The Benefits of Project Management: Beyond the Basics
You’ve probably heard the term “project management” thrown around, with mixed receptions. What are the benefits of project management? Why go through the trouble of planning so many details when you’ll end up needing to change things and be flexible anyway? How much management does your team really need for one thing? Isn’t that amount of oversight just micromanaging? Who has the time? Who wants to deal with it? And what even constitutes a project in the first place?
Obviously some amount of planning is always necessary. You can’t hope to increase sales or launch a new product line without any plan, nor can your team members read your mind. But when it comes down to time management, resource allocation, task management, and quality standards, getting too involved as the boss can be a waste of time for both you and your employees. So our businesses, and by extent projects, have to be managed… but can’t be micromanaged. And now we’re standing still, looking at the ground and wondering where to draw the line in the sand.
Why Project Management
To start, when we talk about project management, what we really mean is team and resource management for a project. This can range from assigning an individual project to a team member, like designing a social media graphic, to splitting the work of larger projects across your entire team. In the modern business landscape, there are a lot of moving parts, from marketing and sales to internal systems management to client work to branding and more. And often we need these moving parts to work together, but that doesn’t happen just because we want it to. The benefits of good project management are having all those parts working together to achieve your strategic goals while improving customer satisfaction by keeping project progress on schedule. Plus it helps with things like resource efficiency, team collaboration, communication, and time management.
Core Benefits of Project Management
Efficient Resource Allocation
At any given moment your business has a finite number of resources. These resources can include time, money, space, and anything else you need to function, from glitter glue to laptops. By using project management tools and practices, you can use these resources more efficiently.
Project management softwares like ClickUp and Monday.com help you to divide tasks of a project between team members, assign due dates, and send instant messages related to specific tasks between your team members. This helps to save time between phases of a project as one task is finished since it can automatically be assigned to the next employee and phase of the project, and you can keep track of the time spent on each phase to know which pieces of a process need more attention. You don’t have to worry about projects dragging out from a lack of communication because everyone is aware of their due dates up front and capable of contacting other team members efficiently. Project management in this way also saves physical space, as you don’t need to have a meeting or a physical paper trail (or email trail to save digital space) for the work delegation. And saving time and space means you’ll naturally be saving money, too.
Enhanced Team Collaboration
As stated above, project management tools can help save you time and money via task delegation, due date clarity, and efficient communication – for the same reason, they also lead to enhanced team collaboration. Team members know what their specific roles are, who is responsible for what and when, and have easy access to other team members for collaborative efforts and clarifications. No one is stepping on toes, unsure of what to do, or doing redundant tasks; and if they are, it’s easy to correct and continue on course. Using a project management tool boosts overall team cohesion, which means your employee satisfaction and customer experience will get a boost too.
Team cohesion is even better with a communication plan; for example, as each team member completes a portion of the project, they update the team on what has been done. This lets the team leader know where the overall project is and the person responsible for the next task knows it’s ready for their attention.
Achieving Project Goals and Objectives
We know it’s important to set and achieve goals, both long-term and short-term. Luckily, project management can help with that too! You manage ongoing projects within your business as much as you manage client projects; by using the right software you can set clear goals within a desired timeframe for your team and keep track of goal completion to know if you’re on track to meet your plans. Strategic and clear goal setting is a key component for successful project completion, and project management makes it easier. Plus, your clients will be happy to know where you are and where you’re going on their projects too.
Importance of Time Management
Every project will flow through a project lifecycle. Beginning with the project initiation phase, moving into the planning phase, followed by the execution phase, then the monitoring phase, and ending at the completion of the project.
We don’t want to get stuck in the planning phase, only to seemingly never get to the execution phase. However, you don’t want to skip the planning phase, because this is where you will outline proper timelines and time management of the execution and completion of the project. I recommend you also place a time frame on the planning phase. How long will you dedicate to planning out the project? This will differ depending on the size of the project, but set a goal date for kicking off the execution phase. Then, the rest of the project should flow smoothly as you and your team work through the plan you’ve mapped out.
Best Practices in Project Management
Adopting the Right Project Management Software
There are a LOT of project management softwares out there, and they’re all a little different. It’s important to find the right one for your business needs. Start by asking which features you need. Any decent software should have project planning, task management, project reporting (or dashboards), and communication features. From there you’ll have options for time tracking, resource management, automation, document attachments, tracking, and integrations. As you get into your more niche needs you’ll see features like data analysis, AI assistance, mobile capabilities, and Gantt charts. Write out a list of everything you need and a list of everything you want, then begin the googling adventure. (Or, if you don’t want to spend time searching for the right software for you, reach out to us and we’re happy to help!)
Continuous Learning and Outsourcing
Once you’ve found your best match, it’s important to learn how it works. There will be some more intricate parts of the setup that may be worth outsourcing if you’re already at work capacity or don’t plan on scaling the system yourself later. Otherwise, you’ll need to invest some time in learning how to set up, optimize, and automate your PM system (project management system), and then take the time to set it up to handle the needs of your business.
It can be useful to learn how to manage your PM system yourself, or through an employee, so that scaling and refining processes as you grow is easier. On the other hand, if you simply don’t have the time to do the build yourself or struggle with tech in general, it may be better to outsource the setup to a systems specialist you trust. We recommend making sure the person you choose to complete the setup will provide customized solutions based on your specific needs, extensive training for you and your team, and has proven results of completing similar builds for other businesses.
The Future of Project Management
According to this Harvard Business Review, research indicates that by 2030 nearly 80% of all project management work will be run by AI. The future of project management will be heavily influenced by the development of generative AI software, allowing project managers and CEOs to focus on team development and innovation. Hopefully, as a shift towards more flexible automation occurs, additional features such as accurate & easily gathered reporting, (better) automated resource allocation, and better notifications and project updates for those leading the projects will come as well. Either way, the future of project management is full of possibilities for business owners as we embrace the way technology is advancing in the way that these tools can be of use to us.
Final Thoughts
Overall, a project management system is an incredibly useful investment for a small business owner with a team to manage (no matter if the team is 2 or 20). The benefits of saving money, team collaboration, communication, time management, and goal monitoring are significant enough to make the cost of a subscription more than worth it; just make sure you find the right fit. If you’re interested in finding the perfect project management tool and learning how to use it to its full potential but don’t know where to start, let’s chat about our business audit to see how Upwell can help you!
