Which type of tool can you use to accomplish the following activities in your project?
Do you plan at best your projects from the start? Do you follow the right project management steps to keep track of everything? Are you able to estimate the right amount of resources required for each task? Show
Activities coordination and progress monitoring are two key steps to succeed. If you would like a 360° sight on your project, the equation is simple: method + communication and interpersonal skills + pragmatism! 4 steps to follow to succeed in your projectStep 0: Application of project management best practicesFirst, let’s remember that to effectively manage a project and ensure its follow-up, it is crucial to:
Project Management covers both the organization and the planning of the project, from the idea to the follow-up. Both strategic and operational sides are taken into account, estimated and planned. The main steps to follow are: Step 1: Definition of the project’s objectivesTo run a project, you need to have a clear view of where you are going. Set a project scope using a pyramidal structure from the main goal to the smallest sub-tasks as follow :
Once you have achieved this, you will have a clearer idea of your principal milestones and the entity of the project itself. Step 2: Analysis and estimation of tasks workloadsOnce you have defined all the steps through the project completion, you need to estimate the time required to complete them: the deadline to meet, and the logical flow. All this is possible thanks to the definition of:
Step 3: Allocation of the required resourcesThis step is crucial, the most accurate your analysis is, the less you will have unpleasant surprises. For each task, you need to define the needs related to:
Step 4: Follow-up of the projectTo avoid the tunnel effect you need to follow each phase of your project. Simply put, adopt the lean method. You will be able to face problems as they come and react quickly:
Why and how to follow up on your project?By managing your tasks and their follow-up properly, you are able to:
To achieve this, the project manager can rely on:
See also
Project monitoring toolsAs briefly seen above, here are the key tools: The specifications
Their purpose is to have written down all requests from the client or from management (internal projects). It is a reference point for the objectives to be achieved. It, therefore, provides a framework for monitoring:
ReportsWe are living at the age of dematerialization; project management cannot ignore it. Especially when it comes to projects with teams on the field, paper reports are no longer a suitable solution. With software like Kizeo Forms, your mobile teams enter their reports and progress in real-time. The interface also allows you to export and analyze this data, for optimal and geolocalized monitoring, regardless of your sector of activity. Follow-up meetingsThe agile method favours short-term planning and, consequently, quick but regular, face-to-face meetings to define tasks and primary corrective actions. This short-cycle project management strategy reduces the tunnel effect and provides better visibility and responsiveness to unexpected events. All project stakeholders know who is doing what and where is everyone at. DashboardThe dashboard is a proactive and methodological tool to monitor your projects closely. It allows you to see instantly all key data, objectives, risks, resources and anticipate potential problems. In the long run, it also serves as a reporting tool to understand management's areas of progress. To use it and choose realistic, measurable and timely Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), ask yourself the right questions, for example:
KPIs such as duration gap, budget gap, are essential to the execution of a project. They help you to evaluate a situation at a given time and to make an appropriate decision. A tool such as RationalPlan is essential to optimally manage dashboards and KPIs. Moreover, thanks to its collaborative functions the whole team will have access to the same database avoiding any information silos. The Gantt chartThe Gantt chart is another popular visualization tool. In particular, it allows you to:
the activities and workload of each member of your team. How? By presenting tasks progress on a graph, with the list of activities (on the y-axis) and the time units (on the x-axis). Each of its tasks can be linked to:
An example of a Gantt Chart in Monday.com The Kanban boardWidely used in agile methods, it allows the representation of the workflow (task processing progress), on the principle of sticky notes on a table. Each task status shifts from "scheduled" to "in progress" and finally "completed". A Kanban board in WrikeProject management softwareProject management software is a tool that assists you in decision-making and anticipation. A follow-up with Excel is certainly an option for small projects. Otherwise cloud solutions have the advantage of allowing real-time monitoring, regardless of the deadline, budget, complexity or number of stakeholders. Communication is also facilitated. Using a collaborative approach, teamwork is relieved, with everyone's tasks well defined and accessible. Among other examples, Monday.com is an intuitive project management tool. It provides highly visual dashboards, with Gantt chart and Kanban board, to monitor project progress, estimate the workload and continuously evaluate the budget. Monday.com’s dashboard Furthermore, Project management solutions such as Wrike allow you to monitor deadlines and dependencies of your team to get a real picture of the situation. Wrike’s Timetable Benefits of project management softwareBenefits of customized management software are numerous, among them:
Monitor your project closelyThe success of a project depends on controlling time, budget and available resources. Strategic management (or monitoring), also involves the capitalization of the knowledge of your project team and rigorous monitoring, to recover easier in the event of a problem. The benefits are obvious: time savings, financial savings, competitiveness, productivity, customer satisfaction but also the satisfaction of your employees. It all leads to motivation and reinforced commitment... to be able to keep on planning projects efficiently! Transparency is an essential value for Appvizer. As a media, we strive to provide readers with useful quality content while allowing Appvizer to earn revenue from this content. Thus, we invite you to discover our compensation system. Learn more What tools do you use in a project?The top 5 project management tools for project teams. Gantt Charts. Gantt chart is one of the top project management tools. ... . Work Breakdown Structure. The Work Breakdown Structure is the first and most important tool in project planning. ... . Project Baseline. ... . Team Building Activities. ... . Communications management plan.. What tools are used to develop the project team?Explanation. Tools and techniques used in the "Develop Team" process include: interpersonal skills, training, teambuilding activities, ground rules, colocation, and recognition and rewards.
What is the best tool to manage projects?10 Best Project Management Tools (Features, Pros, Cons, Pricing). Asana.. Trello.. Workzone.. ProofHub.. MeisterTask.. Monday.com.. Teamwork.. Podio.. Which of the following tools can be used for project scheduling?GanttPRO. GanttPRO is a Gantt chart-based project management tool for teams of all sizes. Besides the project scheduling feature, the software offers other robust features to make your workflow and team collaboration much more efficient and smoother.
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