Whether the project you’re managing is your first or twenty-first, there’s a lot to do if you want to make sure everything comes together. You likely have a boss or customer that relies on you, a budget to stick to, and a team to lead with a limited amount of time to accomplish your goals.
Scope creep, incomplete documentation, and interpersonal conflict are all possible if you manage a project poorly, so you’ll need a way to stay organized at work or your home office.
How To Organize Projects At Work and At Home
No matter where or when you decide to tackle a project, the organization is the key to your success. Here are 5 ways project managers can make their team (or themselves) more productive.
1. Use Project Management Software
According to the most recent data, only 16% of companies are using project management software. These stats are unfortunate, as project management software is specifically designed to help you track tasks, give roles and duties to team members, and delegate workflow.
While some smaller teams could get away with using spreadsheets for project management, industries that have compliance measures can leave important tasks up to chance. Labs, for example, should use an electronic laboratory notebook to document and preserve experiments.
2. Create a Step-By-Step Project Plan
Photo by Paico Oficial on Unsplash
One of the first steps to staying organized is getting organized. To lay the groundwork for your success, you need a good plan, and a project planning document can make that happen. With a project plan, you can visually see a roadmap and its steps that get you to the end result.
As a rule, a project plan outlines the project scope, and it should be as detailed as possible to be effective. You’ll need to fill in details, like your budget, project timeline, roles and responsibilities, project goals and objectives, project deliverables, and your schedule.
3. Work With Hard, Unchanging Deadlines
Setting a hard deadline for your projects can help you understand if you’re making progress. But, you can’t just make deadlines for the entire project; you should also put due dates on individual action items. That way, you can see what part of the project requires more time.
Deadlines are a great way to help your project team stay focused. However, make sure your deadlines are achievable based on other projects, skills, and budgets. You may be able to push projects out the door faster, but unrealistic deadlines can greatly damage team morale.
4. Define Individual Action Item Priorities
If you decided on a project plan, you’ve likely used an A, B, C method to reach your end goal. While that’s appropriate if you need to finish one part to get to the next, there are other times when this method will slow your team down. In these cases, create a separate priorities list.
Photo by Marissa Grootes on Unsplash
Action items that require the most time or need to be completed before you can start on another action item should be at the top of the list. Then, add items to the list that decrease in order of importance after your most essential task. Cross these items off one by one until you’re finished.
5. Communicate Well With Your Team
Whether you work directly with a team or independently under your or your employer’s direction, there needs to be a decent back and forth between everyone involved. A whopping 20% of project failures are caused by poor communication. Don’t underestimate its importance.
Every team member plays an essential role in the success of a project. Communicate when you don’t understand the process, you need more time on your section, and you’re finished with your part of the project. When everyone is on the same page, you’ll complete projects faster.
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