is not consumed scouring data and locating documents.
Data Organization
Spreadsheets may be useful for storing data in one specific place but when it comes to managing a project, multiple members of the team need access to this information. There is usually one person in charge of maintaining the data updates when updates are manual. This means employees cannot make project updates in real time leading to a greater margin for error in data records.
Project management software is intended to provide companies with the tools to maintain organization and efficiency within projects.
Request a demo today to learn more about what project management software can do for your company.
Four Essential Tools for a Good Project Manager
Artists have their brush and paint. Journalists have a pen and paper. Carpenter’s have their hammer and nails. What do all of these have in common? The tools associated with the profession are the golden standards for their practice. Although they are not required, (i.e an artist using a pencil or a carpenter using a drill) they are often used because of their effectiveness and reliability. When applying this methodology to the role of a project manager, how does it apply?
The role of the project manager boils down to keeping your project and everyone working on it organized. A good project manager knows what is going on with their project at all times and should always be connected with their employees. You have to keep your team motivated to continue working until the project is completed. Using this explanation, we can induce the four essential tools for a project manager.
1. Project Management Software
In our technological age and the accessibility of the internet, thousands of great resources can be found online for keeping your project organized. There is great project management software (PMS) that provides great tools to help manage your employees. The dashboard gives a visual for you and your employees to see the layout of tasks needed to be complete. Additionally, a scheduling system is incorporated so that employees know their timelines for deadlines. The dashboard and schedules are constantly updated to stay connected with your team so they always know what needs to be done.
Benefits:
- keeps a visual representation of task completion
- optimizing scheduling for maximum efficiency
- staying connected with employees
2. Project Milestones
Setting project milestones is another important aspect of being a project manager. Keeping your employees on track is one of your main responsibilities. Don’t just put project milestone haphazardly, it is important to properly spread them out {hyperlink to Importance of Properly Setting Project Milestones}. Each project milestone should be meaningful to the project and to the employees. Take into account the timing, visibility, accountability, and fallibility of the project milestone to ensure the milestone is hard-fought when achieved.
Benefits:
- gives you a timeline of task completion
- sets a scope for a complete project
- motivates employees by seeing each goal as reachable
3. Analytic Reports
Analytic reports are a great way to numerically measure the progression of your project. Using the data collected from your scheduling time and work efficiency, you are able to see the effectiveness of your employees, when their efficiency or effectiveness drops and try to find a solution that you as the PM can do. When making decisions about the project such as scope or direction, consult the analytics because the truth is often found in the numbers.
Benefits:
- provides a numerical report of the progress
- project manager can make more informed decisions about the scope and direction of the project
4. Employee Engagement
Employee engagement is a great way to keep employees enjoying their work. More employee engagement means more positivity, productivity, and creativity. Employees are less likely to quit boosting company productivity ultimately saving you money. Overall employee engagement – whether it’s through team retreats or casual Fridays, is important to the environment of your project.
Benefits:
- employees work better when they are engaged at work
- keeps employees happy and healthy
These essential tools are some of the project manager’s greatest assets when working on a project. Each of these tools plays a role in helping the PM do his job to his fullest. Like the brush and paint for an artist, a PM’s tools are essential to his work.
What to Look for in Project Management Software
Managing an organized work schedule and workload can be difficult. Managing many people’s workloads and schedules can be even more difficult. Having organized project management software in place to organize the resources, events, and schedules will make the job of the project managers a whole lot easier.
Project management software can provide services that will help businesses organize teams and projects in an organized fashion. Not all software offers the same services. Here are the necessities of a good project management software system:
Resource Visibility
When deciding on a project management software, always keep in mind whether it will have complete resource visibility. When acting as the project manager of an operation, understanding the assets you have and how you are going to use them is important to keep organized and on budget. Project management software should visually inform the project managers and users of the resources currently available and what the used resources have pertained to. Additionally, it should contain all team members’ resources displayed for clarity among the team so resource utilization is maximized.
Simple Work and Event Scheduling
A good project management software system should integrate all of the user’s work and events into their system. Calendars such as Google Calendar or Outlook can be integrated so you receive email or notification reminders about upcoming events. You can also create plans or events so it will notify you in advance.
Team Member Work Loads and Scheduling
Project management software should allow for team members to be organized and managed in projects. Aspects such as their workloads and schedules can be organized and altered at any time by the manager. It should also relay clarity to the team members by including information about their assignments. Each team member works with their schedule and the system works with their availability. Finally, timesheets are included so the managers know the effort consumed to complete work. Overall, the project management software should organize the ideas and jobs of the project managers and provide a clear schedule and fair workload for employees.
Quality Project Help Desk
A very important aspect of a quality project management software is to improve customer service through the use of an integrated project help desk. A help desk is an online system where customers can comment, advise or inquire about difficult or confusing aspects of their project deliverables or experience. The customer sends a ticket to the project support team who then answers the request, which is then sent back to them. The software will set up the system and provide the support team with an organized system to address each problem. The system should allow the support tickets to be affiliated with a project since issues will arise as the project is in the development or deployment phase.
Organized Project Management Support
Overall, good project management software should provide support to the project manager through organized UI, automated reminders, visual resource management, team member overview and scheduled events. All of these aspects should be presented to the user in an organized and easy to use way. When all of these aspects are together they form a proficiently functioning project management software system.
Using Google Sheets for Project Management
Who would have thought that someone would use Google Sheets for project management?
