Category: project management

Businesses put a lot of time, effort, and money into the strategic planning process. Still, many fail.

This doesn’t mean, however, that research for a strategic plan should be dropped.

After all, this process is vital in helping companies determine how to achieve specific goals.

Yet, for strategic planning to work, it must be more than just a nice vision and mission of the end destination that does not consider the company’s culture and structure.

The right path begins with creating a sound and feasible business plan that can involve the whole organization.

In this article, we will discuss 5 tips for effective strategic planning.

Strategic planning: 5 key tips for achieving it

Strategic planning defines what a company aims for and how to achieve it.

This does not take place overnight but must include a series of detailed steps that show its path to the destination.

Here are 5 tips for effective strategic planning:

1. Evaluate the current state of your company

Gauging your business’s current position is essential to getting a clear picture of its future direction.

A helpful tool in this case is the SWOT analysis, which identifies four aspects:

• Strengths: What is the company doing well? What is its competitive advantage over its competitors?
• Weaknesses: What areas of the business could be improved? What is lacking compared to other businesses?
• Opportunities: Are there new opportunities in the market that the company can capitalize on?
• Threats: Are there potential obstacles that the company might run into in the near future?

2. Set business objectives

After completing the SWOT analysis, you can use the results to determine goals for your business strategy.

These goals must be achievable and concrete; the SMART model can be used to set them:

• Specific: The goal must clearly outline what you want to achieve and the steps required.
• Measurable: The goal must be numerically measurable so that metrics can be used to monitor progress, celebrate milestones, and determine when it has been achieved.
• Achievable: The goal must be realistic and achievable.
• Realistic: The goal must be relevant to what the company truly needs at this time.
• Timely: The goal must have a definite timeframe and deadline.

3. Outline your strategic plan

When you have defined clear business objectives, it is time to map out the strategic plan.

Most strategies include the following key elements:

• Description of the company;
• Mission statement;
• Business value and vision;
• A SWOT analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats;
• An analysis of present internal and external settings and how each affects the company;
• Business goals;
• Action plans to achieve these goals;
• Business processes to maintain continuity and operational effectiveness.

4. Embrace the plan company-wide

It’s time to move on to strategy execution by distributing the plan to the entire company. Here are some best practices for this step:

• Arrange a group meeting to officially present the strategic plan, which includes goals, timelines, resources, and implementation methods. Allowing team members to ask questions is critical at this stage.
• Link all activities to the strategic plan. For example, if you are constructing a new facility, explaining how this effort fits into the business strategy is important.
• Align all teams with the strategic plan by providing a detailed breakdown of each member’s role in the strategy. Everyone needs to know clearly what they are responsible for.

5. Measure progress and make updates to your strategic plan

The strategic planning process does not end with implementation.

To carry out the strategy, it is crucial to monitor progress regularly and adjust and update the plan as needed.

If a team member is overwhelmed, it is important to redistribute tasks.

The timeline must be revised if the project manager notices that an effort is not progressing as swiftly as planned.

It is critical to know how the work is progressing at any given time and to intervene if there are any bottlenecks.

Twproject for effective strategic planning

Twproject is one of the best project management tools on the market.

A tool like this can help and support project management in tracking and monitoring the strategic plan.

Twproject, specifically, comes with several features that allow project managers to stay informed.

Twproject allows project progress to be accessed, and thanks to an alert system, the tool will proactively inform the project manager if deadlines, budgets, or work logs are missed.

Not only will the project manager benefit from using this tool, but team members will also be able to check the status of their activities at any time and communicate with each other in a timely manner.

Twproject is an extremely flexible tool that can fit into any business scenario.

From early analysis to goal setting, activity planning to resource management, communication among team members, and regular progress monitoring, this project management software offers indispensable tools for a clear and complete view of the project.

Twproject thus becomes the key ally in ensuring effective strategic planning.

The Work Breakdown Structure and the Product Breakdown Structure are often confused because they are very similar yet quite different.

These two breakdown structures play a critical role in the project planning process and how successful – or not – the outcome will be.

In this article, we will try to clarify the difference between the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and the Product Breakdown Structure (PBS).

What is a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)?

The WBS provides a hierarchical structure for the project effort. Essentially, this is a map that details every piece of work needed, breaking it down into smaller, more manageable parts.

Simply put, it stands for the project’s “to-do list,” and its main focus is on “work,” not “things.”

The WBS provides the foundation for a project plan, allowing it to be broken down into work packages and activities.

The level of detail depends on the complexity of your project and the level of control you want to have.

A WBS is especially beneficial for teams managing large projects because, as previously mentioned, it breaks the project down into smaller, more manageable components.

Generally speaking, the WBS clearly states what needs to be done and makes it easier to assign work to the project team.

Therefore, this will help the project manager to estimate resources, time, and risks better.

What is a Product Breakdown Structure (PBS)?

In the WBS, the project is broken down into work packages and activities to be accomplished, while the product breakdown structure presents products (or results) to be delivered by the project.

The focus of the “to-do list,” in this case, is on the “things” and not the “work.”

By focusing on the “whats” rather than the “hows,” PBS guides team members in understanding the expected results and ensuring that each deliverable has appropriate quality and meets specifications.

The PBS breaks down the project’s main product into its forming blocks as a hierarchical structure.

The main benefits offered by the PBS are:

• It defines the project scope;
• It raises awareness among your team about what will be delivered;
• It forces your team to think about the content of the product, say if it is a database: what type, how many records, format, etc;
• It provides a better way to determine what quality criteria will be applied to the product, how it will be reviewed, and what skills are required to undertake the review;
• It serves as the foundation for creating the Work Breakdown Structure.

Work breakdown structure vs Product breakdown structure in project planning

The WBS and the PBS play complementary roles in the project planning process scenario.

Ideally, project managers would begin by creating a PBS to clarify the outputs and products needed and then use the WBS to organize and detail the work required to achieve them. 

This integrated approach ensures that project plans are thorough, covering both output (project or product) and work-related aspects and making it easier to spot discrepancies or oversights.

Both techniques are valuable during the planning process and ideally should be used jointly to ensure success.

Together, they help project managers determine:

• What is the result?
• What is necessary to achieve it?
• When will it be achievable?
• How will people know they have achieved it?
• Who is required to accomplish it?

First and foremost, you should outline a PBS that clarifies what needs to be built or imported from elsewhere.

The product registry is a handy way to find suppliers for third-party products, and a product flow chart helps pinpoint the order in which products are required.

This helps in understanding the plan’s logic at a high level before detailed planning begins.

Then, you design a WBS to organize and build a feasible plan for the associated work packages and activities. Thus, having an overview of the plan that includes both “things” and “work” will cover all variants of your project.

Are there products without work packages? In this case, you will not be able to deliver the desired result, or the PBS will include products that are not needed for the scope of your project.

Are there work packages without products? If so, you may be undertaking unnecessary work or missing something in your PBS.

When used jointly, the PBS and WBS techniques provide powerful tools for ensuring the accuracy and completeness of project plans, whether simple or complex. Both must be used for their intended purpose correctly without blurring the boundaries between “what” and “activity.”

