It’s no secret that project management is important for business productivity. Tracking a project from beginning to end, aligning team members and stakeholders throughout the process, and setting a clear path and goals is imperative to success. That’s why the business world puts a huge emphasis on project management—it is, after all, the strategy that lays the groundwork for how projects start and end.
In the midst of discussions about project budgets or hiring managers to implement new project management strategies, project collaboration. How are teams supposed to work together today to accomplish a common goal?
Project collaboration has always been an important part of business—and with explosive advancements in technology, the way employees complete tasks, work together, and become part of an organization’s culture has become streamlined, flexible for different workplace environments, and much more interconnected. Team collaboration software, for example, has made collaborating with colleagues located around the world not only possible, but easy.
There can be a fair amount of overlap between project management and project collaboration, but they’re not one and the same. Let’s take a look at what each concept means, how they differ, and how you can implement project collaboration and project management into your business.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- Benefits of Project Management
- Benefits of Project Collaboration
- Tips to Maximise Project Collaboration
What is project management?
Project management is the tangible factors that teams and initiatives need to get from point A to point B. Project management takes into consideration the moving parts of your plan—such as the budget, timeline, team players—and puts it together so you can execute the project.
Successful project management means that each step of a project is completed on time, remains on budget, and ensures that the people working on the project are properly organized from start to finish. A thorough project management plan also safeguards your team from foreseeable issues so that everything goes as smoothly as possible.
Usually, a project manager or team of managers is deployed to oversee the process and ensure that workers have the necessary project management tools at their disposal.
5 benefits of project management.
Strong project management plays an imperative role in successfully completing projects, getting tasks done, and working well as a team. Once you understand the benefits, it’s easy to see why your team managers need to understand how to effectively execute project management tactics.
Here are 5 benefits of project management:
1. Better customer satisfaction.
Keeping your customers happy is one of the most important focuses for your company. As it turns out, project management plays a key role. If projects are properly managed, you’ll deliver quality work to clients. You’ll also be able to resolve issues on the fly and provide a pleasant customer experience. Make this a habit, and you’ll see stronger customer satisfaction.
2. Improved efficiency.
As any successful manager knows, efficiency means saved time and energy, which translates to saved money. Solid project management can help streamline workflows and ensure you and your employees are getting as much done as possible in an allotted period of time.
3. A boost to employee morale.
The quality of your employees’ work is directly related to whether or not they’re happy and engaged in their work. When emphasis is put on strong project management, you alleviate organizational issues and other workplace stressors while increasing employee engagement because everyone is aligned and has a course of action.
4. Increased flexibility.
Flexibility is an extremely important factor when it comes to executing a project. Even when projects are well-planned, its not uncommon for employees to struggle and rethink their methods. Without a proper leader or strong project management, it’s difficult to adapt to new challenges and efficiently complete a project. A good project manager is able to think on their toes and make necessary changes on the fly — a highly underestimated skill that can make a world of difference.
5. Improved team development.
Building a successful team that is adept at working together can be a long, trying process. Solid project management ensures that your team not only learns how to work well together, but also increases efficiency and productive workflows for future projects. Without a strong leader around, its unlikely that a team will grow together.
What is project collaboration?
While project management plays an important role, project collaboration is just as crucial when it comes to completing projects and working together as a team. Learning the basics of project collaboration will help you get the most out of both.
As we’ve discussed, project management is all about mapping out the specific elements you need to execute and complete a project.
Project collaboration is how your people work together to complete a project. It is the pieces to the puzzle so that your vision can successfully and efficiently come to life. Project collaboration can be done in a physical office or if you have modern online collaboration tools, teams can also be far apart. And with an intranet document management system, wikis and blogs, and projects, everything can be managed from start to finish completely remote.
In short, project collaboration is the inner processes that fall under the direction of a project manager, which steers everyone across the finish line. Whether your teams are collaborating in person or from far away distances, with the right strategy and tools in place, you can succeed as a team.
