Tracking resources is arguably just as important as planning and allocating them. For that reason, you need to make sure that your team has a process for tracking what matters. Not only will this help keep the project going, but help you gain clear visibility into their progress.
It starts with the team
When your team is not tracking their time, responsibilities, and workload in your project management software, it makes resource allocation impossible. In Birdview PSA, there are several ways that your team can actively track progress.
Task Management
Your team can easily manage tasks from within the Activity Centre (the central hub of Birdview PSA).
When assigned a task, they have access to update several details about the task as they progress. They can update things like:
- The status (open, in-progress, in-review, etc.);
- Update progress (shown as an estimated percentage of how much of the task is complete);
- Estimated hours;
- Budget;
- Timeline;
- Post messages and files.
It’s a way for you to dive into any task and check up on its progress, leave a message, or add attachments if needed. All of this data is recorded within Birdview PSA and then can be used to calculate BI data points and more accurately calculate the resource loading report we talked about earlier.
When your available resources are documented in the same place, they will appear in the same reports and simulators ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.
Time Tracking
There are certain data points that every project manager needs in order to plan resources. One of the most important is time. Your team needs to be able to estimate time as accurately as possible so that projects can be completed on-time and on budget.
As a leader, you need to train your team on the importance of recording data. Without enforcing rules on how to properly document time, tasks, and progress you won’t have the information you need to make your projects successful.
Building Your Dream Team
Project Manager Bonus: Risk Management
Blog Post “How to estimate project time”
Video: Overview of estimating time
There are four ways in which you can track time inside of Birdview PSA:
Your team can track time:
- In the Activity Center
- In the Activity Details page
- On the Mobile App
- On my Assignments Page
For more info check out this blog post.
Have a universal prioritization system
One of the greatest dilemmas and business problems of our time is our inability to prioritize. Organizations that can get this right are leaps and bounds ahead of the others.
There are many ways that you can prioritize:
- By deadline (based on what is due first)
- By Critical Path (based on what needs to be done in order to to the next thing)
- Resource availability (based on who and what is available)
- Impact or Value of the project or work on the organization (Often used in portfolio planning and management)
To learn more about priorities see this blog post.
Tracking Resources in Real-Time
Gantt View
One way that resources can be tracked with a simple click is through Gantt views. Gantt view is a project tracker that can be filtered to view a specific project, person or scenario. This means that a project’s progress can be viewed and analyzed at any given time and human roadblocks can be easily identified. Also, as opposed to resource reports, a Gantt chart can be updated in real-time. Resources can be changed, deadlines extended, etc. and the entire team will be automatically updated via notification.
Kanban View
The Kanban view is a straightforward way to gain insight. It’s highly visual in nature, so it’s easy to see if there are any holdups. For example, if any column is looking a bit crowded, you need backup.
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