If this part is achieved and the relationship between deliverables is critically reviewed early in the planning process, the risk of completing work without the required deliverables being completed can be significantly reduced.

In this context, project management tools like Twproject can offer significant support, facilitating the integration between Work breakdown structure and Product breakdown structure, improving collaboration and efficiency of project teams.

Twproject allows easy management of project hierarchical structures, ensuring that all aspects are considered and that communication among stakeholders is effective.

Moreover, it enables the project manager to have a comprehensive view of the project, improving planning, execution, and monitoring, thus contributing significantly to the project’s success.

In today’s dynamic commercial enterprise surroundings, powerful asset control and maintaining is critical to achieve certain operational performance and maximize the life of crucial property.

Project control is key in formulating successful asset renovation strategies, ensuring green use of sources, and efficient protection activities.

This article examines first-rate practices in project control specially designed for asset control, supplying techniques that can be used to decorate organizational performance and asset reliability.

Asset control is the cornerstone of any enterprise’s business method, encompassing quite several activities aimed at the efficient and lengthy-term renovation of gadgets, machinery, and materials.

Project management strategies provide systematic planning, execution, and management of asset control offerings.

Let’s discover pleasant practices that can decorate asset safety through venture management techniques.

Best practices for peak asset performance:

1. Comprehensive Asset Inventory

The first step to effective asset management is having a complete and up-to-date record of everything you own.

Project managers should collaborate with management teams for creating and maintaining a detailed asset registry.

This registry should include vital information like asset type, location, current condition, maintenance history, and any relevant documentation.

This comprehensive list is the cornerstone for all asset management activities and resource allocation decisions.

2. Risk Assessment

Not all assets require the same level of attention all the time. Conducting regular risk assessments helps identify assets most susceptible to failure or those posing significant operational risks if neglected.

Project managers, working with subject-matter experts, can then prioritize assets based on criticality.

This allows for developing customized maintenance schedules that proactively address high-risk areas while optimizing resource allocation.

3. Utilizing Predictive Maintenance Techniques

Traditional reactive maintenance practices, where you fix things only when they break down, can lead to costly downtime and unplanned repairs.

By leveraging predictive maintenance techniques, such as condition monitoring and data analytics, project managers can anticipate potential equipment failures before they occur.

By harnessing real-time data and machine learning algorithms, businesses can shift from a reactive to a proactive maintenance strategy, minimizing downtime and extending the lifespan of their assets.

4. CMMS Integration

Traditionally, dealing with asset protection projects frequently includes paper-based total work orders and manual records monitoring. This can result in inefficiencies and communication gaps.

Integrating a CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System) offers a powerful answer. A CMMS software acts as a centralized hub for all asset and upkeep information. Project managers can leverage the CMMS to create and assign painting orders electronically, schedule preventive maintenance based on gadget records, and music the development of protection tasks in actual time.

This now not handiest improves conversation and collaboration between venture managers and maintenance teams but also allows for information-pushed choice-making regarding aid allocation and universal task efficiency.

5. Performance Metrics and KPIs

Measuring the success of your asset maintaining efforts requires defining key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with your organizational goals.

Project managers should establish metrics like asset uptime, mean time between failures (MTBF), maintenance cost per asset, and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) to assess project performance and identify areas for improvement.

Regularly analyzing KPI data allows for continuous optimization of your maintenance strategies.

6. Continuous Training and Skills Development

Asset maintenance practices evolve alongside technological advancements and industry trends. Project managers need to prioritize continuous learning and skill development for their maintenance teams.

This ensures proficiency in using new tools and methodologies. Investing in your workforce fosters a culture of innovation and empowers personnel to adapt to ever-changing maintenance requirements effectively.

By implementing these best practices, businesses can leverage the power of project management to optimize asset maintenance strategies and achieve operational excellence.

The result? Increased asset reliability, minimized downtime, and a maximized return on investment for your valuable assets.

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Author bio:

Lindsey Walker is the marketing manager for NEXGEN, a Sacramento-based industry leader in designing advanced computerized maintenance management systems and asset management software tools for utilities, facilities, public works, manufacturing, and fleet industries. In her free time, Lindsey enjoys travelling and reading, which allows her to gain new perspectives and inspiration for her work. She is committed to creating content that connects well with her readers, enhancing their digital experiences.

The time schedule generally refers to the skills, tools, and techniques used by the Project Manager to manage time when executing projects to achieve specific goals.

A time schedule must adapt to a specified period of time and use available resources with the right skills.

Given the many uncertainties and variables and the possibility that the availability of resources or the scope of a project may change, it is difficult for the Project Manager to create a schedule that remains stable from beginning to end.

Why you need to plan the time for a project

At the beginning of each project, it is necessary to know how events and activities will be organized during time.

And do not forget that during the project cycle, it will be necessary to spend some time to update deadlines by considering any changes to the project plan.

The investment of time for planning the project schedule may seem superfluous, but in reality it is absolutely necessary for success.

During the life cycle of the project a part of time of the Project Manager should be foreseen to review the schedule and the dependencies of the various activities.

This allows you to check if the project plans are still on track, what is working and what is not.

The schedule of a project is composed of sequenced activities, milestones and goals that must be delivered within a given deadline.

Having a project schedule means knowing exactly what needs to be delivered and in what order.

Moreover, with the right planning techniques, it is possible to regulate the activities in the case that the project is late or if any changes to its scope occur.

The time schedule: how to structure the project planning routine

There are two routines to follow for the planning of the project:

1. Planning of the weekly project

Set a time once a week to analyze the schedule and the project plan, determine the results achieved in the past week, and define the goals for the current week.

This time must also be used to be sure that all resources are aligned to ensure the execution and achievement of the goals.

2. Planning of the daily project

Plan at least 30 minutes a day to reflect on the day and / or review the schedule for the next day.

This moment can occur at the beginning or at the end of the day, depending on the preference of the project manager and the most efficient technique.

Here is a brief example of what daily project planning can look like for a project manager:

• Review the program and update the Gantt chart, if necessary.
• Ensure that the meetings scheduled for the next day are properly planned and confirmed.
• Plan the next day based on whatever deliverables are expected. If necessary, the project manager will block a part of his agenda to work quietly on this.

How to obtain a schedule

The process that allows the Project Manager to obtain a schedule is composed of four phases:

• Create a model of how the work will be performed;
• Estimate the duration of activities;
• Calculate times for activities;
• Present the results.

Every aspect of the process is taken into account by the team, using experts in the field, when necessary.

In fact, a program agreed with the team is more likely to succeed than one imposed from the board of directors.

Estimation of activity durations must take into account many factors, such as effort required, resource efficiency, physical constraints, etc.

Regarding the third point, the simplest form of calculation is the critical analysis of the path. This uses a duration estimate that includes all the factors.

The final results are usually presented as a Gantt chart.

The main advantage of this model is that it can be updated frequently with new information and quickly recalculated.

This is a continuous process throughout the project life cycle and uses the information on actual progress to predict the end date of the project.

Most of the project planning is normally performed with the help of a specific project management software.

In the past, printed calendars or spreadsheets shared by e-mail were the method used by Project Managers to keep an eye on the project schedule.

But today, most teams and organizations implement project management tools with the appropriate features.

