Project activity planning can be challenging, with countless tasks to keep track of, team members to manage, and deadlines to meet.

So here’s how having and following best practices can significantly assist in relieving stress and progressing as smoothly as possible.

9 best practices for planning activities

Sound planning is critical to the success of any project.

In this section, we will discuss nine best practices for better managing your activities and ensuring that the end result meets expectations.

By following these tips, you can optimize resources, improve communication, and increase the chances of overall project success.

1. Plan a kick-off meeting

It may be tempting to begin work right away, especially if schedules are tight. Still, good practice is always to start with a kick-off meeting, which serves as an introductory discussion about the project. 

This meeting will be led by the project manager and attended by all relevant stakeholders. Its purpose is to ensure that everyone is aligned on scope and objectives and to discuss the role and responsibilities that everyone will play throughout the project. 

During this meeting, define the scope of your project clearly to avoid any future misunderstandings.

2. Ensure your team members communicate effectively

Good communication can be a pain, but it is critical to the success of any project.

 The best way to ensure sound communication throughout a project’s life cycle is to establish connections between all stakeholders and ensure that tools are available to facilitate open communication. Good communication will help significantly smooth out any misunderstandings and pave the way for success.  

For example, encouraging team members to share information and collaborate allows work to be accomplished more efficiently.

3. Be realistic with milestones

Although pushing for results as soon as possible is standard, being realistic is always a wise practice.

Promising to be able to deliver more in less time or better quality than the competitor without a clear vision of how to do so will undoubtedly lead to (big) problems. It is certainly important to meet milestones, but schedules must be realistic.

Remember that every project requires adequate time to be completed.

4. Schedule change requests ahead of time

In virtually all projects, particularly the most complex ones, there will come a time when changes need to be made. Although it can be frustrating to go through these changes, change requests are relatively obvious to a project manager.

It is essential not to hold off until the last moment to deal with these change requests and have a clear plan for dealing with them. This way, you can stay on top of the changes without jeopardizing your project.

5. Have an orderly documentation process

Keeping a project log that tracks every decision made is a good practice.

Not only does this help justify the progress of the work later on, but it is also helpful in attracting any new team members who join later in the project life cycle. Every project benefits from clear and organized documentation.

6. Have feedback processes in place

Having procedures in place to provide opportunities for feedback from internal stakeholders and customers at each stage of the project helps to ensure the quality of the final outputs.

As you approach your deadline, all deliverables should undergo a quality assurance process to ensure that the delivered product meets your company’s quality expectations. This is a critical step that should be enforced several times during a project’s life cycle, not just at the end.

This ensures that the result is in line with expectations.

7. Regularly review your resource plan

In most companies, staff are required to work on multiple projects simultaneously to meet deadlines. While it’s important to be agile, it’s also crucial to remember that time is not an infinite resource. This is where resource management comes into play.

A good resource plan provides an overview of each team member by specifying what they are working on and how their time is organized (including periods of vacation or illness).

A resource plan can also include intangible resources like equipment, if relevant to the industry and the project. Ensure that each resource is allocated effectively and can be utilized to its fullest.

8. Planning a final retrospective meeting

Whether a project went incredibly well or did not meet expectations, there are lessons to be learned.

When a project is completed, a final meeting should be held where all involved gather to discuss its performance. This meeting will review what went well and, more importantly, what went wrong to figure out how to avoid the problem in the future.

This is not meant to evolve into pointing fingers at those who went wrong, but rather an opportunity to examine the project’s weaknesses and discuss how processes can be improved for next time.

During this retrospective, consider whether the initial project plan was effective or whether it needs future changes.

• 

9. Use a project management tool

It is easy to get lost in the details when it comes to project management. This is particularly true when working on big projects, where teams and people start to form compartmentalized groups.

Implementing a project management tool that gives all stakeholders a clear overview in a single platform can help manage a project successfully.

A project management tool like Twproject is a best practice for planning project activities because it provides a structured and visible way to coordinate resources, time, and responsibilities. 

Thanks to advanced features such as detailed reporting, task assignment, continuous progress tracking, and timely deadline management, Twproject helps the entire team work in synergy.

Moreover, since all communication is centralized on a platform accessible to all team members, the risks of misunderstandings or errors due to information leakage are reduced, as any changes or updates are immediately visible and searchable by all. 

This approach also allows for early identification of critical issues or bottlenecks and quick corrections, ensuring that the project is more adaptable to changes.

By providing a clearer overview of activities and resources, Twproject not only fosters better resource allocation but also allows for meeting set timelines, significantly increasing the likelihood of success and end-customer satisfaction.

A project implementation plan is a core strategic document that keeps the team’s work on track.

It is a tremendously valuable planning tool that can make or break your project’s success or failure.

It is a fairly comprehensive document, and it may be challenging for those who have never created one before.

However, don’t worry! This article will provide you with the steps to create and implement a project plan effectively.

What is project implementation, and why is it important?

Project implementation involves rolling out a plan to generate satisfactory results for stakeholders.

This occurs after the planning phase, when the team determines key project objectives, timelines, and budget.

Implementation involves coordinating resources and measuring performance to ensure that the project remains within scope and budget.

It also involves managing potential issues to keep the project running smoothly.

This step in the process and how it is executed can determine the success or failure of a project.

Implementation is critical because it allows planning to become tangible actions, manages the workflow effectively, and adapts to unforeseen situations.

A project may run into bumps along the way, but managing resources and timelines can help keep it running without jeopardizing key objectives.

Moreover, a well-structured implementation ensures that each project can be monitored and measured relative to defined performance indicators, thus allowing timely changes to be made to improve results and ensure objectives are met.

Let’s take a look at the steps required to implement a project effectively.

What are the steps to follow for a successful project implementation?

There are different steps involved in implementing a project, including a certain amount of planning that must be carried out before implementation can begin:

1. Evaluate your project and determine roles

It is helpful to set a plan that meets the expectations of key stakeholders in the first phase of the project cycle. 

Before implementing a project, the project manager must evaluate the plan and ensure that all team members understand what is required of them.

The project manager should also clearly communicate assigned roles and the expected schedule, as well as any project milestones that a team will be working toward in the execution phase.

2. Implement a schedule

Once a plan is up and running and expectations are established and clear, it is time to begin concrete work on the project. During this phase, the project manager should hold regular meetings with team members to discuss progress and any critical issues encountered.

At this stage, the project schedule is measured against the planned schedule, and resources are monitored to ensure that the team has what it needs to complete the project successfully.

Solid communication both ways is critical during this part of the process. It is also important to provide regular progress updates to clients or key stakeholders to ensure transparency about progress and to identify any problems as early as birth before it is too late.

3. Make changes to your project if necessary

Throughout any project, a project manager will likely need to make changes during implementation. These may occur due to new client requests or to keep the project within its scope.

During this phase, it becomes critical for a project manager to continue communicating with their team and asking questions to determine which areas they need more support in.

Change is not uncommon, but it is a reality for most projects, and the effectiveness with which a project manager implements these changes can affect the endeavor’s success.

4. Analyze your project data

During the implementation phase of a project, it is important to analyze data consistently to measure progress against initial projections. To do this, you can use a project management tool such as Twproject to gain insight into resource, budget, and schedule data.

Reviewing the data will help determine if any areas need to be changed to help the team meet the initial project expectations.

5. Collect feedback

The work is not over after the team has completed its project deliverables. Collecting feedback from the project team, clients, and stakeholders on the project results and evaluating which parts of the work went according to plan and which areas the team could improve the next time is critical to improving.

