My husband, a licensed marriage and family therapist, says that people don’t change when they’re comfortable. It’s only when they become uncomfortable that they’re willing to do the hard work to make changes for the better.
With that in mind, what’s bothering you about your project management today? Missed deadlines? Poor communication? Low morale and productivity?
You’ve likely experienced a number of other pain points as well. Thankfully, most of these headaches can be minimized with the help of project management software.
Maybe you’ve been reluctant to invest in a project management platform because of concerns over cost or time lost during the adoption phase. Admittedly, if your marketing team has never used PM software, it can be a steep learning curve. But here’s why it can be worth the squeeze.
The upside
Improved planning and scheduling: With PM software, you can create and manage detailed project plans, including timelines, milestones and task dependencies. This granular view helps you identify potential risks and roadblocks early on, helping to ensure that projects are completed on time and within budget. You can also visualize everyone’s workloads, making it easier to schedule realistic deadlines.
Reduced risk of scope creep: It’s an all-too-common occurrence: an internal or external client requests your team’s marketing assistance, and everything is on track for a timely delivery. Then, a few weeks later, the client requests additional tasks out of the blue. While PM platforms don’t prevent scope creep altogether, they do allow you to set up templates for common projects; functioning as checklists, the templates help you and your partners consider a variety of options at project launch when deadlines and budgets are being set.
Better collaboration and communication: Having a central platform for all project stakeholders to collaborate and communicate effectively reduces misunderstandings and delays. When everyone is literally on the same page, employee and client satisfaction is likely to increase.
Increased productivity: With PM software, you can streamline workflows and automate many of the tasks involved in managing similar types of projects. This can free up your time to focus on more strategic work, improving your overall output.
Better visibility and accountability: Are you tired of spending hours in team meetings or sending endless emails to catch up on everyone’s workload? Project management software can help you track progress in real-time. By holding people responsible for keeping their project boards updated, you create transparency and accountability within your team.
Easier file access and sharing: Most businesses have multiple options for storing files, which creates confusion when searching for documents. With PM software, working files and final files can be stored within each project, making them easier to access later.
Data-driven decision-making: Whether it’s missed deadlines, budget overruns or inequities in workload, project management software helps you analyze and identify problem areas. Once you determine the remedies, you can return to the platform later to track your progress.
The downside
As with all digital tools, project management platforms are not fool-proof. The software can be complicated, and employees will need training, patience and reassurance to embrace it.
Additionally, if you’re using PM software primarily for your own team, then clients, even internal ones, will not have access. That can be good if you want to track challenges your team is encountering that you’re not ready to share with clients. But it also means you have to use alternative forms of communication to keep decision makers apprised of your progress, which adds a layer of complication.
Finally, PM platforms are big on notifications, from in-software alerts to emails. If you’re managing a lot of projects, you will likely get an avalanche of notifications. In that case, consider turning off email notifications except for critical alerts, and make a habit of checking the PM platform routinely throughout each day to ensure that communications don’t get lost in the shuffle.
Featured image above: Shutterstock photo
Hydrangea Studio 