These can simplify the creation of timelines and save them online, making the planning of activities and teams much easier.

Because projects have so many moving parts and change frequently, project planning software automatically updates tasks that depend on each other when a scheduled task is not completed in time.

With some software, it is also possible to have the advantage of setting milestones, linking activities, and seeing the actual or planned progress of the schedule update dynamically.

One of the best software on the market is Twproject: after having set the tree structure of a project and having defined its milestones, in Twproject it is possible to insert all the defined phases in a Gantt diagram. It will be sufficient to indicate the estimated time for each activity and then chain the development phases. It is also possible to make some steps dependent on others. This will allow to update statistics in real time, recalculate project deadlines in the event of delays or changes and have a complete overview of the progress of a project.

Twproject has allowed us to organize work subdivision in a simple way through the WBS, then planning the duration of the phases and the workload of each assignee by using the Gantt chart.

Read the interview with Gap Studi e Consulenze and find out how they optimized time planning with Twproject

What are the benefits of using a time schedule?

As explained, there are many advantages that a well-made project schedule ensures to project managers, the team, and the organization in general:

• Managers, team members, and stakeholders can monitor progress, set and manage expectations, communicate and collaborate clearly.
• Tasks and results can be monitored and controlled to ensure timely delivery of the output – and if delays occur, it is possible to easily assess their impact and make the necessary changes.
• Increase profitability.
• The communication of clear and better details about the project helps the organization in the distribution of resources where they are most needed, helping to achieve the goals of the project.

Following these steps ensures the project manager to always work efficiently on any project and to be able to predict and mitigate the risks before they turn into big obstacles.

Twproject offers a 15-day free trial with the assistance of its support team. It could be an opportunity to build an effective and complete time schedule and to start optimizing work times by improving the performance of the entire work team.

Why create a Gantt Chart? What is it and why is it important in projects?

If you are starting to immerse yourself in the world of project management, then you should familiarize yourself with this essential tool in this industry.

Its importance in the context of project management lies in its capability to help you organize activities logically and sequentially, identify dependencies between activities, allocate resources effectively, and keep track of overall project progress.

In this article, we will explore together what a Gantt chart is, why you should use it, and how Twproject can revolutionize your approach to project management.

Gantt Diagram: what is it?

The Gantt chart, which bears the name of its inventor, Henry Gantt, is a visual tool used in project management to portray activity planning over time.

This tool appears as a horizontal bar chart, where each bar stands for a specific project activity, its duration, as well as its planned start and end.

The key to the success of a Gantt chart lies in its power to provide an at-a-glance overview of the project’s progress, allowing project managers and team members to understand deadlines, dependencies between activities, and resource allocation easily.

It also facilitates the identification of potential schedule delays or conflicts, allowing real-time changes to be made to keep the project on track.

Thanks to its simplicity and effectiveness, the Gantt chart has become an indispensable tool for managing projects of any size and complexity, promoting clear communication and improving team efficiency.

Key elements of a Gantt chart

Gantt, with its user-friendly visual structure, comprises several key elements that make it easy to read and interpret. These elements are central to understanding at a glance the progress of a project, its timelines, and the relationships between the various activities.

Here are the key elements of a Gantt chart:

1. Horizontal bars

Horizontal bars are the most distinguishing element of a Gantt chart. Each bar represents a specific activity in the project, with the length of the bar expressing the duration of said task. The position of the bar along the time axis shows the expected start and end of that task.

2. Time axis

The upper or lower horizontal axis of the diagram shows the total time frame of the project, which is divided into time units (days, weeks, months). This axis makes it possible to visualize when activities should begin and end, providing an overview of the project timeline.

3. Activity list

On the left-hand side of the diagram, there is a list of all activities planned in the project. These are usually arranged in sequential or logical order and can be grouped by phases or work areas, making it easier to understand the structure of the project.

4. Milestones

Milestones are visual indicators, often represented by symbols, that mark critical points or significant objectives within the project. They have no duration but mark key moments such as the completion of a critical stage or the delivery of a deliverable.

5. Dependencies between activities

Dependencies show relationships between activities, indicating how the completion of one activity influences the start or completion of another. These are often expressed by arrows or lines connecting the bars, highlighting the logical sequence of activities and their interdependencies.

6. Activity progress

Some Gantt charts provide a visual representation of task progress, with partially filled-in bars to indicate how much of the task has been completed. This makes it easy to compare the actual progress with the original planning.

7. Allocated resources

In more detailed versions of the diagram, it may also be specified who is ultimately responsible for each activity or what resources have been allocated. This element helps to manage human and material resources better, ensuring that each activity has the necessary resources to be completed.

8. Colours and codes

Using different colors or codes can help to quickly differentiate between different activity categories, project phases, or priority levels. This design element further increases the diagram’s readability, allowing an immediate understanding of the project status.

These key elements make the Gantt chart an extremely powerful tool for planning and monitoring projects, providing a clear and understandable view of progress and facilitating resource and time management.

Why use the Gantt Chart in project management

After having shed some light on what a Gantt is and what it is about, let’s take a look at its benefits.

Using a Gantt chart in project management is not just a matter of convention or convenience – it is a strategic choice that brings with it many significant advantages. This tool proves to be vital in tackling the complex challenges of modern project management, thanks to its ability to simplify the planning and monitoring of activities. Now let’s take a look at why the Gantt chart is so valuable:

• Clarity and immediate grasp: The first and arguably most apparent advantage of the Gantt chart is its visual clarity. The graphical portrayal of activities on a time scale makes the duration of each activity, overlaps, dependencies, and margins for flexibility immediately obvious. This helps all team members to quickly understand how their work fits into the larger project context, facilitating planning and self-organization.

• Better internal communication: The transparency offered by the Gantt chart improves communication within the team significantly. Each member can visualize not only their own activities but also how these relate to the work of others. This promotes a sense of collective responsibility for the project and helps to prevent misunderstandings or overlooking deadlines and priorities.

• Time management optimization: By visualizing durations and dependencies between activities, Gantt charts help project managers optimize resource allocation and time planning. By pre-emptively identifying potential conflicts or overload periods in advance, it is possible to redistribute resources or revise deadlines to keep the project on schedule.

• Facilitazione della pianificazione e del monitoraggio: Gantt chart is not only a planning tool but also a monitoring tool. It makes it easy to compare the actual progress of the project with the original planning, highlighting any delays or deviations. This is crucial for taking timely corrective action and ensuring that the project stays on track.

• Decision support: when facing uncertainty or needing to make quick decisions, the Gantt chart provides a robust basis of objective information. Visibility into how various activities affect each other helps managers assess the consequences of any changes, supporting informed and strategic decision-making.

• Versatility and adaptability: The Gantt chart is fit for projects of all sizes and industries. Its versatility makes it a precious tool for project managers working in diverse contexts, always offering a solid support structure for project management.

Gantt Chart: Which software to choose?

Beginners often resort to Excel for project management, mainly because it is familiar and seemingly simple. However, this choice can prove counterproductive.

Despite being a powerful tool for data processing, Excel is not optimized for project management and presents several limitations that can compromise effective project planning and monitoring (learn more here).

