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Microsoft Project has been for years the most popular project scheduling tool on earth. We know how to use it, what it can do, and what information it provides. This tool helps us manage a comprehensive task list of the what, when and who for each task. But have you ever wanted to share the task list with your team? Do you wish you had a way to collaborate on the task details, requirement specification, design discussions or track the functional progress of each task?
Wouldn't it be nice if we can turn a MS Project plan (MPP file) into a highly versatile project management database so you can share project plans, share tasks, manage and track progress of direct and indirect project tasks, and at the same time allow team members and clients to peruse and comment on the tasks, securely?
Traditional Project Management tools facilitate tasks scheduling and resource assignments. Complex functions such as tasks dependencies, resource balancing, productivity index computation and cost estimates are being solved by intelligent procedures and algorithms. If we have a full understanding of what each task entails and have production indices that are supported by an industry norm, yes, we know a lot about the project once we have the plan in place. We only need to update the % complete and the current status of each task.
Typically, the project manager or scheduler builds and owns the project plan. The PM/scheduler updates the plan as the % complete and status are reported. Very quickly, one can see that the oxymoron in this approach. While the project plan helps us manage the tasks and team members within the project, the plan itself and the essential detail of the tasks are never shared among the team members. As a result, even as the project plan is updated information in it is conceivably out of date.
In the speed of business, project managers require up-to-date project information. Making quick decisions on critical tasks require current information as well as historic data.
Task Management
The Collaboration Approach
Share the Project Plan
First and foremost, is to let authorized project managers and team members have access to the plan. Using a standard document library control such as check-in and check-out system is also highly desirable. Audit logging and version control will be needed if the project is security sensitive and historical information is required.
Let the team members know their tasks
Once the project plan is complete, the next step to let the team members be aware of the tasks assigned to them. Having a meeting to discuss the scope of the each task is essential. Knowing who is assigned to what and tracking the assigned tasks for each team member is also a must. The best way to distribute the tasks assignments is to send the tasks to the team member's MS Outlook Task Folder. The easiest way to clarify and organize the scope of each task is by having a central shared space. Naturally!
Record the task details
MS project plans keep track of the task list, simple description, completion status, resource reports, task dependencies, and other information. However, these are all time driven parameters. What about keeping track of comments, special requirements documents and picture files for the task, and special instructions from the customers?
Share the task details
Now that the system can keep track of task details. How about sharing them amongst the team?
Let the team provide you with real-time status updates
In addition to knowing which tasks are not completed on time, know the reasons as well. Collect Task Progress Reports from team members easily, and keep an organized record of weekly task progress reports. No, I don't mean email. Email is free form and it is hard to consolidate information from multiple team members being assigned multiple project tasks. To make things worse, how a task assigned to multiple team members? How should they report progress? Someone has to consolidate the reports and summarizes reports from multiple members. Obviously, there is a dire need for a system to automate this process. Such a system saves time and organizes the reports for future reference.
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