Lack of visibility into project status is one of the most common complaints we hear from our customers. Quite often, project managers struggle to provide the right reports to senior management, which delays key decisions.
Video: See how to get instant visibility across portfolios with BrightWork for SharePoint On-Premises
However, senior executives are not the only ones who suffer from poor project visibility… everyone does!
Without visibility into the project, team members don’t know what their tasks are; project managers don’t know the status of those tasks; and communicating the project status to stakeholders? Forget about it.
In this article, I’ll outline three reasons for poor project visibility and three ways SharePoint can provide project teams with the visibility they need.
3 Reasons for Poor Project Visibility
There are a number of factors that can contribute to the lack of visibility on a project. Below, I’ll list three common causes.
1. Lack of Project Management Process
The first obstacle to project visibility is a lack of organizational project management processes. If every project manager is using a different method and tools to execute work, it’s virtually impossible to roll-up project information in any meaningful way.
2. No Central Project Management Site
Without a central repository for project information and documentation, it’s hard to find the right document at the right time to work on a task. Instead of getting work done, the team has to worry about where they stored a file or if the document is up-to-date. Furthermore, project managers struggle to compile accurate reports from varying sources of information.
3. Poor Communication
Poor communication is a major problem for every level of the project team. Clear communication between the project manager and the project sponsor is vital. Without it, the sponsor will not know when they need to step in and handle an issue.
Poor communication means team members are often confused about their upcoming tasks and role on the project. As I’ve heard my boss says before: “If it’s anyone’s job, then no one will do it.” And when there is poor communication, that’s exactly what will happen.
As you can guess, dealing with any one of these common factors is difficult for organizations; eliminating all three may seem impossible!
When you create a collaborative project management site in SharePoint, you will quickly enable project visibility at all levels of the project hierarchy. Let’s look at three key capabilities – task management, portfolio reports, and project request management – to help you get visibility.
3 Ways to Get Project Visibility with SharePoint
1. Task Management for Team Members
Above we noted how important it was for team members to be able to readily access and update their tasks. With SharePoint, it could not be easier! Project managers can plan and assign work in the collaborative site in minutes.
Using automated work assignment emails and “My Work” reports, team members never lose sight of their responsibilities.
With BrightWork, teams can also use SharePoint Kanban Boards for even easier task management.
As team members update the status of their tasks, this information rolls up to other reports and dashboards within the site, creating more transparency and insights for project managers.
2. Portfolio Reports for Senior Management
When extended with a project and portfolio solution such as BrightWork, SharePoint gives senior management the visibility they need at the portfolio level.
A project office dashboard rolls up project status data from multiple projects for an ‘at-a-glance report on health’ across all projects. If needed, it’s easy to drill down into individual projects to check on issues or simply find more detail at the project level.
3. Project Request Management
In addition to tracking the health of active projects, senior management needs visibility into the project pipeline to make effective business decisions.
Using the BrightWork Project Request Manager Template, it’s easy to control your project pipeline on SharePoint.
The BrightWork Project Request Manager template is split into four different states:
- Draft: A new project proposal is submitted.
- Review: The relevant individual receives an email notification about the new request.
- Pending Decision: Once assessed, the reviewer makes a decision about the proposal, including sending the proposal to senior management for further review.
- Approved or Rejected.
The template acts as a ‘command center’, or a central repository for new project requests, and incorporates resource allocation during project planning.
The intake form can be configured to match your local requirements and ensure users submit critical information to accelerate the process.
Summary
Visibility is key to successful project management. Using SharePoint for project management can immediately enable visibility and control of the project across all levels of the project team.
When all team members and stakeholders are on the same page, work will get done faster and more effectively, and enable senior executives to make better business decisions quicker.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in October 2020 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.