Evaluating project management software is a pivotal process to ensure that the chosen tool aligns effectively with the needs of the team and the project.

Twproject stands out as the best software on the market for creating Gantt charts for several key reasons that meet the needs of project managers.

These aspects make it well suited for those seeking not only to plan activities effectively but also to monitor project progress in real time, manage resources efficiently, and facilitate collaboration between team members.

Here’s why Twproject is the right choice:

1. User-friendly and customizable interface

Twproject offers a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to create and manage Gantt charts.

Users can easily add, edit, and arrange tasks, sub-projects, and milestones with just a few clicks. Advanced customization allows the Gantt to be adapted to the specific needs of the project, improving readability and understanding of the project status by all team members.

2. Advanced dependency management

Unlike other tools that offer limited functionality, Twproject makes detailed management of dependencies between activities possible.

This includes the option of defining complex relationships, such as flexible dependencies, which better reflect the dynamic nature of modern projects, allowing for more realistic and flexible planning.

3. Real-time collaboration

Twproject simplifies collaboration between team members by providing them access to the Gantt chart, viewing assignments, updating task status, and sharing documents in a centralized environment.

This considerably improves communication within the team and with stakeholders, reducing the risk of misunderstandings and accelerating the decision-making process.

4. Monitoring and reporting

Managers enjoy powerful tools for monitoring project progress and generating detailed reports. This way, they have a clear picture of the project’s progress, identify any delays or problems at an early stage, and make informed decisions to keep the project on track.

5. Efficient resource management

In resource management, Twproject offers powerful functionalities for allocating and monitoring human, financial, and material resources. Users can easily overview resource availability, prevent overloads, and optimize resource allocation to maximize project efficiency.

6. Scalability

Twproject is designed to fit projects of all sizes and complexities, making it a scalable solution that can grow with your business. No matter whether managing a single project or coordinating a portfolio of multiple projects, Twproject offers the functionality and flexibility to manage projects in different scenarios effectively.

Making a Gantt chart with Twproject is an easy and intuitive process, so you can focus on what matters: successfully completing your project.

Remember, the key for a project manager is not only knowing the right tools but also knowing how to use them at the right time.

Twproject is here to guide you through every step of your journey, making project management a smooth and rewarding experience.

Managing a project effectively is a complex task. It requires a lot of time and high capacity. This is why the implementation of a project management software possibly in the mother tongue simplifies the process.

This implementation becomes more and more essential, if we consider that companies have goals to achieve that can also be taken as a reference point to measure the overall level of success and growth.

The value in purely economic terms of the organization also depends on success, growth, and efficiency. It is clear that if a project management software can be simply used by all members of the team, it can facilitate the achievement of goals, becoming an indispensable resource for the company itself.

An effective general management of the project cannot depend only on the skill of the Project Manager in managing tasks and resources, but also depends on the possibility that the Team has to feel supported, to interact, and to check individual and group progress. All this and much more can be achieved only with the use of a good software in the mother tongue of the Team that helps the PM managing the entire project and the Team to carry it out.

Project management software and its advantage

Since managing a project is a complex and time-consuming process, streamlining it using a project management system is a valuable solution that can be applied to an increasing number of projects and organizations.

The main purpose of the project management software is to assist the team in planning and monitoring the project, taking into account the resources, components, and overall stakeholders.
This investment is economically advantageous in the long term, if we consider the amount that the company could lose with poor project management and if, as already mentioned, we consider the added value that the company has for every goal achieved.

Companies that are not yet using project management softwares are likely to do more work with less profits. This is due to the time wasted on adjustment activities.

If these activities have already been taken into consideration in advance and are already planned, the project manager, with his team, will have more time to concentrate on the fundamental operations for completing of the project.

Here are some reasons why a project management software is useful for organizations of any size:

Scheduling and planning of activities

Without a computerized system, it can be difficult for the team to meet deadlines due to the lack of a fixed guideline on what should be done, by whom and by when.

Even the overall visualization of the tasks to be performed helps. Time is lost when employees show up for work without knowing the tasks they should do.
The use of a software outlines the activities and makes them visible and clear to everyone in real time.

Setting deadlines and priorities, together with planning, avoids misunderstandings and overlaps of activities and schedules.
In fact, some of the indispensable functionalities in a project management software are a synchronized and shared team calendar that provides an overview of everything. 

The Gantt chart is a tool that easily shows the timing of steps and milestones and also allows you to see the assignees of each individual task and the overall progress.

It is particularly useful if it has sufficient elasticity to realistically reflect the progress of project phases and the correlation between them.

Management of the resources needed for the project

Resource management is another reason why a project management software is useful.

Managing resources efficiently is important to ensure the proper functioning of the project activities and phases. Good management of the workflow does not waste anyone’s time.

This feature describes the resources that will be used and when they will be used.

Knowing the materials that will be used in a project allows you to work smoothly without blockings caused by a missing tool or equipment.

The calculation of the use of a resource must also be present. This allows, in a cost saving perspective, not to forget certain resources and to avoid their excessive use.

It is clear that this leads to a reduction in expenses and ensures the payment of resources only when they are really needed and used.

Budget management

Each project comes with a budget that also counts contingencies and profit.

The goal of a project manager is to keep the actual cost below, or at least equal to the estimated cost, in order to maximize the profit earned by the company for the project.

To manage expenses efficiently, the simple creation of an Excel spreadsheet will not be enough.

In this case, some essential functions that a good PM software should have can be the monitoring of the time spent on the various activities. The monthly and weekly reports on expenses, a financial reporting dashboard and, in some cases, the automated billing option will become valuable references for the Project Manager.

Management of the project documentation

Many organizations use excel spreadsheets, others, probably the smallest, can even use pen and paper to track project progress.

However, these methods expose to potential errors. A research shows that 88% of the data in a spreadsheet contains errors that are alarming for organizations that use it as a reference tool for managing business operations.
The use of a project management software guarantees an accurate documentation based on the data collected in a detailed and methodical way.
A project management software can therefore definitely help you get the projects under control and and the team work moving in the right direction..

Collaboration within the work team

When managing a large project, each member of the team is designated with individual activities.

To ensure that everyone has the same focus, it is necessary to use a project management software to simplify team collaboration.

When a member has questions or concerns, he must immediately get the right answer by communicating internally to the team. He must communicate with the right people within the right project, without wasting time looking for other sources. Therefore, it is almost essential to have an internal chat within the software.

This reduces the time spent searching for answers

A chat also optimizes the sharing of documents, timelines and status updates to notify everyone of important information such as the amount of work done and how much time is left to complete it.

Some features not to be underestimated can be the possibility of file sharing, sharing of customer data, a chat for each project integrated in the system, and a dashboard for each team that provides an overview of the progress of each single piece within the project.

The choice of a project management software in the mother tongue

In short, thanks to a project management software, it is possible to maintain the management of the group and the project.

But this can only be done if all the members of the Team will be able to use it to its full potential. And how will all this be possible if not all the members of the team fully understand the language of the software?

When choosing a project management software, the language is often underestimated, while playing a key role instead.

Having a software available is certainly important, but it’s not just about having it… You also need to know how to use it and make it work.

