Easier, Cheaper, Better Project Management

What’s Hard about Project Management?
Managing a large project requires a lot of good planning.  But, as difficult as the planning is, good tracking of even one big project can be extremely challenging.  And, if you have multiple large projects running concurrently, that tracking can be a nightmare.  Some of the challenges include:

• The typical scenario involves one project manager who must track numerous projects and people.  That person becomes responsible for following up with each and every person involved in each job, which quickly becomes too much to effectively maintain.
• Most existing project management software provides a good way to create a list of tasks, then assign them durations and resources.  However, they are not as good at providing an easy way to track every detail of every task – a project manager must use a lot of valuable time making many, many phone calls to gather information.
• Most project management systems do not provide a way to notify team members when they are either due to complete a task, when they are late, when a task date has been moved, with a summary of tasks they have due in the next 30 days, or any useful data such as this.
• Most companies have specific needs that are not covered by systems that are not customizable.
• Creating on-the-fly reports is impossible, and any reporting is done by the project manager who is controlling the tracking system.  Many organizations literally spend days each week generating reports for management.

Using the Web to Make Project Tracking Easy
Imagine how much easier it would be to track projects if individual team members could simply make updates on their own tasks directly, instead of requiring a project manager to transcribe that information into a tracking tool.  There’s no need to imagine this today, because this is precisely the sort of problem that the Internet is perfect for solving.

A Web-based project management system easily solves the problems listed above:

• Each member of a project team can simply enter task status information into the system via any Internet-enabled computer (no need to install software on each PC used because it is delivered via the Web from a server that houses the software).
• Project managers can use their skill where it should be used: for planning projects and handling exceptions, not for transcribing routine task data from team members.
• Project managers can use the project creation software they are used to (such as Microsoft Project) to create project task lists, then import them into a Web-based tracking system.
• Team members can enter more detailed information about individual tasks than might ever be collected by a project manager who is tracking thousands of tasks.
• An online system can notify team members automatically when it is their time to perform a task, and when they are late.  Team members can use a Web-based system to perform complex queries on their tasks, including which tasks are due in the next week, month, or year.
• Reporting in such a system is immediate, and always up-to-date.  Anyone, based on their permissions, can pull up a dynamically generated report from any Web-enabled computer.
• A Web-based system opens up new frontiers that are not possible using traditional tools.  For example, have you ever wanted to share certain information with clients, such as the status of their projects?  A Web-based project management tool can completely and securely automate such processes.

Evaluating Net Costs
A customized Web-based tool sounds expensive, but it does not have to be.  The net price of such a system should be evaluated not only in terms of up-front and maintenance costs, but also in terms of potential cost savings, efficiency improvements, and additional revenues.

Determining cost savings is relatively easy.  Figure out how much time your project managers spend tracking projects, and cut that by 80% to 90%.  Calculate how much time is spent each week creating reports for other people, and cut that by 95%.  And so on …

Projections for additional revenues that could be generated is not as easy, but it is an exciting topic to explore.  How much more business will your sales people close (compared with your less forward thinking competitors) if they are able to offer instant, on-demand project status updates to clients?  How could your office staff utilize additional free time created by automating the tedious tracking process?  These are questions that require some creativity to answer, but they are the types of questions that, if addressed appropriately, can give you a significant edge on the competition.

The final important aspect is the initial and ongoing cost of a Web-based project tracking system, which is easy to determine if you start with a clear picture of needs.  Before approaching vendors for a quote, it makes sense to make a list, in the clearest terms possible, of what you want.  If you are pressed for time and anxious to get started, NuRelm, for a very small fee, can come in and help you assess which project management/maunal process can be automated in order to improve efficiency.  Separating that list into “must haves” versus “nice to haves,” or breaking it down into a timeline showing features needed by certain dates can help break down costs in a way that is more affordable.

Once a list is complete, and validated with the members of the team that would be using such a system, then take it to a few vendors for price quotes. There is a lot of room for variation, so be prepared to spend some time with each vendor making sure that they understand what you want, and that you understand what they are providing for the price they have quoted.

Project management Web technologies generally pay for themselves in less than a year in terms of cost savings and increased business.

Choosing a Vendor
Finding the right vendor for a large-scale Web-based project is challenging.  But, as with any custom service from Web application development to building construction, some simple common-sense rules will make that choice much easier:

• Look for examples of similar work that you want done within the vendor’s portfolio of work, and make sure you are comfortable with a vendor’s ability to easily map to your requirements.
• Call references, and make sure they are very happy with the vendor’s. performance on previous projects.
• Evaluate responsiveness.  A vendor should be able to help you quickly refine your requirements (sometimes through a separate analysis project) to the point that a meaningful proposal can be create, and provide an on-time, professional proposal.

Conclusion
Managing large projects will always present challenges.  But, a well-built Web-based system can eliminate the most tedious of those challenges, providing the people in your organization with more time to use their brains instead of performing the tedious tasks that a computer should be doing.