There are many aspects of a project management app, and it’s one of the best ways to oversee a business. It’s a way to track everything and everyone involved in a project. However, if you don’t use it properly, you won’t get the most out of your subscription fee.
If you’re looking for ways to use project management software effectively, there are a few key steps you need to follow.
1. Know Your Goal
The first thing you need is to know what you want to accomplish specifically to find the right application for your needs. Since you’ll be using the project management app for your company for the long term, it should provide you the things you need to achieve your goals.
While it’s tempting to subscribe to an app with the most buzz or hype in the industry, sometimes it may not necessarily serve your needs. Thus, you need to figure out which best Wrike alternatives would be suitable for you by understanding individual app features.
A critical part of the decision-making process is the type of user interface used for the program. You may only need a simple plan with a platform that allows you to organize emails or calendar appointments. Or perhaps your kind of team needs closer collaboration, so visual dashboards might work better for everyone. In other cases, though, you’ll want more than just a basic plan; you’ll probably want to customize your project further or have additional functions as well. Choosing an app would largely depend on who will use it, too, in line with the project goal.
2. Plan Out Your Project
Planning your project is made easier when you use a project management app. It can help you map out the entire process by using preexisting templates on the app. These templates could let you create different boards for individual projects, and you can set up each board according to the specific plans of its project. Thus, you can have one dashboard that could outline all of your current projects at hand. It enhances project planning if you can map each plan out.
3. Track Your Progress
Utilizing a project management app has been one of the latest trends for productivity enhancement in many industries, and it’s easy to see why. It lets you set up a clearer system for tracking your progress, plain and simple—but necessary and crucial.
The app will help monitor everything so you can have an accessible overview of the project’s status from the beginning—a hard feat to manage if you’re running things the analog way and giving everyone the benefit of the doubt that they’re doing their part in the project.
This app would be beneficial especially if you’re collaborating with several individuals located in different areas, cities, or even time zones. It’s a good way to see each worker’s performance and productivity. It would also let you know where or which aspect in the production chain causes delays in your progress.
4. Customize Task Processes
If you’re thinking of using a project management app to handle your organization’s tasks, you need to make sure that it has all the functionality you need. Make sure it provides you with an overview of the project and all the essential details so you can easily delegate tasks. Make sure the app has the tools you need to make quick decisions and provide accurate reports that support task delegation.
For example, if some team members have tasks that need face-to-face collaboration, the app should have a video in-app calling capacity. For others, a text chat feature might suffice. If certain tasks need to be timecoded, find an app with a time tracker. That also helps if you need to create timesheets. There might be tasks that need heavy file sharing. Look for an app that integrates with cloud storing apps to make this task easier. For time-sensitive tasks, an app that sends out periodic notifications to the individuals concerned would be beneficial for you.
When you’re using a project management app to manage various tasks, the features should help you be in the loop of what’s going within your business. This means you can always be sure you have the information you need to plan your next steps or improve your project and ensure you complete the tasks correctly.
5. Let Everyone Know How The App Works
No matter how user-friendly an app’s interface appears, not everyone in your team might have the same level of knowledge or understanding of such digital tools. Thus, you shouldn’t forget to let everyone involved how the project management app works. Once your team knows how to handle it, everyone could get tasks done much more quickly. As a result, it could bring your business to the next level.
Some project management apps come with free tutorials and tech support that every employee could access. It’s easier to have them install the app in their individual work gadgets or equipment and let them self-learn from these tutorials and support. However, the learning curve in knowing the app might have a different effect on everyone, not to mention they might need immediate help with some functionality or other.
Thus, it’s always a good idea to conduct a basic training session so everyone can fully understand how the software works, especially if the app is a bit complicated. Gather everyone for onboarding for a couple of hours or so, as it won’t really take too much time to learn these apps. That way, when they have questions, you can easily address it on the spot.
Learning how to use this kind of program can be a big advantage as it’ll help your team save time and effort from committing mistakes due to ignorance on how to use the app. It won’t cause delays in projects as well if everyone has this know-how.
Conclusion
Using your project management app will help you accomplish projects easily. It’ll help you keep track of its progress, monitor individuals assigned to each project, and which aspect in the production process causes delays. To effectively use it, you must first know the goal of your project, then conduct a training session for onboarding everyone in its use.