The COVID–19 pandemic has changed our attitude about how we manage the business. The current workplace scenario is constantly evolving, and with it arrives the requirement of comprehensive project management.
The modern work environment is fast-paced and involves multiple tasks, all being carried out simultaneously. Thus, companies can’t stick to the traditional methods of project management like whiteboards and excel sheets to keep track of all the ongoing activities.
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Instead, companies need to upgrade their project management process – streamline the entire workflow and align with the objectives and goals. This is where project management software comes into the picture.
In this article, we will learn all about strategic project management, how you can increase your completion rate using project management applications, and which one you can use.
What Is Strategic Project Management?
Strategic project management combines traditional project management methodologies and frameworks with overall business strategies to drive organizational breakthroughs. It works on the premises that align with the goals and objectives outlined in your business strategy.
Why Do You Need Project Management Software?
The good news is that project management software can be installed anywhere, irrespective of the nature of the business. You can customize it according to your needs to meet your specific requirements.
Most of the time, employees are resistant to change as it is a part of human behavior. But it becomes easy when the proper usage is explained and how it can benefit the whole organization.
Let’s look at some of the immediate benefits that your organizations, including your employees, can receive through project planning software systems.
1. Team Communication
Importance of teamwork in an organization can’t be undermined. Project planning software solutions help team members to collaborate well with each other in real-time, ensuring that there is no gap in communication.
It promotes effective data sharing by enabling easy exchange or transfer of documents so that all team members are aware of the completed and pending tasks.
Besides, most project management systems have navigable visual dashboards that show key performance metrics and indicators at a glance. Project management tools also have internal messaging and mailing apps that promote seamless communication between employees – keeping everyone well informed about project activities for better performance.
2. Scheduling and Planning
Making sure that a project is completed in its scheduled timeline needs lots of careful planning and management. Investing in the best online project management system helps team members remain productive and set deadlines to complete project activities.
Most project management solutions have a shared calendar so that all employees can view finished milestones and plan for further scheduling of vital tasks. In other words, it ensures that everyone can keep track of every project management activity in a single place.
There is no doubt that project management software is a crucial business asset and can help project managers handle scheduling in an efficient manner, thereby expediting the speed and accuracy of project events.
3. Resource Management
Projects often suffer due to a lack of proper resource management as there are always scarce resources that have to be handled effectively. One of the biggest challenges project managers face is handling the resource allotment in a limited time.
Knowing the materials, equipment and resources ensures the highest level of operational efficiency and keeps the flow of tasks moving in an organized manner.
Time tracking modules facilitate the documentation of time spent on project tasks that further aid in billing and invoicing processes. So make sure to get a smart project tracking system to gain a competitive advantage in harnessing organizational resources to the fullest capacity.
4. Budget Management
The budget is always a red danger area for project managers – getting all tasks completed in the allotted budget is a mammoth test.
Project management software helps to manage expenses and keeps the cost of the project below the estimated budget to increase the profitability levels for the organization.
It creates advanced and sophisticated budget reports that allow managers to get a bird’s eye view of project expenses so that they can make sure that there is no overspending on activities.
Project management platforms are the perfect way to keep track of billing, invoicing, accounts, and monetary expenses, so make sure to get the best one that will fulfill all your organizational requirements.
5. Documentation
There are tons of documents and paperwork associated with projects – investing in document management software helps managers reduce manual work, administrative pressure, and routine tasks. Project management software provides a centralized repository where data can be stored and managed safely and securely.
Team members have quick and easy access to information, thus enabling the streamlined management of project activities. Automation of project activities ensures fewer errors and creates an agile, flexible and collaborative work environment.
Various Project Management Techniques That Can Come in Handy
When you are in the managerial ranks of any company, you would know how difficult it is to monitor all the tasks that often cross both departmental and geographical boundaries. Sometimes, the employees are unaware of what is going on outside their core teams.
In such a case, project management apps help in better collaboration. A centralized dashboard gives a holistic view of who is working on what project. This, in turn, promotes seamless communication. With the help of the tool, you can finally put an end to those update meetings that annoy employees and waste valuable time, which can be otherwise used in making strategic decisions.
Let’s look at some of the project management techniques that can help you complete your projects in time.
Tip#1: Create an Accurate Schedule of Tasks
Whenever you handle poor projects, it is extremely challenging to keep track of milestones because you also need to know which task needs to be handled by whom and completed by when.
Project management apps prove handy when in this case by using clear and simple Gantt charts to highlight project milestones, with the option of constantly updating them. This is an extremely vital application because it allows you to instantly address changes and shift resources.
There is also this added advantage of virtual managers being able to give instructions in an easy-to-follow, visual format. As a result, everybody understands their individual goals, tasks, and deadlines with just a single tool.
Tip#2: Establish Clear Client Communication
Most of the time, client meetings start a bit late due to various issues, including room unavailability or allotment of a wrong dial-in number. These minor errors not only make you look incompetent but also end up wasting valuable resources such as time.
With the help of online cloud-based project management apps, assign a board that easily displays your progress to your clients. They can just give feedback using customer feedback software and recommend corrections, resulting in an efficient workflow.
Tip #3: Delegate Your Tasks
Another project management activity includes delegating your tasks. If you manage a company or a huge team, it is extremely cumbersome to allot tasks individually. When you handle huge projects that involve teams outside or people across locations, the whole task becomes even more challenging.
The best way to handle this is to embed the tasks in the timeline and assign them to specific team members. You can even give relevant instructions, making the whole functioning of project management efficient and less time-consuming.
Tip #4: Manage Your Funds
Keeping track of the expenses of your project is another important part of the task management system. If you cannot keep your funds under control, you won’t realize when the whole project becomes a huge risk.