Project managers can have direct conversations with team members or send out a short survey to ask for input. This step can help companies make continuous improvements to ensure successful completion of future projects.

6. Provide end-of-project reports

The last part of the implementation phase includes providing reports to the project team, clients, and stakeholders outlining how the project performed against budget and schedule.

If changes were implemented during the project life cycle, these reports will also explain why these modifications were made.

They will include applicable data related to the project’s budget, timeline, and resources. This step is closely related to the feedback collection seen earlier. It gives companies the opportunity to reflect on project successes and identify any improvements needed for the future.

Project implementation with Twproject

Creating a project implementation plan involves careful planning and attention to countless details, but the results are worth the investment. This plan can increase a project’s success rate, team productivity, and morale.

Project implementation might seem tricky, but it becomes infinitely easier when you use the right tool.

Twproject comes with cutting-edge functionalities that support the entire project lifecycle, from early planning to final delivery. Thanks to its user-friendly interface, the team can collaborate more efficiently, sharing real-time information and updates.

This dramatically reduces the risk of errors due to fragmented communications or delays in data sharing.

As we have seen, projects rarely go as planned.

Twproject helps spot potential risks early and allows uncertainties to be overcome through sensible changes without affecting the project outcome.

Creating a project implementation plan with Twproject is no longer a daunting and complicated task; on the contrary, it is a clear path to follow.

This allows the project manager to stay focused on the goals and meet the stakeholders’ requirements.

Customized reports also provide a detailed overview of each project’s performance compared to initial projections, identifying areas for improvement and best practices to replicate in future projects.

Agencies operating in the marketing sector, which today is almost entirely digital marketing, are at the centre of a growth trend that will persist in the coming years.

The consequences of this growth are increased day-to-day challenges in managing complex teams and projects in an increasingly competitive market.

As the industry becomes more specialised and diversified, marketing agencies are faced with complex tasks with tight deadlines and at the same time need to keep their creativity alive and indeed enhanced.

Projects in this area are usually relatively small, but they are many and varied, designed for clients with very customised needs.

Managing numerous customers and activities forces one to rethink strategies in order not to reduce productivity while dealing with so many work aspects at the same time.

How to increase creativity and productivity in a marketing agency

Several strategies can be implemented to increase productivity at work.

The first may seem trivial and yet many project managers forget to put it into practice. It is first and foremost a matter of ‘setting goals’.

With the experience gained from talking to our digital marketing clients, we will help you identify which goals to keep in mind when managing projects and how to achieve them.

The common goal of all the objectives that we will identify and analyse will always be to streamline processes in order to promote time for creativity, which remains the main, and crucial, goal to pursue.

Objective #1: Distribution and monitoring of activities in marketing agencies

When the team works on many different projects, it is crucial to find ways to centralise communication and simplify collaboration among the players.

Communication must become lean and agile, so as not to interrupt the workflow and to keep the level of creative flair high.

If the list of tasks to perform is clear and defined, one can proceed in a much more confident and expeditious manner. If, once the assigned tasks have been completed, employees can note down the work and the time spent on it quickly and accurately, team management will be much more rewarding.

Solution #1: Organising activities in shared notice boards

An optimal way to make communication more agile and immediate, with real-time updates and feedback, is to divide activities into micro-tasks and distribute them through tools such as the Kanban board.

The Kanban board is a kind of virtual noticeboard that allows members of a marketing team to be involved from start to finish in campaigns.

This board consists of individual activities, called To-Do’s, which represent the elements to be distributed within the board among the various collaborators.

Each To-Do has a set of data, such as title and description, but also priority, status, reference project, category, comments and so on.

An excellent example of a Kanban board is that of Twproject, which in addition to possessing all the features already listed, has great flexibility and allows elements to be displayed according to various sorting criteria.

The Kanban board is very suitable for the management of marketing campaigns because it allows a simultaneous view of all campaign data and information and aligns the work between the parties.

In this way, each collaborator is able to know what phase of the project he or she is involved in and what tasks have been assigned to him or her.

The project manager sorts and distributes the tasks, placing them on the board and adding details and information. The assignee can comment and reply, change the progress status and keep track of every detail.

If you choose to use Twproject for this method of allocating and monitoring tasks, your workflow will be dramatically improved and streamlined.

Solution #2: Convenient and flexible timesheets

The work of the digital creator is made up of many different activities, precise and targeted interventions alongside structured operations and longer conceptual work.

It is therefore never easy to keep track in a single day of how much has been done, for which client or project. Worse still when one has to report on work over longer periods of time.

But accurately monitoring the hours worked on client contracts is a key task for marketing agencies.

When each co-worker uses his or her own systems to keep track of the work done, reporting this work to the client is a very difficult task for the project manager.

On the other hand, the use of unified time-reporting systems ensures effective coordination and control, for both internal and external use.

But if you want to give each team member the opportunity to report in a customised manner, also depending on the type of work performed at a certain stage, it is important that the chosen system is flexible.

A good model for flexibility in the recording of hours worked is Twproject, which offers multiple methods of reporting: from the weekly timesheet, to the time tracker that can be activated directly on project phases or activities, and also the direct entry on completed tasks.

Objective #2: Analysis of marketing campaign progress

Strategy definition is the key element of all marketing campaigns, be they digital or otherwise.

However, it is not always easy to communicate the strategy and, above all, to convert it into clear objectives for all those involved, and perhaps with the addition of timelines and deadlines.

For a project manager in marketing, as we have already explained in the section on the Kanban board, it is useful to equip oneself with visual tools that transform the theoretical idea into an illustrated prospectus to be shared with the parties involved.

Once this prospectus has been defined, we can more easily monitor progress and analyse the data obtained, even correcting errors on timings and budgeted costs.

Solution #1: Gantt chart for analysing progress and results

A tool that is not always appreciated by project managers in marketing agencies, but which we strongly recommend is the Gantt chart.

This visual tool allows you to put down on paper all the elements to be kept under control and predict the duration of implementation.

When the schedule of a project, such as the launch of a new product, is planned using a Gantt chart, it is much easier to keep track of progress and monitor ongoing activities and their deadlines.

The Gantt chart developed by Twproject helps to manage time consciously through a simple interface.

It allows for a customisable view on a macroscopic level as well as on individual details.

It also offers functionality to review data at the end of the project and to know when and how any errors in cost forecasting or schedule planning occurred.

With Twproject, the project manager has the possibility to reuse this data to set more accurate timelines in future projects.

Solution #2: Unified time and cost management to prevent management errors

If monitoring the work done and having a clear overview of the progress of projects is therefore crucial in a marketing agency, so is being able to convert this performance data into a financial statement.

The need for monitoring expenses in marketing agencies can be twofold, encompassing both the costs of projects for the company itself and the costs of campaigns for clients.

In both cases, the unified management of timing and costs is a fundamental requirement for marketing projects. The relationship between campaign costs and their performance is a crucial aspect and is not always linear and easy to define.

The advice is to always keep time control and cost monitoring aligned.

Rescheduling certain dates if necessary, taking into account possible project variations, must always be accompanied by budget change forecasts.

Twproject does this automatically, having merged its statement of project phases and timelines with the financial report.

Any change in time is converted into a change in cost, which is promptly notified to those in charge of managing the work.

If budgets and deadlines are carefully planned from the beginning of campaigns, it will then also be easier to reconstruct and justify any cost variations to be communicated to the customer.

This last analysed point also helps to streamline processes and make daily work easier for both the project manager and the whole team.