There are some aspects related to team management that are strongly related to the language. They are aspects that are a great part of the success or the inexpensiveness of a project.

The software, in the realization of a project, is an almost indispensable resource, and for this reason is important to use a project management software with a multilingual version or a project management software that contemplates the mother tongue.

Certainly, many project managers will understand English, given the amount of foreign terms in the sector.

However, when we talk about other collaborators and team members who have to deal with the system, the situation changes. It is essential to make sure that the chosen software is available in the mother tongue.

It would not be nice if, due to a bad interpretation of a term, the workflow of a given project was somehow interrupted. Interpretation is the enemy of efficiency.

Choosing a project management software in native or multilingual language is essential to ensure the use of the software itself. If the team finds a pleasant environment, where the barriers to use are not present, it will definitely be more inclined to use the tool. Clearly, this will guarantee a constantly updated and performed project.

But there are other aspects related to the language that have to be taken into consideration. Let’s see them together.

Support

Assistance must also be an aspect consider when choosing a software.
In fact, if you choose a project management software in your mother tongue, you can also have mother tongue language support. Any need, any doubt will not leave room for interpretation, the understanding will be immediate and the intervention of the PM will not be necessary.

Integration

The software becomes a tool of great value if integrated with the production processes. For this reason, the language becomes strategic in allowing the team to switch from one application to another without having any kind of shock.

Cloud or Enterprise

When choosing a software with a multilingual version, it is essential to think about the evolving company.
Today, choosing whether to install the software or keep it in the cloud is a strategic choice, but it must not become a constraint.
Usually companies start with cloud projects and then evolve towards enterprise solutions. This is why it is necessary to start immediately with a project management software in Italian.
Only thanks to this choice, whatever the evolution of the company, the software can be enjoyed serenely and without barriers by the whole team.

Do you use a project management software? Are there certain fundamental benefits for you that we have not shown in this article? Share your opinion with us!

Gantt vs Agile? Choosing between tools and methodologies in project management can significantly impact your project’s outcome.

Understanding the peculiarities of a planning tool such as Gantt and a dynamic methodology such as Agile is critical for project managers who strive to optimize processes and lead their work teams to success.

We will examine their differences, benefits, and potential combinations for effective project management.

Gantt vs Agile: key differences

The distinction between the Gantt chart and Agile is fundamentally rooted in their nature – the  Gantt chart is a visual tool for planning and monitoring project phases, visualizing the length and sequence of activities on a time axis.

Conversely, Agile provides a flexible and iterative methodology designed to adapt to quick changes and promote continuous feedback between development teams and customers.

This core difference strongly impacts how project managers approach the structuring, execution, and adaptation of their projects.

The choice between Gantt and Agile and the decision to integrate them depends on the nature of the given project, the work environment, customer requirements, and team culture. Understanding these key differences is pivotal for project managers who seek to implement the most effective strategy for managing their projects.

Let’s take a look at their key differences:

1. Approach to planning:

• Gantt chart: It is based on detailed and sequential project planning. Activities are presented as colored bars on a chart, with clearly defined start and end dates. This approach provides a clear picture of the project and makes it easier to monitor progress; however, it can be inflexible and unsuitable for projects with variable requirements or in uncertain contexts.
• Agile: It is based on an iterative and incremental approach. The project is broken down into short cycles (sprints) lasting 1-4 weeks; a working version of the product is released at the end. This approach promotes flexibility and adaptability to change, making it ideal for projects involving uncertain settings or requirements that may evolve over time.

2. Team involvement:

• Gantt chart: The team’s involvement in the planning phase may be limited. The Gantt chart is often created by the project manager or a planning team, and the development team may only play a minor role in defining activities and timelines.
• Agile: The Agile methodology focuses on team involvement and collaboration. The development team is actively involved in sprint planning, task estimation, and decision-making. This approach supports the empowerment and motivation of the team.

3. Change management:

• Gantt chart: The Gantt chart is a strict tool that is not well-suited for frequent changes. Changing a single activity can have a chain effect on the whole project, requiring an update of the diagram and timetable.
• Agile: Agile methodology is designed to manage change flexibly. The sprint structure allows the project schedule to be revised and adapted frequently, incorporating feedback received and any changes in requirements.

Gantt vs Agile: pros and cons

Gantt and Agile offer distinct approaches to project planning, execution, and control, and each has its unique strengths.

Exploring both advantages can help project managers choose the best approach for their unique project needs, balancing detailed planning with the ability to adapt quickly to evolving challenges.

Pros of the Gantt chart:

• Detailed and accurate planning: Gantt provides a visual portrayal of the project plan, illustrating the duration, start, and end of each activity on a time axis. This way, project managers can plan in detail and easily understand the dependencies between different activities, ensuring that all teams are aware of the different activities.
• Progress monitoring: Project managers can easily monitor progress compared to the original plan, quickly spotting any delays or deviations from the schedule.
• Deadline orientation: The Gantt diagram is especially useful in projects with well-defined objectives and deadlines, where the sequence and duration of activities are clear from the get-go.

Pros of the Agile methodology:

• Short iterations and constant feedback: Agile is based on short development cycles, known as sprints, which make it possible to adapt quickly to changes and to incorporate feedback from customers or end users constantly.
• Better risk management: It helps to recognize and mitigate potential problems in advance.
• Collaboration and communication: The agile methodology emphasizes collaboration among team members and with customers, promoting open and frequent communication.
• Adaptability to change: Unlike Gantt, Agile allows for changes even at the late stages of a project, making it ideal for projects in dynamic and rapidly changing environments where requirements may change over time.

Is it possible to combine Gantt and Agile?

Integrating Gantt and Agile in a hybrid approach to project management offers many benefits to project managers, allowing them to leverage both qualities to drive teams to success in an increasingly complex and dynamic working environment.

1. Strategic planning and operational flexibility

The combination of Gantt and Agile allows managers to set a thorough strategic plan, thanks to the Gantt chart’s visibility on project phases and milestones.

Likewise, implementing Agile principles ensures the operational flexibility needed to adapt to changes, enabling the team to respond proactively to project and market needs. This balance between planning and adaptability is critical in complex projects where conditions can change rapidly.

2. Progress monitoring and quick iterations

The hybrid approach makes it easy to monitor project progress effectively, combining the straightforwardness of Gantt’s linear progress with Agile’s ability to implement changes quickly through fast iterations.

Project managers can, therefore, assess project progress concerning the original plan while preserving the flexibility to make corrections or adjustments based on feedback received during sprints.

3. Better communication and customer involvement

By integrating Gantt and Agile, project managers promote better communication within their teams and with customers.

Whereas Gantt provides a clear and understandable roadmap for all stakeholders, Agile supports continuous customer involvement, ensuring the final product is as close to expectations as possible.

This hybrid approach ensures that decisions are made with a full understanding of the project context, improving customer satisfaction and team effectiveness.

4. Resource optimization and efficiency

The combination of Gantt and Agile helps project managers optimize resource use, assigning tasks and priorities more effectively.

Thanks to Gantt’s in-depth planning and Agile’s flexibility, workloads can be balanced, resources can be allocated according to the evolving needs of the project, and waste can be reduced, increasing the team’s overall efficiency.

