Project management: the essential stages
In our private lives, we manage projects: moving house, getting married, travelling abroad... Some of us have to do this at work: implementing accounting software, organising a humanitarian mission in Africa, launching a new product... Despite all these different projects, there are some common features. Discover the following project management tips:
Step 1: Plan and monitor your activities
Unless you call upon the God of Time, Chronos, to complete a project within the allotted time, planning is essential!
Start by dividing the project into several stages. Each stage corresponds to an action, so you can assign start and end dates to each phase. This work is essential to the proper organisation of the project, otherwise you'll start from scratch without realising that the tasks are interdependent.
Once this is done, you stagger these tasks and coordinate them for each work team. Of course, in your very small business, a team may be synonymous with one person, but the idea is there! Each activity in this project is allocated to someone according to their speciality.
"A day is worth three if you do everything in its own time". All that remains is to find the right timetable for implementing the project. Good organisation and planning will always save you time. For example, you're not going to start by creating the packaging for a bottle of milk if you don't yet know its shape!
By monitoring the schedule, you can track the progress of all past, current and future actions. This will make it easier to manage any delays and deadlines.
Step 2: Control your costs
We have now defined all the actions to be carried out, and they are planned, allocated and monitored. But before you can control the costs of a project, you need to estimate them!
To take the example of moving house again, you've all already drawn up estimates, either for hiring a lorry or for hiring a removal firm.
In the first case, you can, for example, budget for the friends and family who will be coming to help you. This could be the modest cost of a good night out because everything is still in cardboard, or a good meal for everyone. In this situation, you need to budget for the material resources and those considered here as human resources.
In the second case, the quote already includes the entire service. Everything is included, so all you have to do is move into your new home. Roles and functions are already specified in the project and tasks are assigned to each member of staff.
Of course, online project management software is no substitute for human thought! It's up to you to decide how much you want to spend, based on pre-defined budgets. You also have organisational constraints that guide these choices.
Step 3: Collaborate and share project progress
Welcome to the wonderful world of the "virtual open-space", i.e. online applications! Teams or collaborators all work together on the same platform. Everything is centralised: schedules, project elements, associated comments, documentation, emails, instant discussions linked to the project... Everything is organised so that each member of staff can be autonomous in their work. This also gives each partner in the project a sense of responsibility, and thanks to the shared planning, you can self-evaluate the work you've done to complete your assignment.
The integration of all the collaborators involved in the joint project within the same application will encourage the exchange and sharing of information. As we see so clearly in the Fitnet Manager application, this collaborative work will encourage exchanges between individuals so that the project can move forward together. It's easier to help each other, even if you're in separate offices. Everyone contributes to the common mission. The numerous administrative procedures and lost documents are a thing of the past thanks to the shared collaborative platform.
You can find these stages in the free project schedule
Download the project planning template to plan your tasks according to the steps above:
In short, managing a project means planning, coordinating, controlling costs and meeting deadlines. Versatile online software is tailored to the needs of VSEs and SMEs. What are you waiting for to choose yours?
Make your own comparison to find the best online solution for your business needs. We're here to help you make the right choice and make your business even better!
Article translated from French