Specialist
Aside from being a Project Management tool for Project Managers managing a large scale Project. Project Management Software is the unsung hero of a growing small business.
I am an organiser, I organise people and their business. The more organised the chaos, the less likelihood of missing leads, connections, key dates, production deadlines etc.
I use online Project Management software to manage and track all kinds of work, not just the large scale, deadline driven and deliverable defined projects mentioned above. There are many individual software options that indeed specialise in each of the following aspects. Good ?project management software encapsulates all of them.
To do lists, I love them. There is nothing like ticking off items on your to do lists and, in fact, making another list of done items.
And software that makes this easier is even better, add a start and finish date, either one or the other or neither. Nothing like a red date to stress you about getting the item done, phew change the date and it turns green again. Add an urgency tag or category tag, create sub lists and dependencies.
?Reorganise your lists, sort them any way you want, move a task from one list to another, delegate them to someone else and watch them tick them off. The list is endless but you see where I’m going here – there is no reason to miss something unless you forget to put it on your list in the first place. That I can’t help you with.
Anything can be a project! The large scale event I am managing for my client with its many tasks lists, team members, travel requirements, venue options, strict budget and non-negotiable delivery date are all easily managed. I can give my client access to see my teams’ progress or not! I can track the time spent on the separate tasks and therefore the overall project. I can bill them accurately based on the time logged all under the guise of one Project Management system.
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Collaboration & Client Access
Have a training course you are developing for an external company? Want to include your team, your client and their team?
Need to keep some procedure documents privy to you and yours whilst not those outside? No problem. Give your client access, choose how much to let them interact, let them comment on tasks or not, use the relevant attached document and keep the all email correspondence recorded within the project. Need to stay in constant communication, some software has chat facilities within and some have apps to complement their product.
Charging by the hour then integrated time/ task tracking linked to your billing is essential. Not just for tracking the timing on your tasks and ensuring productivity but measuring your efficiency against your fees, tracking time (whilst a tad “big brother”, as in George Orwell 1984, not the reality TV show) makes financial sense.
Who doesn’t love to casually throw up a Gantt chart (or gnatt chart as I keep typing) on the screen, mid presentation to show progress or export exciting reports to blind those attending your productivity meeting? Most apps can easily handle these requirements too.
Whatever your requirements, minimal or intricate, there is an option to suit all. Most support integration and extensions as well as apps supported by Zapier (connecting your apps and automating workflows … i.e. if this then that). Some have free plans which are more than enough for those starting.
As your company and team grow, your software should have the ability to upgrade and grow with you.
I have a personal favourite, one I have worked with previously and continue to use now, encompassing all the above and with excellent support.
There are loads of options out there for all your requirements so research is essential
Article supplied by Karen Draper, Business Administration Consultant