Introduction
Project management seems complicated at times, but until you try it, you won’t know just how important it is to your team’s success. When you think of project management, you may think of construction projects. While project management is a common practice in the construction industry, it can be used by teams of all sizes in any industry.
Project management tools provide a framework to help teams organize work, track progress and make adjustments as needed. Project managers can use several different methods to manage their teams including Agile, waterfall or hybrid models. To understand how project management can increase team productivity, let’s take a look at an example. A product development team has several ideas for new products but needs to prioritize them before proceeding with development. To determine which products are the most important to develop, the team holds a brainstorming session using sticky notes on a white board. This short guide goes over the important aspects of becoming a successful project manager and what you can do in your existing role to improve your team’s productivity.
How project management can impact team work.
Boost collaboration. A project manager can act as a hub for all communication within a team, helping coordinate output and keep everyone on task. They can also help manage expectations within that team—and between it and other teams—to make sure that everyone is working from the same set of shared goals.
Create a Comfortable Environment. Team members won’t want to spend their time at the office if they don’t feel comfortable and engaged while they’re working. Project managers should create a relaxed and inviting environment where workers can be themselves, interact with each other and collaborate on projects. This can be done by offering snacks and drinks, arranging for fun activities and scheduling frequent breaks.
Use Effective Communication Tools. Communication is key to productivity, so project managers should take advantage of tools that help them connect with team members easily and quickly. For example, instant messaging applications make it simple for colleagues to talk about projects without having to pick up the phone or wait until they’re in the same room together. In addition, advanced meeting software helps project managers host video conferences and webinars with everyone involved in a project.
Task allocation. When you work in a business or company, there are often times when you need to either assist another person in completing a task or do a full task yourself. Either way, you will be working as part of a team. Notably, it’s amazing that in the age of technology, we still don’t know how to properly manage our time, tasks and resources. It’s not even that complicated. For example, someone can be doing A, B and C at the same time but is only using 10% of their brain for each one. And if they are not careful, they will end up giving 100% of their brainpower to A and only 50% on B and 10% on C. Harvard business notes that the problem with this dynamic is that it takes more time to complete each task because other tasks are not being completed concurrently. In addition, there are more chances for mistakes to occur because the brain has to switch from one task to another. This all wastes time and money!
Automate Work Reports. Project Management software allows you to track the progress of your employees. This can be done by linking emails and other communications with specific projects. By automating these reports, you won’t have to spend time pulling together information from various sources in order to report on the progress of a project. Project managers can get real-time updates on everything that’s going on in their projects when they use project management tools.
Eliminate Micro Management. With project management tools like Taskfeed, you won’t have to micro manage employees as they work on projects. You don’t need to pull them away from working on their tasks to monitor their progress. The tools let users keep track of their own tasks and schedule effectively without having to look up for bosses at every step of their work. They can easily see what exactly is required from them and how much progress they have made so far without having to consult with their supervisors or managers every now and then.
Save time. PMS tools will automate the boring parts of your job like reporting and status updates. You’ll save a lot of time, and you’ll get things done faster as well. Your employees will appreciate having one less task to worry about and they’ll feel more independent.
Boost Efficiency. One of the most important things project managers need to do is manage their team members efficiently. With the help of project management software, this can be achieved easily since every member of the team is aware of their daily tasks and the deadlines they have to meet. Project management software also makes it easy for team members to collaborate on projects by sharing notes, updating timelines and uploading files for other team members to view or download.
Conclusion
While there is no panacea for increasing team productivity, using project management tools can help manage time and resources in your team. It can increase the productivity of all members of the team, and empower everyone in the organization to do things better. I hope you will try these out to see how far your team’s productivity can grow!