5. Response to change and innovation

Ultimately, the hybrid approach helps project managers to respond more effectively to change by using the Gantt structure to keep the project on track and the Agile methodology to integrate new ideas and innovations.

This improves the project’s ability to adapt to emerging challenges and promotes a working environment focused on innovation and continuous improvement.

Twproject: the ultimate solution for Gantt and Agile

Twproject stands out in the project management industry thanks to its superior solution that effectively integrates Gantt and Agile.

This tool is designed to simplify project management, making activity planning and monitoring more user-friendly, extremely flexible, and adaptable to different work contexts.

Twproject’s Gantt Chart is known as one of the best on the market for several reasons.

First and foremost, its user-friendliness does not come at the expense of power and versatility. Customers choose Twproject for its clear graphs, ease of monitoring project progress, and advanced features, such as visualization of task dependencies and real-time resource management.

The platform offers a wide range of dynamic features, including:

• Real-time resource allocation: Twproject provides an easy way to monitor and modify resource allocations, quickly identifying any over or under-allocations.
• Management of flexible working hours: It offers the option of setting customized work schedules for each team member, ensuring accurate work capacity planning.
• Project status supervision: Through dedicated dashboards, Twproject provides a real-time view of project progress, making it easier to detect any critical issues.
• Sharing and communication: The platform emphasizes the importance of communication in project management, providing tools for easy sharing of ideas, documents, and feedback.
• Task planning and management: This software blends planning management with Gantt and task entry for the whole team, bringing projects closer to the day-to-day work of the resources.

Twproject‘s adaptability to different working methods, its user-friendly interface, and powerful features make it a must-have tool for project managers who want to optimize their project management, improving team communication and overall efficiency.

The project baseline is an “instant photo” of the project taken at its initial moment.

The goal of the project baseline is to see how far actual results have deviated from the initial reference plan.

In project management, it is essential to establish a baseline with clearly defined requirements, an accurate cost structure, and planning estimates, before the project execution and monitoring start.

All this must be completely defined and documented before the actual activities of the project begin.

In the baseline, the following elements of a project are included:

• Scope
• Timelines
• Costs
• Resources
• Risks
• Quality

Project Manager and project baseline

The project manager must examine the deviations from the project baseline when the work is done and throughout the project life cycle.

After the planning process is completed, this plan is agreed by all stakeholders and everyone expects the actual results to match the planned ones.

The role of the project manager is to verify during the execution of the project, if there is any variation from the baseline, in any element mentioned above.

If an event occurs that causes the project budget to be exceeded, for example, or if there is a risk that will cause the project to be delayed, corrective and preventive actions must be taken.

The project baseline can be changed, but it is not an easy process. These changes can be complex and require careful consideration.

In fact, the baseline should allow to verify how much the project is in line with the initial planning.

If a baseline changes too frequently and there are too many deviations from it, this can be considered misleading.

Therefore, in the real world, the baseline of the project is generally modified only if an important request for modification is approved and only with the recognition of the sponsor of the project.

These changes are considered and approved through a specific process, in which the impacts on the project are assessed.

If a change is approved by the control committee, first its impacts are reported in the project plan and, next, the modification can be implemented.

Deviations from the project baseline are often due to incomplete or incorrect risk identification.

There may be a deviation from the baseline of the project, for example, if the cost of an activity or article exceeds the planned values, or if an activity takes more time than the planned duration.

Why is the project baseline important?

Establishing a baseline allows the project manager to evaluate performance and resource optimisation for the duration of a project.

If a project is behind schedule or above budget, it is time to make changes to the baseline or add more resources.

A technique often used by project managers to measure and compare the performance of a project with its baseline, is the following calculation:

Planned Value (PV) = The estimated cost of the planned work

Actual Value (AV) = Actual cost of work done up to the current date

Effective Value (EV) = Planned Value (PV) x % of project completion

Schedule Performance Index (SPI) = EV / PV , measures progress made up to the current date with respect to the initially planned progress.

When SPI <1, less work than expected has been done.

When SPI> 1, more work than expected has been done.

Cost Performance Index (CPI) = EV / AV , measures the value of completed work compared to the planned labor cost.

Finally, baseline determination helps with the accuracy of future estimations. This allows the project manager to get a better idea of how long it will take to complete the project and at what costs.

Estimated at Completion (EAC) = (total project budget) / CPI

EAC is a forecast of how much the overall project will cost, so that it is possible to approximate the correct allocation of resources.

Maintaining an accurate record of current project estimates and actual results allows estimates to be applied to similar future projects.

How to check the status of the baseline

 The check of the progress of the project with respect to the baseline, must follow specific procedures that are established even before starting the execution of the project.

Effective control is possible when these elements are defined:

• Performance assessment standards and criteria
• Data collection system
• Frequency of monitoring, ie. when the checks must be carried out
• Frequency of reporting
• Approval process for the new programming
• Stakholders communication plan.

Practices to follow for optimal calculation and good control of the project baseline

 Let’s see the “modus operandi” to set, track and maintain an optimal project baseline.

 1. Setting of the original baseline

At the beginning of any project, it is very important to set a baseline that represents the starting point of the work. This is a useful method to document the change of various parameters of a project. The goal of setting a baseline is to avoid rewriting its parameters, but eventually just adding new ones. The experience of the project manager in this operation has a very important role.

2. Keep track of previous baselines

As the project progresses, surely the project manager will have to make changes. However, before any change, it is important to save a history of the previous baselines so that it is possible to access the previous baselines for comparisons and restore changes, if necessary.

3. Maintenance of a baseline

Once a change has been approved, it is time to update the forecast by adding the new scope, deadlines, and approved changes. Keeping an accurate record of updates and changes to the baseline allows the project manager to keep the project in line with the new requirements.

In order for the project to be successful, a structured control system becomes fundamental, as well as a good initial planning.

In addition, a project manager must be able to manage contingencies and any changes that may occur during the life cycle of a project.

The control must not only be limited to reporting the changes and rescheduling the activities planned for the future. Instead, control must be a proactive process in which project managers try to anticipate problems.

The project manager must therefore have a continuous and detailed view of the project and must communicate continuously with the project team and with stakeholders.

Managing the project baseline with project management software

Managing projects with a project management software is clearly simpler, but if the software also manages the baselines, even the subsequent analysis will be simpler.
Twproject records every change on your project and allows you to scroll through the whole story in a simple and visually impactful way, thanks to its timeline, managing to get to the starting point to analyze everything that has happened: every time the budget has been exceeded, the hours estimate, time, any correction and advancement.

Thanks to this, a project manager can refer to different baselines and it is important that he has an adequate control system available.

A good project software like Twproject that keeps track of project timings and deliverables, can certainly give a big help in the control of the project baseline, too.

The Gantt chart in Excel can be compared to one created in project management software? You will find out shortly by continuing to read.

As you well know, the Gantt chart is a central tool in project management for visualizing the progress of every task.

Project managers often rely on Excel to create these charts, using horizontal bars to portray the series of data relating to tasks’ start and end dates.

Still, what are the limitations of a Gantt in Excel? Let’s analyze them below.