Who would have thought that someone would use Google Sheets for project management? There’s even a G-Suite course on how to do it. Fantastic, isn’t it? I’m impressed by the ingenuity shown by individuals to create useful tools using spreadsheet programs. Google Sheets with its built-in ability to share and collaborate, make an excellent choice as a team tool.
However, I’m left wondering who would use Google Sheets to perform Project Management?
Fortune 500 to Fortune 1000 companies would use Google Sheets – not a chance. There are so many additional integrations and moving parts that a database program with programmers is the only choice. Fortune 500 organizations are using big and expensive tools to manage their projects. These tools typically have integrations into their ERP and organizational reporting systems.
Schools and Universities and publicly funded organizations would use Google Sheets to manage projects, possibly. There are times when looking for tools, asking for budget approvals and implementing software must be put aside. At those times using something like Google Sheets works; even if it means more work, less control, more error and less accuracy. I know, that doesn’t make any logical or financial sense, but when you’re dealing with publicly funded organizations, it rolls like this.
Manufacturers and Industrial businesses would use Google Sheets to manage projects – not likely. For-profit organizations know the value of a dollar so creating project management systems using spreadsheets is not an option; it takes too long, is not accurate enough, has no controls and is prone to error. When it comes to making money, that also means spending less. When customer satisfaction, timeliness of the project, scope and cost are on the line, having a real project management system pays.
If Google Sheets works for you – super! If not, you might want to try out a formalized, highly controlled project management system like TeamHeadquarters. It assigns tasks, tracks task updates, helps to create status updates and provides the perfect opportunity to monitor resource utilization.
Is Project Management Timing Everything?
Project management timing is everything, right? That’s how you succeed in most of life’s pursuits. “Where the rocky road of preparation intersects the freeway of opportunity.” This is a great way to think about education, preparation, practice, discipline, and work ethic. It is not always the best way to prioritize work. Why not use management, instead of timing, to set priorities?
Making Sense of Help Desk and Project Management
Why would an IT organization need to have a team management solution that brings together a help desk tool and a project management tool into one, integrated environment? To understand this question lets break the IT department into components:
How is work assigned to the IT Department?
Strategies and directives set at director levels trickle down into IT as projects to be executed. These projects, when executed and turned into working components that will somehow help the organization meet the strategies and directives once set.
- Managers request changes to applications and network infrastructure. There is an ongoing dialogue between departmental management and the IT group that facilitates change. Changes, large or small will either become projects or short-term tasks.
- End-users request help. PC’s break, connectivity of devices needs to occur, new staff is hired, old ones are fired. There are a never-ceasing ebb and flow to the needs of end-users.
- Operational, long-term, activities are in place to keep all the equipment and software running in peak condition. These tasks and mini-projects are vital to the organizations’ livelihood and consist of maintenance and regulatory tasks performed routinely.
IT teams are organized in a pyramid of cost and scarcity. The top is the most expensive and least plentiful, the bottom the least expensive and most plentiful. Typical IT organizations consist of level one help desk staff, level two analysts, level three experts, one or two project managers and a number of managers, all silo’d by a pool of expertise.
Help desk staff are typically isolated from the rest of the team as they are dealing with end-user and customer requirements. The level two staff are writing programs and executing operational tasks. Level three teams are working with level 1 and 2 staff to lend their expertise where required.
Level one: most plentiful, least expensive, typically not working on projects or operational activities. Level one requires a help desk solution to manage incoming requests for service and to escalate requests to level two.
Level two: mid-level cost, more plentiful, the project workhorses of the organization and the team where many of the level one issues are escalated into. Require help desk solution to manage escalated calls from level one and require project management solution to manage assigned tasks.
Level three: most expensive, scarcest, tough to get hold of and high importance to the organization because of their subject matter expertise. Require help desk solution to manage escalated requests from levels one and two and project management to manage tasks. Add in a project manager and various management teams with the need to get projects done on time, optimize resources and keep costs down and we now have a daunting job of managing this group.
How can IT create a defensible position within the corporation?
With the truth. To gather the truth you need to have all the time captured on all activities by all staff. This means that the levels one, two and three are capturing their time against help desk requests, project tasks, and routine operational activities. Then, as a management team, the truth of what has occupied the IT team’s time is delivered in standard reports.
Get the proper tools
Providing the tools required to help you learn the truth about your organization:
- Help Desk to manage all incoming work from end-user and customer communities;
- Project Management to manage all planned activities, tasks and projects, and routine operational activities.
- Project Portfolio Management for Project Managers to deliver real-time, concise and accurate information to project sponsors.
- Resource Management Reports to optimize and schedule staff.
Learn how to optimize your IT team with TeamHeadquarters.
TIPS
- Focus on the core competencies of your organization. If you’re an insurance company then your IT team should be focused on how to deliver the services of an insurance company. add-on application like IT Management Software should be outsourced to SaaS
- Take it slow. When making a change in the IT organization you’ll have the most resistance and least amount of agreement from level three staff. Focus on level 1, they’ll be more compliant.
- Keep it simple. Complex models breed complexity so, by keeping it simple you’ll be able to do more with less.
- Flatten your IT group. Take the Kaizen model of IT management and organize your expertise units. This takes you away from an isolated grid of silos towards functional teams that work together to solve issues quickly.
[Read more…] about Making Sense of Help Desk and Project Management