Guaranteed flexibility and agility in marketing project management with Twproject

If we were to identify a constant in digital marketing projects, it is the great diversity of them. Even within the same agency, projects and related activities are always very diverse in terms of type and method of execution.

It follows that great flexibility of approach is needed in this area, and consequently tools are needed to manage very different projects (and teams).

Twproject is precisely that flexible and customisable tool: it has functionalities that are suitable whether one is conducting advertising campaigns, handling a product launch or creating digital content.

In all cases, it helps to accurately plan and evaluate the work done and to formulate precise budgets for the future. It does this, however, by streamlining the time spent on work organisation and monitoring activities, leaving room for creative work.

With Twproject you only have one platform where you can organise activities, schedule timings and manage resources.

Want to see how it works first hand? You can take a 15-day free trial where we will help you set up the work according to your needs and strategic goals.

Project requirements are a key aspect in order to complete the project on time and without exceeding budget limits.

This is one of the essential skills of a project manager, often underestimated, which consists in the collection and analysis of these aspects of the plan.

Understanding clearly the requirements of any project you are about to undertake is very important.

Too many projects have failed because of no well-defined requirements.

As stated by the Project Management Institute

47% of projects failed due to poor requirement management.

There are no two identical projects: each project has its own set of requirements and it is a project manager’s responsibility to identify them correctly.

The more complex the project is, the greater the need to define the requirements in order to find certain processes for each part of the project.

What are the project requirements?

Stakeholders hear the term “requirements”, but everyone get its meaning in different ways, depending on the goals.

Therefore, before we can examine anything, it is essential to have a univocal operational definition.

Part of the confusion related to the requirements lies in the fact that there are several types. We will therefore try to stick to the classification made by the PMBOK (link all’articolo PMBOK)

The PMBOK, from the 6th edition onward, classifies the project requirements as follows:

• Corporate: they describe the reason for the project;
• Stakeholders: they describe the needs of a stakeholder or group of stakeholders;
• Solution: they describe the characteristics, functions and characteristics of the product, service or result that meets corporate and stakeholder needs;
• Functional: they describe the behavior of the product or service;
• Non-functional: they describe the environmental conditions or the qualities required for the product or service to be effective;
• Transitional: they describe the temporary capacities necessary to pass from the current state to the desired state in the future;
• Project: they describe the actions, the processes or the other conditions that the project must satisfy;
• Quality: they describe any condition or criterion that validates the successful completion of a project result or the fulfillment of other project requirements.

But why are the requirements so important for a project?

When requirements are not clear, projects are at risk; they may not produce the desired and necessary result.

At least, the missing requirements involve reworking.

In short, the lack of project requirements or their poor definition produces negative impacts on the program and on the budget.

Obviously customers, as well as team members, will not be happy with these shortcomings.

We examine the essential steps to arrive at a correct identification and processing of the project requirements.

Collect the project requirements

A project manager can not expect the project requirements to be delivered on a silver platter.

Stakeholders may not know exactly what they want and should therefore be helped in formulating their requirements.

A good project manager knows how to gather the requirements. In case he does not know, he will have to ask for help from those who possess the skills.

The tools for gathering the requirements

Here are some tools and techniques that can be useful the requirements-gathering process:

• Brainstorming: also called as group thinking or group creativity. Usually people with different roles and functions are brought together for this This technique is very useful when you do not have fixed needs and you want try to explore new requirements and new horizons
• Interviews / questionnaires: this technique is usually used in the case of large groups. Having a large number of interested parties does not allow to organize an individual interview. Be careful, however, to ask the right / pertinent questions for a correct and real collection of the needs of the interested parties.
• Interviews: a tool that involves personally stakeholders in order to understand their needs. Interviews can be facilitated through personal meetings or phone calls.
• Benchmarking: in this technique, a comparison is made between existing practices and market best practices. With the gap analysis with respect to these examples of excellence, possible project requirements can be.
• Context diagram: these diagrams represent a pictorial visualization of various interactions between users and different systems. Therefore, they describe the necessary steps to obtain the results and they may be suitable for identifying the requirements.

In each of these cases it is important to have project management software that allows, in the drafting of the project, these requirements, as an integrated part of the project itself.

Requirements analysis

The word “analyze” means to break down or examine in detail the constitution or structure of something.

If the situation allows it, one of the most powerful ways to analyze is to create prototypes or diagrams.

When users can see and / or touch things, it’s easier to see what they like and what do not like. A prototype or a diagram is more tangible than simple data.

Furthermore, in some cases, the priority of each requirement is examined during the analysis. In order to do this, you should ask yourself some questions. Here are some examples:

1. Which features and functions offer the maximum benefit for the project?
2. Which ones can cause the greatest risk?

Once analyzed, the requirements are documented and formalized in the project document.

What the project manager must do in general is to keep his team and client focused on clearly defining project goals and mapping valid, detailed and understandable requirements.

All this, in order to create a final solution that provides what the customer really wants.

The criteria for a project requirement

In general, a good requirement must meet four basic criteria:

1. A good requirement must satisfy a specific need
2. A good requirement is verifiable
3. A good requirement is reachable
4. A good requirement is understandable by all stakeholders

A good requirement must be understandable by all those involved in the project. Another tip is to formulate requirements in affirmative language whenever possible.

In conclusion, we can say that a thorough knowledge of how to devise, modify and adapt requirements processes is the key to successful project completion.

Effective project control, a clear traceability of requirements and a high-level view of the customer’s needs are key elements to ensure that objectives are achieved.

A well-structured and organised project team will be able to meet each challenge and adapt to any changes with effective resource and time management.

A good requirement must satisfy a specific need

A requirement is basically a declaration of something that someone needs.

That something is a product or a solution that performs a service or a function.

Even if it is verifiable, reachable and well declared, a requirement that is not necessary for the final solution is not really a good requirement.

Of course, the definition of the need will depend on the context and circumstances and must be deepened by the team and the client in each specific situation.

A good requirement is verifiable

A requirement must state something that can be verified through quantification, inspection, analysis or testing.

It is also important to determine the specific criteria for acceptance, which will consequently guarantee verifiable requirements.

A good requirement is reachable

The requirement must be within the budget and must be technically feasible.

It is important not to write requirements for things that can not be built or that are not reasonably within the budget or project timeline.

This is not always easy to determine and a project manager may not have the experience to judge whether a requirement is technically feasible.

In this case, it is necessary to ensure to include the members of the development team in the review process in order to predict technical problems.

It may be necessary to do a research in order to determine the feasibility of a requirement before it is added to the project baseline.

A good requirement is understandable by all stakeholders

A good requirement is understandable by all the subjects involved in the project. It expresses a single thought, is concise and is written in short and simple sentences with coherent terminology.

In this way, as you progress in the design and development phases of the project, the requirement will not change in meaning and will always remain clear to everyone.

Another advice is to formulate the requirements with affirmative language whenever possible.

For instance, it is easier to develop and test a product that does something specific than one that does not do something specific.

In conclusion, we can say that a thorough understanding of how to design, modify and adapt the requirements processes is the key for a successful completion of the project.

Effective project control, a clear traceability of requirements and a high-level view of the customer’s needs are key elements to ensure that objectives are achieved.

To optimise requirements management and improve project effectiveness, management tools such as Twproject can provide crucial support for planning, monitoring and controlling the entire project life cycle.

The quality plan is often overlooked in project development, yet it is strategic in defining the route and results, let’s see how.

CONTENT

• What information should a project plan include?
• What is project quality planning?
• Project quality plan model development

All projects, at their end, must produce / provide something, the so-called project output.

