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12 July 2010
Whether you have 1 employee or 10,000, your organization's ability to set milestones, create tasks to achieve those milestones and assign resources (money, staff, etc.) to completes those tasks is a big part of whether you will be successful.
Since the onset of the desktop computing era, there have been many project management software options, however, these options have often proved awkward, especially when it comes time to share the plan (and a project plan not shared is a non-starter) and keeping it up-to-date.
Typically, to share a project plan, a project manager has to print it (I am including soft forms such as PDFs here) and, if you've ever come across a printed project plan, you instantly learn two reasons why folks avoid project managers carrying handouts like the plague:
- They are really hard to use in printed form because you need to keep flipping back-and-forth between the main timeline and the tasks and the resources and all of these are on separate pages and they are hard to get to while staying on track with why you wanted to get to them and you are frustrated after about three minutes!
- Even if you don't get frustrated flipping around, printed project plans are really hard to read since they are usually shrunk down to tiny, tiny text to fit related data on a single page.
In addition, project managers often find themselves in a state of constant distraction as they need to manually maintain their project plan everytime a new email arrives with an update and, once that update occurs, they need to communicate those changes, and the implication of each, by printing and distributing the plan again leading back to where we started above.
A simple solution would be to give everyone the project management software so that they can dig down into deeper level through the plan easily in it's natural state, but this is a very expensive proposition and grows more so the bigger your company grows. Plus, project management applications are usually complex and most of your staff does not need to know how to use them; they just want to know what tasks they have to do and by when those tasks need to be done.
Yes, there are internal solutions that allow you to put project plans on your network to be accessed by many folks, but that is expensive as well and the software and hardware must be maintained by you which adds complexity and cost that you do not want or need. Believe me, I've lived through the (unsuccessful) process of trying to get something like this approved at a large company. Let me tell you: no fun!
So, how can we take this important function and assure that the right information goes to, and gets collected from, the right folks in a way that is useful and manageable in the long run?
The Web to the Rescue
Online project management software, of course! (bet you did not see that coming!) Online project management tools provide the features companies require while also adding the extras that working with online software provide:
- No software or hardware management required - like all online software, project management software is hosted on the vendor's servers and all upgrades and troubleshooting is handled by the vendor's team meaning you do not incur that cost directly (yes, it is accounted for in your fees, but spread among all the clients of this vendor, not you alone).
- All you need to know is how to use a browser - Online software is used via a browser so for that majority of your staff who do not need to manage projects regularly, all they require is a link to the appropriate spots for them to see tasks, to enter notes and collaborate on tasks and to close tasks when they are complete.
- Better Process Management - online software allows you to manage your ongoing planning processes in much better ways:
- E-Mail Notifications - Because the software is online, notifications can be set up to go by e-mail or SMS without having to integrate with any additional services. This makes the project management process work more smoothly as it can automatically alert the appropriate people when:
- New tasks are assigned
- Tasks are overdue
- Tasks are complete
- Tasks are over budget
- And much, much more at any level; from task to milestone to project.
- Roles and responsibilities - many of the online project management applications allow you to set roles for both groups and individuals, assuring that people, including clients, customers, consultants, contractors and freelancers only see what they should and can only do what they need to do.
- Decentralize updates to the plan - using roles as discussed above, you can allow the person who is assigned to a task to update its status and close it as well. This allows your project manager to stay focused on higher-value tasks as opposed to changing the plan themselves every time an update e-mail arrives.
- Richer reporting - Having the plan online and in a "real-time state" (i.e. the plan is updated when something changes, not when your project manager grabs a moment to update the plan based on e-mails) allows you to get a snapshot of progress anytime and from anywhere. Preset reports can typically be tailored to any level of detail based on what information the person viewing the report requires. Even ad-hoc reporting is common, allowing for data mining based on need.
- E-Mail Notifications - Because the software is online, notifications can be set up to go by e-mail or SMS without having to integrate with any additional services. This makes the project management process work more smoothly as it can automatically alert the appropriate people when:
- Allows for collaboration - many of the online project management tools take advantage of the fact that you can access a central spot on the web from many locations and use web-based tools such as the ability to send messages within the application, forums, discussion threads, whiteboards and even instant messaging to allow teams to work together, ask questions and get their tasks done. Many also give the ability to upload and share files as well as workflow to allow for approval processes.
- Centralize and capture - With one spot online for both the project plan and all the collaboration activity and materials, online project management software becomes not only a roadmap to where you need to go, but a centralized history of how you got where you are today. You can capture every decision, every rationalization, every task, every cost and so much more and use that data to look back, not only for accounting and accountability purposes, but to for learning and process improvement.
- Minimize printing - this may seem like a minor thing, but not printing is both a boost to our planet as well as to your bottom-line cost savings on paper. Plus, as I discussed above, it eliminates the awkwardness of using paper when you need to keep flipping back=and-forth between high-level and detailed information.
What's Next?
If you want to give online project management a try, check out my post listing online business project management software and use their free trials to see what's available. If you need help picking the right tool for your company, I can help you do that.
I would love to hear about your experiences with online project management software, whether you find them in the list on my site, have found one that is not listed or have one you have already tried and/or use. Please use the comment area below to contribute to the conversation!
Comments
-Matt
It the best project management/CRM I have used. It too hard trying to keep up with all the moving parts of my business, I don't see how I made it before. When I client calls I can look up them up on my dashboard and get all the information I need.
I best part its runs on cloud software so on any computer I can get everything. I used ACT back in the day..... great post
Solve 360 looks really useful! I am going to have to dig into that tool. I will be adding it to the list of tools in the post mentioned above.
Thanks for stopping by and thanks for bringing it to Solve 360 to everyone's attention!
-Matt
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