6 limitations in using Excel for a Gantt chart

1.    Static and strict activity management

Excel was not designed specifically for project management (learn more here).

Excel’s spreadsheet format implies a static and strict management of activities using a Gantt chart. This poses several specific challenges, including:

• Manual updates: Any changes regarding start or end dates, task lengths, or resource allocations must be filled in manually. For a dynamic project, where times and resources can change frequently, this process becomes cumbersome and error-prone.
• Slow response to change: In Excel, responding quickly to changes is complex. If the end date of a task is postponed, project managers must manually update all dependent tasks. This process is prone to omission mistakes, which can cause inaccurate time and resource estimates.
• Lack of automation: Since there are no automation capabilities specific to project management, task planning becomes time-consuming, lacking the possibility of quick and automatic adjustments in response to project variations.

2.  Complexity in visualizing dependencies

In a Gantt diagram, it is critical to visualize dependencies between tasks.

Dependencies are vital in any project – they state how the delay or acceleration of one task affects the others. Excel presents significant limitations in this regard:

• Manual mapping: Dependencies must be mapped manually in Excel, often using comments or complex cell organization. This counter-intuitive method makes it difficult for team members to visualize how activities are interconnected quickly.
• Complicated updates: When a dependency changes, the project manager must find and manually update each reference. This process is error-prone and highly inefficient, especially in projects with many interdependencies.

Limited visualization: Excel does not offer a straightforward way to visually distinguish between different dependencies (e.g., start-to-start, end-to-end, etc.). This limitation limits the project manager’s analysis and planning powers, and they must rely on external solutions to overcome this shortcoming.

3.  Limitations in scalability

Large projects can become particularly problematic in Excel.

As the number of tasks and team members increases, the file becomes heavier and takes longer to manage. This limitation in scalability can make it difficult to manage complex projects efficiently.

4. Lack of real-time collaboration

Collaboration is a major aspect of project management.

Excel does not support real-time collaboration, so team members cannot simultaneously work on the same file.

This limitation makes it difficult to communicate and update information in real-time, which is crucial in a dynamic working environment.

Collaborating on an Excel project typically requires sending the file via email or uploading it to a shared drive. This approach can lead to confusion about which version of the file is the most up-to-date and increase the risk of unintentional overwriting.

Moreover, with no way to work on the same file simultaneously, team members must wait for one person to complete their work and update the file before another can start. This considerably slows down the process of updating and revising the project.

Also, it is difficult to track who made what changes and when. This lack of traceability can lead to difficulties in managing accountability and understanding the history of changes made to the project.

5. Lack of specific features

Excel does not offer specific project management features such as task progress tracking, alarms for upcoming deadlines, or integration with external tools.

This lack makes it difficult to perform comprehensive and detailed project management.

6. Difficulties in customization and interpretation

As mentioned, creating a Gantt chart in Excel that is visually clear and easy to interpret can be challenging.

Customizing and interpreting Gantt charts in Excel pose unique challenges, particularly for large teams or complex projects:

• Advanced customization: To adapt a Gantt chart to the specific requirements of a project, users often have to resort to complex manual solutions, such as modifying formulas, editing conditional format bars, or creating macros.

This requires some advanced skills in Excel, which not all team members may possess.

• Visual clarity: Keeping visual clarity in a Gantt chart can be tricky in Excel.  

With no dedicated tools, differentiating between different project phases, task priorities, or progress states requires significant effort for visual customization, which may not be intuitive or easily interpreted by all team members.Data interpretation: Gantt charts in Excel can be difficult for team members of different skill levels to interpret. Without a clear and accessible presentation of information, communication, and understanding of the project status can be compromised.

Overcome Excel’s limitations with Twproject

Over time, using Excel to create Gantt charts has proven severely limiting, especially when managing complex projects that require effective collaboration between team members.

Twproject is a project management software that includes many advanced and integrative features.

The software creates a dynamic and interactive Gantt chart, which supports detailed task planning and real-time management of resources, task dependencies, and milestones.

Also, Twproject allows Gantt and ToDo lists to be visualized simultaneously, making it easier to manage tasks and their allocation during project meetings. This integration provides a complete overview of the project, improving communication between team members and leading to more effective workload management.

In Twproject‘s latest release, we have introduced flexible dependencies in the Gantt chart to allow greater flexibility in planning activities.

These flexible dependencies allow overlaps and downtimes between project phases to be managed more realistically, better reflecting the dynamic nature of modern projects.

The option of intuitively modifying dependencies and managing the elasticity of project phases is a marked improvement over the rigidity of diagrams produced with Excel.

Moreover, Twproject stands out for its ability to provide a project overview that includes planned activities and actual progress, thanks to the automatic updating of data within the Gantt.

This is key to keeping all team members up-to-date on project progress and making timely decisions based on accurate information.

Twproject is the ultimate solution for project managers, providing a more integrated and dynamic approach to project management.

Its state-of-the-art functionalities and user-friendly interface make it an indispensable tool for successful project management.

With no adequate project management plan, your business will be vulnerable to chaotic management, vague objectives, inadequate resources, and frustrated employees.

As a matter of fact, unrealistic planning results in high risks that produce poor quality results from high costs.

This is why it is so important to make a comprehensive project management plan before the work begins.

In this article we will take a look at what a management plan is, what it is for, and how to implement it.

What is a project management plan?

The project manager creates the project management plan based on input gathered from the project team and key stakeholders.

A project management plan is a formal document that outlines how a project will be executed, monitored and controlled.

As work moves forward, project performance is benchmarked compared to the performance measurement baseline included in the project management plan.

Should a deviation from the baseline occur while the work is in progress, the project manager needs to address it by making adjustments to correct it.

If these adjustments should fail to correct the deviations, formal baseline change requests become mandatory.

Project managers spend a great deal of time ensuring the achievement of objectives., ensuring that all stakeholders get the hoped-for benefits.

As well as proper planning, a project manager’s skills also consist of efficiently controlling the project and ensuring that project deliverables are on time and that the project proceeds according to the project management plan.

How to make a project management plan

There is no unique model that works for all projects.

Each management plan must be tuned to the given industry and project circumstances.

Yet, typically, here is how a management plan is made:

1. Identify the goal of your project

To build anything meaningful, the first step is to lay the right foundation. Here are the questions you need to ask:

• Why is this project being created?
• What is the goal?
• How will it be measured?
• What is a successful scenario?
• How will this affect stakeholders?

2. Trace the framework

This following step must detail how things will proceed and what the project will look like once it has started.

It is critical that a project does not overstretch otherwise the team will never achieve its goals.

The scope of the project should include deliverables and scheduling of results; in fact, all team members should know what is to be delivered and when.

3. Visually trace your project

A thoughtfully crafted project schedule is the key to success.

Without this, your project will likely collapse into a chaos of missed deadlines, mismanagement, and frustration.

In this case, planning tools such as the Gantt chart and time sequences can streamline the creation of amanagement plan.

By visually outlining each activity in the project, it will allow for faster addition of important milestones and search for any dependencies or conflicts.

4. Identify the structure of your project team

Assembling a team and aligning them with your project vision is not so simple.

This can only be achieved through good communication, which is why good project documentation is paramount.