In the start-up phase, the client and the project manager, along with the project team, jointly set the project goals and timelines for completion.

The project deliveries must therefore meet certain general industry quality standards as well as customer-specific requirements.

Therefore, all project outputs – whether they are one or many – must be validated and verified prior to delivery to the client.

Quality should be considered not only in the output, but also in the processes and activities that produce these results.

Generally speaking, if the processes and activities that produce the deliverables do not meet quality standards, it is very likely that the output will not meet the delivery quality standards.

Thus, the quality plan becomes an essential document for the project.

This plan acts as a “quality bible” for the project and all stakeholders should agree to it.

The project’s quality management plan will determine the relevant quality requirements and standards that project deliverables must meet and will define a plan on how to meet them.

In short, it means providing a defect-free product developed with the highest efficiency.

What information should a project plan include?

In order for the plan to be complete, there are a series of information that should not be overlooked. We have drawn up the following list of data to be included in a quality management plan:

• Describe project objectives and quality expectations in general.
• Determine the organization’s quality policies and management systems (e.g., ISO 9001 certification) and outline how these policies will apply to the project.
• Identify other quality criteria or policies that must be adhered to and complied with, such as customer or investor requirements.
• Describe how quality requirements will extend throughout the supply chain.
• Define acceptability criteria for project deliverables.
• Define quality management roles and responsibilities.
• Identify which standards will be applied.
• Identify and list the quality metrics that need to be monitored.
• Describe monitoring and reporting processes to provide constant improvement.
• Describe design and review processes.
• Describe testing and quality assurance processes.
• Describe the processes for dealing with defects.
• Describe project acceptance processes.

What is project quality planning?

Project quality planning can be a challenging process, but it allows an organization to clearly set quality requirements and document all necessary procedures for managing expectations in this regard.

The development of a quality plan model is thus a key activity. Without a complete project quality plan it is almost impossible to implement the project and deliver the product on time, within budget and according to stakeholders’ requirements.

Project quality planning is one of the key elements of strategic project management; it is the starting point to create a link between stakeholder expectations and product requirements.

There are several inputs involved in running the project quality planning process. These are:

• Scope statement,
• Stakeholder requirements,
• A list of identified and described risks (the so-called “risk register”)
• Project implementation program.

By using all this input information, the project manager, supported by their team, should develop a model project quality plan.

Project quality plan model development

Although each project is unique, a standard approach can still be used for the development of a quality plan model.

Here are the key steps:

1) Collect input data

As already mentioned, in order to develop a model project quality plan, it is necessary to collect input information, including the scope statement, stakeholder requirements, risk register and the project implementation program. The project manager and the team must ask for all the necessary information and collect the requirements for the product.

2) Set quality parameters

Here you must decide which metrics and parameters will be applied to analyze data and activities throughout the project lifecycle.

Some of the most common metrics include:

• Accuracy of deliverables: Measures compliance with technical specifications.
• Timing of deliverables: Assesses adherence to schedule.
• Customer satisfaction: Can be measured through feedback and surveys.
• Defect rate: Number of errors or problems detected in deliverables.

3) Analyze data

As soon as the input information is collected, the next step is to perform a cost-benefit analysis. This analysis will help to review all the costs that will be involved in the project and all the benefits stated during the project setup phase.

Through Twproject‘s reporting tools, cost-benefit analysis becomes more intuitive, facilitating informed decisions based on up-to-date data.

Quality planning activities are aimed at meeting quality requirements within the planned costs and reported benefits. Simply put, the cost of each activity should be compared with the expected benefit and, according to the quality parameters chosen, the ratio should be at least satisfactory.

4) Perform quality control

Throughout the project lifecycle, quality metrics will have to be observed and it will be essential to establish how to control these characteristics during the project implementation process. You can use checklists and templates to guarantee consistency in quality metrics and to take control of the expected quality performance.

5) Progettazione del piano di miglioramento

The ultimate step in developing a model project quality plan is to create an improvement plan that outlines the actions to analyze quality performance and identify activities to improve the value of the project / product.

This quality plan may include steps and reasons to apply changes to the project, product setup or process metrics.

With Twproject, you can quickly identify areas for improvement and implement corrective actions efficiently.

To sum up, a quality plan is a fundamental document in a project to ensure its success.

It is about creating a foundation for setting requirements and identifying quality procedures.

Just as in a project you have defined objectives and results, so the quality metrics must also be well set.

Quality plans provide an essential framework for ensuring that every aspect of the project meets the expected standards. These plans help to identify areas that can be improved and ensure that the project can undergo rigorous quality assessments.

The Waterfall Methodology is called this way because it develops systematically from one stage to another in a downward direction. Basically, you cannot proceed to the next stage unless you have completed the previous one first.

First introduced by Dr. Winston W. Royce in an article published in 1970, the Waterfall methodology is a classic model used in project management and project life cycle development to create a system with a linear and sequential approach.

This model is divided into several phases and the output of one stage is used as input for the following one.

In short, each process phase must be completed before the start of the next one and there is no overlapping.

Although the popularity of the waterfall model has decreased in recent years towards more agile methodologies, the logical nature of the sequential process used in this methodology cannot be denied. Let’s have a thorough look.

The five stages of the Waterfall Methodology

Building a “waterfall model”, for a new project, is a rather simple process, thanks in large part to the step-by-step nature of the method itself.

Clearly there may be small differences from one project to another, but regardless of these, the basic concepts regarding what it takes to start a model are the same and can be applied anywhere.

1. Requirement analysis: During this initial stage, potential project requirements are methodically examined and documented. This paper will serve as the baseline for all future developments. This stage also often includes a feasibility study to see if the project is really worthwhile.

2. Planning: In this stage it is determined how the project will be conducted and will then be divided into various modules/activities.

3. Development: In this stage the project is actually executed.

4. Test: During this stage, tests are performed to identify and report any output problems that need to be solved.

5. Release: at this stage the output is ready to be rolled out and distributed in the market.

Waterfall methodology pros

Although in recent years the Waterfall methodology has been slowly discarded for more agile methods, it should not be ignored that this method can still offer a number of advantages. Notably, larger projects and organizations that require strict phases and deadlines could benefit from its application.

Here are the main pros of the Waterfall Methodology:

•   Fits mobile teams: the use of this method allows the project as a whole to keep a more detailed and solid design scope and structure thanks to all the initial planning stages of the project.
and of documentation. This is especially convenient for large teams that could have employees coming aThis makes it particularly suitable for large teams, where the turnover of members does not compromise the continuity of the project during the project’s life cycle.

•   Allows a structured organization of resources: Whilst some might argue that this is a burden rather than an benefit, the Waterfall model forces the project, and even the organization that uses it, to be extremely disciplined in its structure. Most major projects will necessarily include detailed procedures to manage every aspect of the project.

•   Allows early design changes: Although it may be difficult to make design changes later in the process, the waterfall methodology is well suitable for early life cycle modifications. This is great when filling out the specification paperwork in the early stages, as changes can be made immediately and with minimal effort, since no coding or implementation has been done until then. Basically, with the Waterfall method the management of project changes is significantly smoother.

•   Ideal for milestone oriented development: due to the intrinsic linear structure of a project that follows this method, the waterfall methodology is well-suited for organizations or teams that operate well in a milestone-oriented environment and fixed deadlines. Having distinct, tangible and clearly understood steps by all team members, it is fairly easy to develop a timeline for the entire process and assign milestones for each step. This does not mean that project development can be delayed, but the Waterfall methodology is particularly good for projects that have set deadlines.