If you know exactly about the tasks and responsibilities of your employees, including hours worked, you can make informed decisions. You can properly allocate your resources, including time, money, and workforce.
Having a central platform for all your project management activities gives you better control over your documents. It not only prevents the loss and misplacement of documents, but you can also easily track any modifications or submissions.
Besides, team members can find all the files in one place without having to ask for access to shared drives.
Tip #6: Design a Standardized System
One of the most significant project management techniques is to ensure that everybody is on the same page. Create a standardized workflow whereby every milestone and task is clearly defined and assigned to each involved individual.
This also includes following the same templates for every document and working on the same platform. When all your files look and feel similar, your whole organization appears more formal. It also promotes consistency across all activities.
Tip #7: Collaborate Remotely
Any project management organization today must enable remote working. After the pandemic, the scenario of today’s workplace has changed, and employees prefer a hybrid working model, having the liberty to work from anywhere.
So even if your team is globally placed, they will be able to connect with other team members seamlessly. Using cloud management software, managers can easily keep track of each member’s progress without even being physically present.
8 Project Management Tools to Boost Team’s Performance
It’s evident that a project management system will improve organization and collaboration in your team.
It will enable you to reach your business goals on time and have everything related to every project in one place. You will be able to track your time and costs and evaluate ways your company can improve its project completion rates.
Also, the accessibility and ease of use of today’s project management tools make them very conducive to teams of any size. So without further ado, let us get into the best project management tools that can change the game for your project teams.
1. TeamGantt
TeamGantt is a software that promises ‘intuitive and beautiful project planning.’ It’s easy to see why. It makes project planning through visualization a breeze. You can map out the entire timeline of your project with Gantt charts that can be created very easily on this online project management software. Its best feature is its easy-to-use interface, which even non-project managers have a great time working with.
It has a nifty drag and drops feature through which you can create seamless Gantt charts in no time. It’s great for team collaboration too, as it brings the entire team’s conversations, files, and tasks in one place.
2. Zoho Projects
Zoho Projects is a widely used project management tool for good reasons. It has just about everything a project management system requires. It enables strategic project management with milestones and task lists that help to break a complex project down into understandable parts. Moreover, you can have even more refined control over tasks with subtasks and/or recurring tasks.
Zoho Projects has in its arsenal: project coordinator, timesheets, advanced reporting tools, kanban board, collaboration software, G-suite integration, you name it. Moreover, it integrates easily with a slew of other Zoho offerings, such as Zoho CRM and Zoho Invoices, giving you a seamless project management experience.
3. FunctionFox
FunctionFox claims to be the leading choice for creative professionals. With this strategic project management software, you can create a personalized dashboard with your most-used features. Its streamlined and aesthetically pleasing interface is an added bonus.
Keep track of your hours and your to-do lists on one screen. It enables effective project management by allowing you to schedule unlimited tasks and report in real-time. Furthermore, you can reduce time and expenses spent over admin and achieve greater profitability and productivity to find more time to be creative in your work.
4. Nutcache
Nutcache is perfect for small project teams. It was developed specifically for small project teams that bill their clients on a project-to-project basis. It provides a plethora of project management tools, all on a single page.
It gives you the right tools to support your project, whether the project is made using the Agile approach or the Scrum framework. It gathers all the relevant details for each project and puts them in one place, making it easier for team members to access and track them. Track your budgets, boards, hours worked, invoices, expenses, and files without ever leaving the project screen.
5. Workzone
Workzone was built keeping in mind ad agency teams. So, it can streamline your workflows and organize your projects in a simple but creative manner. With Workzone, you can create subtasks and task dependencies, individual and personalized to-do lists in a manner that the entire team can access, enabling each member to stay on the same page.
Especially useful if your business is in the creative field, your team can impress clients with amazingly precise and effective presentations that you don’t have to break a sweat over because of how easy it is to ‘work’ on Workzone.
6. Apollo
Apollo is easy to navigate and allows you to schedule and prioritize tasks, update their status, set up recurring tasks, and assign responsibility to multiple users. Use the project plan template or create one of your own to standardize different types of projects.
You can even create and modify milestones easily. Interactive time tracking and logging will keep you on track with your projects. Enjoy a host of other features such as Writeboards, email integration, file management, and image proofing on Apollo.
7. Podio
A project management software to elegantly structure your workflows, Podio makes team collaboration ultra-effective. Users get everything related to a specific job on one page, and relevant team members can attach files, view the status of tasks, and provide comments on that same page.
It enables effective project management for the entire team with its easy to collaborate modules. Integrate Podio with a slew of applications ranging from Freshbooks and EverNote to ZenDesk. What’s more, you can share information in a manner that encourages peer recognition. All in all, use Podio to foster a healthy work culture.
8. WorkBook
WorkBook combines project management with resource management, CRM solution, forecasting, and accounting module. A fully loaded project management tool for teams of all sizes and in any department, if there ever was one.
It allows the organization to choose the modules they need, removing the ones that are not of use to them. Get financial forecasts and set up automatic billing. Also, handle the marketing side of things with the sales pipeline and the client portal. With WorkBook, keep a tab on all areas of your business.
The Bottom Line
Technology has proved to be a real game-changer in the project management industry – organizations all across the world are investing in project management solutions to increase their end business revenues. Businesses can easily carry out strategic project management activities in their organization with the help of project management apps.
So, if you are still on the fence and undecided about investing in project management software, think no more – it is a wise decision that will definitely prove to be beneficial in the long run.
Invest in a credible software service provider and boost your bottom line profits.
Nikita is a SaaS copywriter and content marketing expert with almost five years of experience. She creates engaging and high-quality content for businesses that want to see their Google search rankings surge. When she is not writing, she is busy following the search industry news to stay updated on all SEO tactics.
