Microsoft's six ways to supercharge project management
Contents |
[edit] Introduction
Microsoft offers six ways firms can 'supercharge' their project management using the latest project planning, management and optimisation capabilities. An integrated, end-to-end project solution, it is claimed, can keep projects, resources and teams organised and on track. It can offer:
- Ease of use from the start.
- Innovative collaboration and communication tools.
- The ability to create projects in the cloud.
- Insights into project status and detailed progress.
- Highest levels of security.
Microsoft claims that the following six ways can make projects more productive:
[edit] Make tools easy to use
This may be facilitated by:
- Project templates. Pre-populated plans for common project types of projects which are customisable.
- Connectivity to favourite apps, eg, the ability to export data to Excel.
- Smart automation: identifying and automating routine operations to minimise errors and increase efficiency.
[edit] Provide insight for data-driven decisions
The ability to mine, analyse and present rich data gives project managers and other stakeholders instant access to critical information that supports decision-making:
- Out-of-the-box reports allowing instant access in a familiar format.
- Graphical representation of complex data for informed decision making.
- Gantt charts to easily create schedules showing the tasks that are critical to a project's success.
[edit] Foster collaboration
Project management solutions should provide team members with integrated collaboration tools to help them exchange ideas and develop their full creative potential:
- Multiple communication tools.
- Collaborative workspaces eg, a cloud-based project site holding drawings, communications, tasks, timelines, announcements, etc.
- Working together through cloud working, allowing teams to view documents and work on drawings from anywhere.
[edit] Give users access
For mobile and global teams, project management solutions should provide access anytime and anywhere. This can be facilitated by a cloud-based solution to:
- Provide easy team access to documents from any device.
- Seamless workflow, allows users to work on the latest version from different devices.
- Real-time updating allows updates to be submitted ‘on the go’.
- Team-wide visibility means updates can be seen as soon as they are made.
[edit] Take control of resources
Best-in-class project management solutions should offer the following critical resource management functions:
- Provide a systematic process for requesting resources can be essential to the smooth flow of project planning and maintenance.
- Quickly identify overused and underused resources to optimise assignments.
- Compare resources across standard data and forecast projected usage to monitor progress and address concerns before they become bottlenecks.
- Group all potential project resources into a single view, so that resource managers can build best-fit teams.
[edit] Make it professional
Project management solutions should provide sophisticated tools, reliability and security. No matter the size of the company, a cloud-based solution offers access to enterprise-level security, along with the intelligence of the cloud.
The following professional-level capabilities may be considered when solutions are being evaluated:
- Ask about uptime performance and verify the supplier provides an uptime service-level agreement. Also look for continuous data backup, disaster recovery and globally redundant datacentres.
- The solution adopted should have separate functionality for IT and management, so everyone can focus on the tasks most important to them.
- Depending on needs, verify that the system complies with industry standards used worldwide.
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki
- Adapting your technology to the new working normal.
- Change control procedures.
- Code of practice for project management.
- Code of practice for programme management.
- Construction project.
- Milestones.
- Monte Carlo simulation.
- Pareto analysis.
- Preliminary business case.
- Project execution plan.
- Project monitoring.
- Risk management.
- Strategic brief.
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