Waterfall methodology cons

Here are the disadvantages of the waterfall methodology:

•  Limited design flexibility: Arguably the worst drawback of the waterfall model is its inherent lack of adaptability in all phases of the project life cycle. When a phase five test reveals a major flaw in system design, not only does it require a drastic leap backwards, but in some cases it can often lead to serious concerns about the legitimacy and operation of the entire system. Experienced teams and developers argue, of course, that such situations should not occur if the system was designed correctly from the start, but sometimes not all scenarios can be considered, and each project carries its own set of risks.

•   It ignores customer feedback halfway through the process: Due to the strict process that this method involves, feedback from users or customers is provided late in the development cycle and this can sometimes be too little or too late.

•   Delayed testing period: Whilst most modern models seek to integrate testing during development, the testing phase of the waterfall model comes relatively late in the process. This not only means that most bugs or design problems will not be discovered until the final stage of the process, but it also encourages poor coding practices as testing is just an afterthought..

How to optimize the Waterfall methodology in Project Management?

In summary, although it has its drawbacks, a project management plan that follows the Waterfall methodology is very effective in situations where you work in a familiar scenario with various known factors, and where the client knows exactly what they want from the beginning.

A solution could therefore be to anticipate not only the normal test phase as foreseen by the waterfall methodology, but also to consider the idea of introducing an effective error management tool in the project development cycle.

For it to be 100% effective, the tool must be flexible: on the one hand allowing you to monitor errors and on the other providing the function of integrating different methodologies.

And it is here that the the Agile approach, i.e. the work methodology which in some ways is opposed to the Waterfall method, comes into play. This method is characterized by a simplification of the work flow and aims at achieving results in a short time, dealing with greater tolerance the fulfillment of objectives, deadlines and budgets.

The integration of the two methods with Twproject

So, how to choose whether to use a waterfall or agile method? In our opinion it is important that one approach does not exclude the other and that even if starting from a structured project planning, it is also possible to work in an agile way on the single phases of the project.

What must therefore be agile is the software to be used, which allows the two approaches to be combined and offers both scenarios.

Twproject offers a mixed perspective that takes full advantage of every situation.

In practice, this means that at the beginning of planning the project manager can set the WBS of the project, i.e. its various phases and sub-phases, in a “waterfall” logic, but later the individual project participants can work in a more agile way, acting on ToDo’s, assignments, timing, etc. The two methods will always remain connected and you can switch from one view to the other at any time.

In practice, integrating some Agile principles within a Waterfall project can be the key to getting the best of both approaches: the robustness of Waterfall and the flexibility of Agile.

If you are looking for a tool that combines the best of various working methods, Twproject is right for you.

It is the software simplifies project management processes and allows you to manage projects in an efficient and integrated way: try it for free and let us know your opinion.

In an increasingly specialized environment, the need for an overview in engineering teams is a fundamental requirement. Lack of this perspective can lead to inefficiencies and difficulties in coordination between different areas of expertise.

In this post we will explore the key skills and practical solutions needed to improve collaboration and understanding within teams.

1. What is meant by Overview

1.1 Widening perspective

When dealing with complex projects that require the technical skills of various professionals, the ability to understand the project as a whole and the interrelationships between the various phases is essential.

Engineers have a natural tendency toward sectionalism, having specialized in a very technical field, where specific expertise on a given topic is crucial.

This necessarily leads to the need for the technical team to be supported by others who coordinate the parties and also take care of the financial and administrative aspects of the projects, such as management engineers and project managers.

But there remains sometimes a problem of broadening one’s perspective: this can only be achieved by sharing a larger but still acceptable set of data and information, which is not overwhelming but gives a fair view of future developments and aspects beyond one’s area of expertise.

1.2 Communication

To exemplify what happens when communication is lacking let’s pose the case where the project manager requests from the engineering team a feasibility analysis useful to unlock a permit.

If not adequately informed of the purpose, the person responsible for the analysis may delay in the operation, for example, because of willingness to provide the maximum level of detail.

It may happen, however, that this level of precision, a fundamental quality for an engineer, is not necessary at that stage of the project. Instead, it is sometimes helpful to come to terms to advance the process, meet delivery schedules, unblock approvals, and make everything run more smoothly.

Such an example aims to show that when all parties involved in projects are aligned and informed about the goals of each project phase, work flows better.

It follows that effective communication is essential, not only within each technical area, but also between different disciplines.

1.3. Flexibility

When you communicate effectively and with the right ways and tools, then, you enable each team member to gain flexibility in their work.

Horizontal (between time phases) and vertical (between sectors) interaction is essential to fill technical skills gaps.

And so in engineering teams, as well as in all production sectors, knowing what happens in the later stages of the project and in all other areas involved helps to increase flexibility.

A flexible attitude is crucial to adapt to changes and evolving project needs.

It allows teams to respond quickly to new information or unexpected problems.

2. Solutions to Improve the Overview

As we have seen, modern engineering is characterized by high specialization, with traditional and management engineers working in distinct fields.

This separation can lead to a lack of long-range vision and difficulty in coordinating the different phases and figures involved in the project.

The first rule is to start with a good project management plan and then decline it according to business needs using the right tools.

In summary, a good management plan consists of the following operations:

• Identifying short- and long-term goals

• Outlining the scope of action and how it will be carried out

• Developing a schedule of timelines

• Planning for risk management

• Selecting the team involved and defining its hierarchical composition

• Developing an internal and external communication plan

Let us now look at the best tools for accomplishing these tasks, with some practical solutions for broadening the team’s perspective in project execution and achieving better and more effective interaction among involved parties.

2.1 Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Gantt chart

The WBS is a tree structure that allows the project to be divided into phases and micro-phases.

This approach has the advantage of meeting the need for specificity and detail while fostering a broader understanding of the project.

In a second step, the WBS can be easily turned into a Gantt chart, allowing correlations between different activities to be visualized, even if they pertain to different sectors.

Twproject is a project management software that has equipped its Gantt chart with dynamic and interactive features, making it an essential collaborative tool, and not merely a theoretical timeline.

With Gantt, the entire engineering team can easily synchronize and align on essential project information and phase timelines.

Reasons for slowing down, i.e., bottlenecks, can be easily identified thus limiting efforts and keeping projects healthy.

One of the many useful functions is for example the sharing of documents directly via the Gantt view in Twproject. This function, together with quick assignments and the possibility to comment by tagging team members, facilitate interaction focused on project dynamics.

Again, when managing several projects simultaneously, the visualisation of the project Portfolio helps to set priorities and formulate a broader strategic plan.

2.2 Communication techniques: Scrum methodology and use of alerts

There are a number of techniques for improving communication within the team and here we consider two that are particularly suitable for engineering teams.

• Use of the Scrum methodology: this working method can improve communication and collaboration. It involves setting clear objectives, allocating resources and scheduling agile meetings to monitor progress.

With the Scrum methodology in Twproject, productivity is maximised with sprint planning adapted to the workload of the resources. It is a very useful methodology for managing teams that need to improve their flexibility, as it encourages them to adapt quickly to changes.

• At the same time, it is good to equip oneself with tools that provide alerts to prevent possible unforeseen events.

Alerts and notifications are a great way to keep control of the project, but if not handled properly they can become overwhelming.

For this reason, it is crucial that the project management software allows customisation of notifications according to the needs of the company, the project and the timeframe.

Twproject allows you to set the types of notifications and also who and when will receive them, enabling the project manager to define a strategic plan on the responsibilities of the various figures involved in the project.

2.3 Integrated project management tools

Making the team aware of various aspects of the project through various sharing tools is therefore crucial.

