Project management is a key tool to keeping your task on-time and on-budget while also including all relevant parties. But it’s more than simply tracking deadlines and setting a budget — good project management tools take control of a project from the beginning and see it through to completion while ensuring that goals are aligned and stakeholders are involved.
For IT tasks, project management can handle the challenges of independent integrations, rapid technology upgrades, and version changes which are launched mid-project. The right tool can act like a coach, ensuring all members of a team come together in a choreographed effort that create happy customers.
But today’s complex jobs and competitive environments mean the good old days of whiteboarding a project are over – successful teams today need sophisticated project management tools that do more than just identify tasks and assign workers to complete them. You need intelligent systems that include everything from integrated communication platforms to built-in invoices and fully customizable dashboards.
There are five main steps to effectively managing an IT project. They include: Initiation, planning, execution, project monitoring and control, and closure.
Solid PM has 5 standard steps, but a good PM tool will adapt to almost any situation to save you time and money
Ready for a quick guide to IT project management? Here are some factors to consider and include:
- Project scoping and planning: Create a big-picture view of the project so you can set realistic and achievable goals, budgets, and timelines so your project stays on track. Clear communication will help enable clear focus and objectives, as will an outlined project plan.
- Align your goals with a business strategy: Project management should drive organizational strategy, building consensus among stakeholders who will help ensure the project’s overall goals and that they align with identified tasks and milestones.
- Assign tasks based on time and strengths: A proactive approach to task assignments will help prevent teams from working reactively and instead ensure that they proactively plan for anticipated risks within the project’s goals and parameters.
- Develop a quality control process: Despite pressure to complete tasks on time, quality control should be baked into the project management process. A project management tool can help manage deadlines and objectives while assigning QC steps to the relevant parties and ensuring clear communication between teams.
- Closure: As teams and employees check off their steps and the project moves to completion, teams will find that invoices need to be sent, paperwork needs to be signed off on, resources need to be reallocated, reports have to be sent, and loose ends have to be tied up. A good project management software tool will make many of these steps easy to complete thanks to built-in checklists and drag and drop invoicing.
While these five steps cover most basic IT projects, the actual details of your project will determine what actually has to be included. A dynamic project management tool will be able to adapt to many types of IT projects and included more than just the basics. Advanced tools like those from ProWorkflow are packed with powerful tools that let you take control of your IT projects and are backed by free support. Those tools include easy time sheet entry, flexible task types, integrated contact libraries, built-in templates, comprehensive reporting, customizable look and feel, an invoice and quote manager, full security, mobile adaptability, and simple file sharing.
Contact ProWorkflow today to learn more.
