Microsoft's six ways to supercharge project management

[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.