One area that should never be ignored, even by those who do not deal with it themselves, is the financial aspect of projects.

Anyone who heads a team of engineers certainly has a clear understanding of the need for reliable and professional tools for financial management.

But if these tools do not communicate with the project management systems, some important information remains with administrative managers only.

On the contrary, the advantage of using integrated platforms, which combine project and resource management with financial management, is the greater agility in transferring data and the possibility of sharing it with the whole team.

With Twproject, authorisations to view and interact with financial data can be defined, making it possible, for example, to entrust the management of the economic aspect of individual steps to some managers and the macro aspect to others.

In addition, the cost management tool in Twproject makes it possible to differentiate between estimated and actual costs and income. In parallel, this also applies to timing, which can be calculated into estimated and actual.

Detailed and integrated cost and time analyses combine technical and management aspects, facilitating collaboration.

3. Best Practices

Implementing these solutions allows fundamental best practices to settle and consolidate in engineering teams.

We can summarise them as follows:

• Making the whole team aware of the overall aspects of the project

• Definition of objectives for individual steps and sharing with parties involved

• Setting a prospective strategic plan, considering possible future developments following the achievement of objectives

• Constant communication, either direct or indirect, of the occurrence of problems related to timing or overruns

• Sharing experiences and results for process improvement

Twproject ha gli strumenti giusti per la gestione dei progetti in un team di ingegneria

Improving the overview in engineering teams requires an integrated approach that fosters communication, flexibility and the use of appropriate tools.

By implementing the solutions and best practices discussed, teams can meet the challenges of specialisation and work more synergistically, contributing to the success of projects.

The use of project management and project monitoring software is common practice in engineering teams, but if these are sectoral and limited to a specific area, they are not, in our opinion, effective in achieving the results outlined here.

On the contrary, an integrated tool such as Twproject – which at the same time offers incredible accuracy in every aspect: from the planning to the finance to the technology – allows for a broader overview.

If you want to find out how Twproject connects your work team, increasing their productivity and collaboration, you can take a 15-day free trial, during which our support team will always be at your disposal.

Deadline management is like a safety net that prevents projects from plummeting into chaos.

Deadlines are milestones that mark progress and guide the team toward achieving goals. When deadlines are met, projects succeed, clients are satisfied, and the team can celebrate positive results.

So today, we will take a look at how best to manage deadlines and what tools can help.

Understanding deadline management

Deadline management is a process that helps project managers manage their resources, schedules, and endeavors within a given time frame without undermining outcome quality.

These are vital checkpoints that lead the project manager and their team through the management of a project’s priorities and various activities.

For a project manager, mastering deadline management involves:

• Balancing tasks with long-term project timelines
• Ensuring that all team members are aligned on the work to be undertaken
• Use proven strategies and technologies to keep the project on track.

Why many projects do not meet deadlines

As we already mentioned, deadline management is crucial to the success of any project.

Yet, even the most experienced project managers can face challenges that lead to missed deadlines.

Here are the main reasons for this shortcoming:

• Poor communication: A lack of clear and coherent communication can lead to misunderstandings regarding project goals and deadlines, significantly impacting the project schedule.
• Unrealistic expectations: Setting deadlines without a realistic estimate of the project scope and available resources often results in missed deadlines. Having a balanced view of what can be accomplished within a given time frame is crucial.
• Inadequate resource allocation: Insufficient or poor resource allocation, whether time, personnel, or materials, can hinder progress and cause delays.
• Procrastination: Postponing tasks until the last minute is a common problem that affects work quality and jeopardizes meeting project deadlines.

Failure to meet deadlines can have significant consequences, resulting in higher costs, strained stakeholder relations, and compromised corporate reputation.

Implementing effective project management tools can help you visualize activities correctly, improve communication, and efficiently allocate resources to ensure deadlines are met.

Principles of effective deadline management

Effective deadline management requires strategic planning, clear communication, and foresight to manage the complexities of a project.

Here are the basic principles for effective deadline management:

1. Setting reasonable deadlines

This involves a realistic assessment of the time needed to complete tasks, considering the team’s capabilities and job complexity. The project manager should set feasible deadlines at each level, following a logical sequence of activities. This, in turn, ensures that the team works at a sustainable pace and that quality standards are adhered to.

2. Prioritizing activities properly

Effective deadline management also means prioritizing tasks according to urgency and importance. Le scadenze critiche vengono rispettate solamente se ci si concentra prima sulle attività ad alta priorità.

3. Creating time buffers

Incorporating time buffers during the work cycle is a strategic approach to mitigate risks of unforeseen delays and ensure deadlines are met.

When unforeseen problems arise, the buffer allows the team to address the challenge without delaying the delivery of the project plan. Moreover, creating time buffers significantly reduces stress among team members.

4. Reevaluating and reprioritizing activities regularly

In the vibrant environment of project management, adaptability and flexibility are critical. Regularly reprioritizing tasks as necessary allows the team to quickly reevaluate its goals and shift its focus to more critical capabilities that align with current client needs. This practice helps meet deadlines and quickly adapt to changes, ensuring that an outdated plan does not compromise project success.

5. Assigning specific tasks to team members

Assigning specific tasks to individual team members adds a crucial layer of responsibility for managing deadlines. When employees know exactly what they are responsible for, it becomes easier for the project manager to monitor progress and spot bottlenecks ahead of time.

Effective deadline management with Twproject

Leveraging technology is a game changer for effective deadline management.

Specifically, a project management tool like Twproject provides a one-stop platform for planning, executing, and managing project timelines. This allows the team to know where the work is at all times and communicate effectively, thus reducing the chance of missing a deadline.

Twproject offers a more integrated and centralized solution for managing project deadlines and activities.  

Unlike spreadsheets, which require manual updates to keep track of receipts and payments and note deadlines so they can be error-prone, Twproject allows you to automate your processes and ensure that all information is always up-to-date and accessible to all team members.

It also allows setting reminders and prioritizing tasks, helping to remember deadlines and keep track of progress, making project management easier and more manageable.

It also delivers valuable information through customizable reports and data analysis, thus helping the project manager make informed decisions. 

Tasks can be sorted according to priority based on their urgency, so the team addresses high-priority and urgent tasks first, thus optimizing workflow and ensuring timely completion.

Hence, it becomes evident how a tool such as Twproject is designed to improve productivity and simplify deadline management. It is a powerful ally that offers comprehensive functionality to manage work accurately.

Try it for free.

Managing business tasks efficiently is directly proportional to how well employees and teams use their skills, tools, and technologies.

High productivity in the workplace is often associated with increased profitability, better employee morale, and a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Successful organizations can properly align their people, processes, and technologies to create an environment conducive to high productivity.

The importance of business task organization and management

Organizing and prioritizing tasks correctly to achieve better productivity leads to many benefits:

• Greater efficiency: Tackling responsibilities systematically and efficiently allows you not to feel overwhelmed by a to-do list that, if poorly managed, seems endless.

• Improved concentration: By setting proper priorities for tasks, you can better focus on what truly matters, ultimately producing better-quality work.

• Effective time management: Time is a valuable resource, and effective task management can help you make the most of it. You can prevent last-minute rushes or missed deadlines by setting the correct priorities.

• Reduced stress levels: Feeling overwhelmed and unorganized can affect mental well-being. On the other hand, knowing what needs to be done and in what order can provide peace of mind.

• Resource optimization: Understanding how important and urgent each task is allows you to properly allocate time, effort, and resources.

• Improved collaboration: When tasks are clearly defined, team members can understand their responsibilities, coordinate efforts, and work together neatly toward common goals.