5 benefits of project collaboration.
There are many benefits to a successful project collaboration, which is why collaboration is just as important as project management. Here are just 5 benefits of project collaboration.
1. Fast production time.
When an employee (or a disorganized group of employees) work alone on a project, it can take a lot of time to complete. This is especially true when someone is taking on more than they can handle, which can lead to frustration and a bunch of employee problems you can avoid. Collaboration, on the other hand, empowers employees to solve problems together and expedite the process of finishing a task.
2. Better brainstorming and input.
Finding the solution to a problem is part of working any job, and projects are in no way immune. When employees work together on a project, they have the added benefit of being able to share input, brainstorm, and bounce ideas off each other. As you might expect, the social aspect of project collaboration not only improves the quality of ideation and innovation, but also makes it easier to solve problems that might severely hinder successfully reaching an end goal.
3. Improved communication.
Improving communication in the workplace is extremely important. Without strong communication it’s hard to get anything done. That’s why implementing project collaboration is crucial. By nature, collaboration bonds team members by working together to complete a shared goal. Project collaboration typically always has a positive impact on communication, even in scenarios where employees have a hard time working together, such as remote situations.
4. Conserved physical space.
For many business owners, renting or owning a physical office can lead to exorbitant costs. Modern intranet software allows employees to work together without having to come into the office. In turn, an intranet can help save your company save in budget and resources, especially if you dont need to pay for office space.
5. Better employee relationships.
When employees don’t have the ability to collaborate with each other, department and individual department silos form. Improving employee relationships can be challenging, and project collaboration software is an excellent tool to help you navigate hurdles and bring teams together. As employees collaborate with each other, they not only get to know each other better, but also create their own rhythm of working together, which saves time and energy in the long run.
5 tips to maximize project collaboration in your organization.
It’s clear how important team collaboration software is to businesses. Now it’s time to start thinking about how you can get the most out of the process.
Collaborating isn’t always easy, especially when you’re working with and managing remote employees. Here are a few tips to keep you and your team on track.
1. Emphasize communication from the beginning.
Strong communication is the cornerstone of project collaboration. If your team isn’t effectively communicating, they’ll run into hurdles at some point throughout the process. As a team leader, it’s important to make sure all of your employees are communicating on a consistent basis, whether you’re working via intranet software or in a physical office.
2. Schedule a training session.
If you’re going to be using intranet software as a platform for project collaboration, you’ll benefit from training your employees on how to properly use it. This type of software is generally easy to use, especially for any avid social media users. Even still, you’ll want to eliminate confusion among employees and make sure everyone understands the objectives, what’s expected, and how to complete a task in their new virtual workspace. Before kicking off a project, always schedule an intranet training session, which can be conducted via the software itself if you aren’t able to meet in a physical space.
3. Move away from email.
One of the major advantages of using project collaboration software is the internal communication system. While many professionals still use email on a daily basis, it’s best to move steer away from this type of one-way communication. Replace email with collaboration software. It can be a difficult change to make, but most team members will pick up on the new process after just a few days.
4. Share your calendars.
Another excellent tool part of collaboration software is the calendar system. While personal calendars are useful, sharing your calendar with others on your team will help you remember meetings, align important deadlines, and make it easier to coordinate schedules.
5. Check in with team members regularly.
No matter how confident you feel in your team members’ abilities, there’s always a chance they’ll run into problems—especially if they’re new to project collaboration. Checking in on a regular basis will mitigate potential problems before they escalate. It’s as easy as asking someone how they’re doing, as you’ll usually get an honest answer if you approach them with genuine intent.
In conclusion.
When properly combined, project management and project collaboration can be extremely useful tools for solving even the most difficult problems in business. It can take time to get things off the ground, but most project managers find that things run smootly after their team gets used to collaborating with intranet software.
The more detailed an approach you take, the more likely it is that youll be happy with the end results.