An organizational chart can help include some necessary information such as team hierarchy, everyone’s responsibilities, and contact information for each member.

5. Risk management

A key task of a project manager is to pinpoint the factors that could potentially jeopardize your project, and devise solutions to address them.

A risk management plan typically begins by listing all the elements of a project, and then a risk breakdown structure allows to organize them both hierarchically and by category.

With a dynamic and always up-to-date project monitoring tool like Twproject, the project manager will be able to keep an eye on any critical aspect of project progress.

This will make it easier to find them, manage them, and figure out a quicker solution.

6. Plan communication

One thing that project managers often overlook is having a  communication management plan. This outlines how the project team will communicate with stakeholders.

Too often, by default, project communication consists in ad hoc emails or last-minute meetings, but we can prevent this by planning ahead by drafting a structured communication plan.

This form of reporting is valuable for providing regular communication of clear and consistent updates about project progress.

This can also help in detecting and flagging problems before they arise, build trust with stakeholders, and make it easier to reflect on project performance.

Therefore, it becomes clear how a project management plan is key for a successful project, as it will be able to drive work and keep it on track.

Who can help you make a good project management plan

As previously mentioned, there are a number of management plan templates based on your industry, company culture, and project type.

In this case, a good, comprehensive, feature-rich project management tool, can help in choosing the best plan template and drafting a complete and comprehensive document.

This way, the project manager will be able to ensure that actual progress stays on track with planned progress.

If you choose Twproject, planning will be much easier, thanks to its dynamic tools for calculating risk, workload, and budget.

Thanks to its statistics pages and notifications you can always have the situation under control and carry out your management plan in a pleasant and satisfying way.

We offer you a 15-day free trial as well as our efficient support service that will personally guide you through the composition of your plan. What are you waiting for? Start now!

A project SWOT analysis is a strategic planning technique that project managers can use to assess the strengths and weaknesses of their projects.

In addition, this analysis will allow for the identification of opportunities and threats that may need to be addressed during the project life cycle.

Incorporating SWOT analysis into project management can help improve planning, reduce risk, and increase overall project success.

What does SWOT mean?

A SWOT analysis is a technique that companies often use to evaluate four critical aspects of their organization.

This analysis can help companies better understand how successful they are likely to be and what areas they should improve.

Just as entrepreneurs and executives use a SWOT analysis to evaluate their company, project managers can use the same technique to assess their projects.

Here is an overview of the four areas of interest that make up the SWOT acronym and how they apply to project management:

• S – Strengths: These are internal factors, i.e., factors that can generally be controlled, that determine the success of a project. An example might be good project management software or experienced team members.
• W – Weaknesses: Weaknesses are internal factors that can make it difficult for a project to succeed. For example, when the team has never worked together, and several members are new and inexperienced. Other internal weaknesses could be disengaged stakeholders or lack of project funding.
• O – Opportunities: Opportunities are external, uncontrollable factors that could help the project succeed. These opportunities may be current but not yet exploited or future. An example might be a discount on goods from a supplier.
• T – Threats: These are external factors that could harm the project if they occur. As with opportunities, they can be current or future threats. For example, a threat could be the failure of a major supplier or customer, or increased costs of supplies, materials, or contractors.

What is the purpose of a SWOT analysis?

SWOT-analysis helps the project manager plan the project and considers the factors that can help or hinder its success.

In fact, the goal is to find risk areas and controllable factors that need to be paid attention to and monitored throughout the project.

When you fully understand a project’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, you can plan a successful strategy that addresses these four factors.

Conducting a SWOT analysis can help produce new ideas for leveraging what the project manager and team do best and potential opportunities.

In addition, SWOT analysis also helps increase awareness of weaknesses and potential threats to the project so that you can defend against them.

Who should do a SWOT analysis?

For a SWOT analysis to be effective, you need complete, accurate, and unbiased information.

Depending on the project’s scope, the team conducting the analysis should have a good overview of the organization and the business.

A project with a larger scope usually should involve a project leader with a higher position or an outside expert to perform the analysis.

In addition, a project with a greater impact on the entire company should involve multiple participants in different departments of the organization.

In general, creating a team with diverse perspectives is essential for a more accurate assessment.

Advantages of SWOT analysis

Companies should perform a SWOT analysis before committing to any action or project plan.

In this way, they can answer questions such as “is it possible to do the project?” or “should we do the project?”.

SWOT analysis provides teams and organizations with the following benefits:

• Create honest assessments of their strengths and weaknesses.
• Provides new perspectives on the company and its business.
• Provides information on how to maximize what is available, address limitations, make additional investments, and avoid risk.
• Create supporting documents for the project plan.
• Provides an effective strategic planning tool when performed regularly.

Examples of SWOT analysis

A medical startup wants to develop and commercialize a noninvasive, optically-based blood glucose monitor in this example.

This company wants to offer patients a better way to monitor and manage their blood sugar levels without painfully pricking their fingers using traditional home electronic glucose meters.

So, let’s see what the SWOT analysis looks like in this case.

Strengths:

• The company has patents on its optical blood glucose monitor technology.
• The technology and device are FDA approved.
• The company has the support of industry experts with extensive experience regarding technology, including medicine, optics, electronics, and manufacturing.

Weaknesses:

• The company has no funding.
• As a startup, the company does not have a distribution network.
• The device is expensive to build.

Opportunities:

• There is an untapped market for noninvasive blood glucose monitors.
• Due to endemic diabetes, the demand for monitors increases each year.
• Leading scientific institutions and organizations are expressing interest in conducting joint research.

Threats:

• Existing competitive and emerging products have a strong market presence.
• Device prices are dropping.

Actions to be taken:

This company should consider getting capital from interested investors such as venture capitalists or angel investors from the SWOT analysis.

Also, the company must quickly build relationships with medical device distributors by attending conferences and developing distributor incentives.

The company can also benefit from joint research and publications with institutions and companies with existing distributor networks.

Another example of a decision a company might be faced with: hiring an intern for the summer?

Strengths

• Energetic and hardworking person
• Knows the latest technologies
• Convenient

Opportunities

• Could become a new full-time employee

Weaknesses

• Investing time in training
• Must return to college at the end of summer

Threats

• Could use the training he received to get hired at a rival company

Also, SWOT analysis can also be used to make decisions regarding personal life, e.g., jogging after work.

Strengths

• Burn Calories
• Breathe fresh air
• Sense of accomplishment

Opportunities

• Meet your future better half
• Discover new landscapes of your city

Weaknesses

• Sweaty clothes
• Muscle pain
• Fatigue

Threats

• Attacked by a dog
• Suffer an injury

Bottom line

In conclusion, SWOT analysis doesn’t so much help determine what to do as it does determine whether or not to do something.

The ultimate goal of SWOT analysis is to match strengths with opportunities to determine a clear path to success. Or also, to uncover weaknesses that could be exploited in a way that could be avoided in organizational strategy.

If you plan from the outset using project management software such as Twproject, the various elements of the SWOT analysis will be evident at a glance.

Twproject guides you in analysing and kicking off your projects, following you step by step. Test your project data now for free and discover all the launch opportunities and possible risks to avoid.