Using project management software to manage business tasks

Project management software can be a key tool to help manage business tasks efficiently.

What such a tool can provide is:

• Instant view of task progress and project completion;
• Option to assign tasks quickly and effectively;
• Easier task management for all team members.

Automated features such as reminder alerts and recurring tasks are useful time-saving tools for project managers and encourage team members to stay on top of their activities.

Here are five ways to use project management software to successfully manage business tasks and complete projects.

1. Using a one-stop integrated digital workspace

There are many benefits to using a fully integrated digital workspace for project management.

Project managers can track everything in one place, thereby minimizing the risk of missed deadlines or neglected tasks. Meanwhile, stakeholders gain immediate visibility into the performance of the business as a whole.

2. Leveraging the different views of the software for task management

A quality project management tool should provide access to customized dashboards.

These are individual dashboards for team members and project managers that allow all relevant data to be centralized in a single view, with progress bars, to-do lists, comments, and access to relevant documentation.

3. Create customized workflows for task management

Every business operates differently. Although general agreement may exist on managing tasks and projects effectively, workflows will still differ from company to company.

A task management tool helps precisely define each step in the workflow, optimizing business task management as needed.

4. Using automated features to manage tasks effectively

The automated features of project management software help managers and team members reduce the time spent on basic administrative work.

For example, the following automation can streamline work:

• Set reminders or email alerts as project activities approach due dates;
• Set up tasks that repeat automatically so that they do not disappear from the radar;
• Automatically assign multiple tasks to different team members;
• Set up updates for project managers or senior executives when important tasks need to be reviewed

5. Using knowledge-sharing tools to improve efficiency

It is tempting to use meetings as a substitute for communication through other channels, particularly in hybrid environments.

Nevertheless, in many cases, in-person meetings are not an effective way to share knowledge and can quickly become a waste of time.

The integration into the business management system of centralized document storage and dedicated chat channels allows team members to access the knowledge they need to complete to operate more efficiently and improve productivity in general.

This will make it possible to use meetings to focus on the issues that truly matter.

Choosing Twproject for business task management

We have seen how the right software creates and preserves a more effective task management process.

Twproject, specifically, boasts the features we have discussed and many more, making it a versatile and comprehensive solution for any organization.

Improving employee productivity is vital to stay competitive in today’s market.

Twproject is designed to manage the complexity and vast scale of business data across multiple industries, ensuring effective task management and optimal resource allocation.

By providing better access to information, project managers and team members will be able to effectively manage business activities and make informed decisions quickly.

Thanks to its user-friendly experience and customizable dashboards, project managers can easily track project progress, assign tasks, and monitor deadlines, while team members have a clear picture of their responsibilities. 

Twproject also offers powerful reporting tools, which allow you to analyze performance, identify bottlenecks, and continuously improve project management.

Try it for free.

The roadmap of a product is actually more than an unimportant detail to which you do not pay much attention. A few simple reflections are enough to change your mind quickly.

It is well known that rapidly evolving technology requires companies to innovate more rapidly and to introduce new products to the market even faster.

But good ideas do not always guarantee good products and development teams are often hindered by delayed decisions.

A product roadmap can therefore help you avoid these problems and create a market plan oriented to the future.

What is a product roadmap?

A product roadmap offers a broad overview of all aspects of a product: goals, timeline, features, resources, etc.

The roadmap indicates, in essence, what a development team is building, the problem that technology or software will solve and the business goals that the new product will reach.

But an effective roadmap will also act as a project management tool in two main ways:

• is a strategic tool thanks to which it is possible to achieve long-term goals and approximate times for the product,
• can improve communication by providing a place where more interested parties can be informed about product goals and progress.

Product roadmaps provide internal teams and other stakeholders,  information on the current status of a product.

Moreover, the roadmap should also establish clear expectations about how the product will develop in the following months.

The person responsible for creating the product roadmap should take into consideration existing technological trends, market conditions, engineering constraints, and the organization’s value proposition.

How to create a product roadmap in 5 steps

Now let’s look at the 5 key steps to create a product roadmap.

1. Define the product strategy

A product strategy creates the general framework in which the creation of the product will move.

For example, in order to enable the organization to invest in product development, stakeholders expect answers to questions like:

• Which customers will use the product?
• What problems will it solve?
• What business goals will be pursued?

We also recommend that you include the main differences that distinguish this from other similar products already present on the market.

2. Collect the requirements

There are three main groups from which information can be gathered to define the requirements:

• Speak directly with the sales and customer support team. These departments know first-hand what the needs of the outside world are and probably have customer feedbacks that can help to prioritize new features. Moreover, their intuition can provide ideas on what to consider for future product versions.
• Interact directly with the product user community, so valuable information can be obtained from enthusiasts and experts who already spend much time using the product.
• Finally, there is direct knowledge of the product. Undoubtedly, the project manager has a deep knowledge of the functionality of the product, its characteristics, and its limits. The project manager can therefore think which components should be prioritised for customers. Once identified, we can focus on solutions to improve any weaknesses.

3. Allocate a large amount of time to the initiatives

The level of detail of the roadmap must leave room for innovation and agile responsiveness.

Setting strict deadlines could lead to promising a result that it is impossible to maintain.

Therefore, instead of indicating specific dates, many product managers choose to track initiatives on a monthly or quarterly basis. Alternatively, you can choose to completely omit the dates.

4. Customize the roadmap for interested parties

The success of a product depends on the participation of other internal teams and stakeholders as well.

To have more chances to persuade the interested parties, a solution is the personalization of the roadmap, therefore presenting details for every particular interest.

Here are some common internal stakeholders and the information they generally want in a product roadmap:

• Company executives: all the elements outlined in the product strategy, as well as all the data relating to the size of the market.
• Marketing Department: product features, comparison between the product and similar products on the market, and product potential to generate sales.
• Sales Department: release dates and specifications on the benefits that the product offers to customers.

5. Share the product roadmap

Sharing the roadmap has several advantages. In addition to encouraging the involvement of the team and obtaining the support of the top management, the roadmap communicates all the progress that has been made and sets the expectations for the subsequent phases.

To maximise the effectiveness of sharing, it is useful to adopt some best practices:

• Use project management tools: software such as Twproject allows the roadmap to be created and updated in real time, facilitating collaboration between team members.
• Clearly define priorities: highlighting key initiatives and their impacts helps teams focus on the most critical aspects of development.
• Organise regular meetings: periodic meetings to update progress and resolve blockages can improve overall project efficiency.
• Customise the roadmap presentation: adapting communication according to the stakeholders involved (e.g. managers, technical teams or customers) makes the roadmap more effective and understandable for all.

Ultimately, the product roadmap will help developers create the best possible product.

To manage and share a product roadmap, there are several project management softwares that allow you to do it. TWproject is one of them and you can try it for free by clicking here.

You will realize how simple it is to manage everything from a single platform. From adding data to managing deadlines, from changing an activity to sharing it with all stakeholders.

Are you a project manager in a consulting company and would like to keep your company’s activities and projects under control with more order and efficiency? Do you perceive the need to unify business processes in order to make work less scattered?

In this article we will provide you with some tips for optimising project and resource management within your company.

The consultancy sector is notoriously heterogeneous and it therefore seems difficult to identify general solutions that can meet the needs of managers in different companies.

Consulting companies in fact have customer service as their focus and therefore the projects within this field of work are very diverse, as are the customers they address.

Not producing goods as in the case of manufacturing companies, nor traditional services, the consulting world needs to manage projects and resources, whether internal or external, in parallel and with equal care.

