The success of a project depends on two factors- collaboration between team members and project visibility. Without the two, communication between team members goes haywire and deadlines get pushed unwittingly, resulting in a colossal loss of time and resources.
While we have talked about collaboration in our other articles, project visibility is as important as collaboration and yet never gets discussed much. Especially in the fields of healthcare, pharma and insurance, project visibility can lead to well-informed decisions, which are a crucial aspect of these domains.
There are three main entities involved in a project- the customer, the sponsors and the project team.
So naturally, the number of people involved in a project can be anywhere between a handful and a hundred!
And even if a single person in this chain isn’t clear about his goals, progress or updates within the project, it will negatively impact the project.
This is why project visibility is essential- define all roles in the beginning and stick to it!
What is project visibility?
It is the real-time evaluation of a project, showing resource allocation, the progress of individual team members, metrics and risks.
It gives the team members in a project their exact objective and roles they need to play. This way, they know what to prioritize.
It also keeps the stakeholders informed every step of the way. Throughout the process, they may also identify the risks involved and take corrective actions quickly.
What factors contribute to the lack of project visibility?
There are primarily three factors that reduce project visibility and contribute to confusion:
- Multiple tools for project management and scheduling
This is a major factor to consider because we all know too many cooks spoil the broth! The best way to take care of project management is to have one tool, which has myriad features and also allows third-party integration so that you can hook up all the other tools you use with it.
So you have a centralized reservatory and one lace to track and report progress.
And guess who can help you in this tight spot?
Smartsheet!
It has dashboards for reporting and tracking and it allows a plethora of third-party integrations, including the very famous Slack, Trello and Zapier!
- Haphazard document storage
One location. That’s all you need to effectively store all your documents and make them easily accessible for team members.
And that is exactly what Smartsheet will provide you with!
A centralized stash for all your documents so that you never have to go hunting for one!
- Miscommunication
Email+Slack+Sheets= No bueno!
If you thought multiple channel communication was going to ease up your communication, you’re wrong! It will just lead to more confusion about updates and changes.
So, what you need is a dashboard and spreadsheets under it. Where every member gets to update their progress and others get to know via the dashboard itself!!
All the projects you see failing around you are doing so for these reasons, directly or indirectly. Which is why, to ensure project success, you have to make sure that you are covered on these three grounds!
And below, we are giving you a few tips on how you can do it seamlessly!
Tips to increase project visibility and collaboration:
- Use scheduling tools
Poor scheduling = Loss of resources.
It would be a shame if a part of the budget is lost because of improper scheduling. Use a simple tool to schedule all meetings and projects and then map the research and development progress onto these.
- Keep track of project centrally with a tool
Different people will be working on different aspects of the project. Since all the processes are interconnected, communication between them is of paramount importance.
A project management software like Smartsheet is the best option to keep track of the roles and responsibilities of all individual team members.
- Automate reporting
Project Management 101:
Focus n the important parts and blindly automate the rest.
Reporting takes up a lot of time which can be better spent on other activities.
If automated, these not only free up time, but also provides deeper, more objective insights into the project.
- Use dashboards instead of emails
You want to bring down your time-to-market?
Streamline communication. Period.
And the best way to do this is to ditch the emails and hop onto the dashboard system!
The message gets across faster and clearer and no extra effort needs to be put in.
This is one of the primary tenets of increased project visibility.
- Use a centralized location for document storage
Tracking down digital assets and finding the required information costs us time.
And time is money.
So we have a centralized repository which is more accessible, more scalable and provides customized metadata about the asset.
- Clearly define metrics beforehand
A simple hack to increase your project visibility!
Create a dashboard and feed your goals in term of metrics. Then, everyone will know what is expected of them!
- Tools for doc review
Another time-saving tip! Simply use Slack for this and hook it up to Smartsheet!
Now for the card up our sleeve!
We know exactly the tool that can help resolve all your project visibility and collaboration issues- in a go!
Smartsheet!
Deemed one of the project management software around for larger companies, Smartsheet has helped resolve data management, project management and low project visibility for even Fortune 500 companies!
Today, let us take a leaf out of Providence Medical Group’s book!
They took on Smartsheet for three specific reasons:
- Secure management of data
- Improve project visibility
- Centralize information
And this is no joke since we’re talking about a company that boasts of a workforce of more than 10,000.
Smartsheet has helped this Oregon-based company overcome a colossal waste of time used in the attestation of checklists by health workers. Gess, where the saved time goes now?
Better care for patients!
Here’s what Keisha Smith, program manager for Providence Medical Group has to say about her seamless experience with Smartsheet:
“If we are requesting that a clinic do something and they’re struggling for some reason, they can look at the dashboard and reach out to another clinic that has completed that standard, engage with them, and take back some tools to help their clinic be successful as well. Allowing that transparency offers us the opportunity to work together more closely as a team and ask more questions.”
Now Smartsheet is a key member of their IT team and has been helping them with more and more functions.
So if you’re ready to improve project visibility and boost business too, you’re in the right place!
All you have to do is send us an email and we’ll hop onto a call.
This is one investment you will not regret!