Unlike other sectors, projects in consulting firms are generally not large in terms of phases and sub-phases, but rather are numerous and diverse.

The main requirement is therefore to keep track of a large amount of information in terms of projects and customers, and taming this large amount of data is a very challenging task.

Foreword: the main needs of companies in consulting project management

If, as we have seen, diversification and heterogeneity play a major role in the way of consultancy projects, it follows that the transmission and sharing of data must be handled with care.

The primary need of consultancy companies has to do with communication and is to share information with a large and internally diverse group of collaborators.

The second priority is to ensure that chaos does not prevail in business process analyses.

It is crucial for a consulting company to define and maintain the project’s purpose, or project scope, so as not to lose sight of the initially planned objectives and not to waste valuable resources.

Optimising management systems, perhaps by exploiting semi-automated processes, is one way to avoid losing valuable data when analysing results.

To sum up, efficient project management in business consulting occurs when:

1. all the necessary information is accessible to all interested parties, everywhere and on different media;
2. the company has unified management systems that channel the volume of data in an orderly manner.

Let us now look at how these requirements translate into the three management areas of consultancy firms, i.e. the relationship with clients (current and potential), the coordination and administration of employees and cost management.

1. Clients

We will start by analysing the problems related to the management of clients in a consulting firms as they are the very target of consultancy work.

Compared to other business sectors, where the customer is the end-user of a good or service, in the case of consulting companies one can say that customers are the main focus of projects.

The main goal of every consultant is customer retention, i.e. the ability to acquire and then keep new customers.

Finding the right strategies to put customer retention into practice is crucial for consulting companies, and consists of several steps that we will see below.

1.1. Managing contact details and database of potential customers

For a consultancy agency, when acquiring new customers, it is crucial to manage new contacts and potential customers efficiently.

Data la mGiven the amount of data and information related to this area, it is a good idea to set up an unambiguous method for master data management and make sure that everyone involved in this activity respects it.

It is still very wise to always mark down every single detail of newly acquired contacts, taking nothing for granted, as every little detail may come in handy in the future.

If we use tools specifically created for Customer Relationship Management (CRM), the presence of the different input fields will help us to remember how to structure the information acquired for each contact.

Twproject can also be used as a CRM, since an unlimited number of resources can be entered in its user management without a login (and thus not counted as licences). These resources can already be structured hierarchically and framed in working groups, departments, etc.

The advantage of using an all-round project management software to do this is that the activities that take place in the pre-sale phase are then directly transferred into the actual projects, when they start, and are therefore also accountable.

In addition, Twproject allows the management of pre-sale activities with its ToDo’s, which have scheduling, assignees, documentation sharing and time management.

1.2. Transparent information sharing

Once new customers have been acquired, the second management aspect comes into play, which is not always easy to handle, namely the transparent transmission of data on project performance.

In business consulting, there are several types of reports that are useful to share with clients.

If we equip ourselves with tools that autonomously create reports derived from the data collected over time, this will be a considerable time saver.

A tool such as Twproject, for example, not only allows for real-time monitoring of all kinds of information on expenses and costs, project status, etc., but also for sharing it in different ways.

Twproject allows customers to be assigned a supervisory role in projects, making them active participants in the development of activities, but also offers highly advanced reporting to share data and thus increase transparency to customers.

2. Collaborators

In consulting companies, the roles are not the traditional ones, external consultants are often used and different figures work on the various phases of a project.

Together with the remoteisation of work, the empowerment of employees becomes crucial. This happens the more precise tasks and defined roles are assigned.

Let us see in detail how to make the team of collaborators autonomous and satisfied.

2.1. Advanced role management

Defining the roles, responsibilities and permissions of each member of the project team is crucial for consulting companies.

The management tools used should also provide for different degrees of responsibility and different levels of interaction.

It can be very useful to make all team members aware of certain aspects of project execution, and yet it is important that operational permissions are well measured.

Flexibility in role management is crucial in the consulting industry, and Twproject offers truly advanced role and security management, customisable to each company and each ongoing project.

2.2. Awareness in resource load management

In addition to carefully structuring roles and permissions, it is important to carefully plan resource workload.

Resource allocation is a fundamental activity and if done with the right strategies can help save time and money.

Carefully managing the load of team operators is a delicate task for any project manager. All the more so if the operators are of a different nature and are divided between employees and collaborators, with the team often working remotely and heterogeneously.

Calibrating resource scheduling well, by estimating the hours of work effort divided over the main project activities, helps to gain more control over the time effectiveness of resources.

This activity is related to the calculation of hours worked. If in fact the chosen method of marking working time is reliable, then analysing the extrapolated data to plan future work is a good practice.

In Twproject, the resource management plan and the various worklog tools coexist and interact to enable a conscious and balanced load distribution.

2.3. Sharing tools

Finally, just as for clients, internal transparency in a consulting team is equally important.

If we use tools to centralise key information and share the scope of projects, the whole team will benefit.

Among the main internal sharing tools are the Gantt chart and shared calendars, all the more so if within a single instrument.

Twproject takes this a step further by offering the possibility of setting multiple calendars for flexible workers and thus enabling better control over the project resources of consulting firms.

3. Costs

The last crucial, and perhaps the most complex, aspect of consultancy project control is budget management and control.

Data from a variety of sources contribute to the entire financial statement of the projects, with a physiological divergence between estimated and actual values.

Vediamo quali accorgimenti mettere in atto per rendere la stima dei costi un lavoro soddisfacente, seppur naturalmente complesso.

3.1. Project budget management system

When projects are numerous and diverse, it is important that cost management is carried out efficiently and that budget control tools are in place.

Surely the best way to achieve this efficiency is to plan dates and deadlines in relation to project costs from the outset.

In fact, among the cornerstones of project scope management is cost control, which helps us prevent wastage of resources when timelines are unclear.

In the daily chaos of information from multiple sources, it is important to ensure that income and expenditure data do not stray too far from what was budgeted.

Unification of management systems is the key. Twproject is an example of how all costs can be kept under control on a single platform.

Among the various functions for aggregating financial data are the connection of hours worked and project costs, alerts indicating overruns of estimates, and the highly flexible budget that can be allocated not only to projects but also to individual resources.

3.2. Unified reporting of hours worked and additional expenses

Secondly, to better monitor project operating costs, when dealing with a large group of collaborators, it may be useful to unify the method of managing hourly costs and incidental expenses, such as travel, licences, etc.

In fact, all these items increase the costs on projects, but often different systems and tools are used to report on them, making the work of aggregating data complex.

On Twproject we find the case of a unified cost management tool, which greatly simplifies the method of recording and transferring financial data.

It is possible to assign a budget to both the project and the resource, so that all costs related to personal expenses are recorded quickly and easily. In addition to costs, Twproject also manages revenues and invoicing.

Twproject: a unifying and centralising tool for all

We have seen, when examining the main problems of consulting companies, that the main need is to centralise work and information.

All the solutions proposed here have the ultimate goal of increasing team productivity, but to be truly exploited by employees they must also be user-friendly.

Twproject ha il vantaggio di essere al contempo uno strumento completo e Twproject has the advantage of being both a comprehensive tool and potentially suitable for every need as it is extremely flexible, but also very easy to use.

If you too are looking for such a tool, you can try Twproject free of charge for 15 days and start managing your projects and team in an optimised way.

Our support team will help you throughout the start-up phase and answer all doubts and requests.

As many consulting companies testify, Twproject is a unique and effective tool and offers the right solution for your team!