project team

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Is Your Team the Focal Point of Your Project?

Software review by Tzvi Zucker from Proggio

Poggio

Every project manager knows that clarity is paramount for project management. The more the team understands their roles, tasks, and the project as a whole, the higher the chances of success. But many project management tools available are either based off Gantt charts, or Kanban boards – and neither of those are an all-in-one package. Gantt charts sacrifice clarity, and agility. Kanban boards sacrifice timeline planning and project visualization. Proggio is the first tool that gives you something better – the Projectmap.

The Projectmap is exactly that – a map of your project, that can be understood at a glance by anybody. Instant clarity – show someone a Projectmap, and immediately they know exactly what the project is about, who’s doing what, when, and even how. 

Proggio's Projectmap

Visual Project Management Software 

Proggio project management softwarewas founded in 2016 and built around the success principles of leadership, team dynamics, communication, collaboration and momentum.

Proggio boasts customers like Sodastream, McKinsey, Decathlon, and Verifone and its online project management software is a favourite for teams of all sizes, and sectors – from non-profits like World Anti Doping Agency to biotech leaders like MySugr to industry titans like SK Telecom, everyone loves Proggio due to the clarity it provides.

The Team as the Focal Point of the Project

Proggio makes a small change in its approach to project management, with a world of a difference. Project management tools are task-based. Your typical Gantt chart lists tasks along the left hand side of the chart. Kanban card sorting systems are built by task. Proggio puts the team heart and center in your project planning and management – in today’s business environment, it isn’t just about what there is to do, it is increasingly important to know who is doing it. 

With “flow to work,” SAFe, and agile teams, being able to plan around the team, rather than the tasks, is a tremendous asset. A timeline of tasks is inefficient – but a timeline OF tasks can be a revolution!

Real Time Project Management Tool

Proggio is designed with the project team in mind. A fully featured, cloud-based, online project management tool, Proggio can be used by your team whether they are in the same room or on 7 different continents. All work is seen in real time, shared in real time, and updated in real time. When Kevin finishes the webinar? You’ll see it updated on your Projectmap. When Gina marks her task as “done”, you’ll see that on the Projectmap, too.

Every team member, and every view in Proggio, is actually the same data set – each person on the project is actually interacting with the project, itself. Always. 

Features and Ease of Use

The interface is clean, modern, and straightforward – the buttons are where you intuitively expect them to be. Within days, you can be using Proggio as if you’ve used it for years.

Proggio comes with some exceptional features that makes it special! 

Plan vs Actual:Every project has delays, or schedule changes. How do you track them? With a Gantt chart, tracking even a few changes becomes a Herculean task. With Proggio, it literally takes just a few clicks.

Project Plan

All you need to do is set a reference point, and whenever you want to track changes, a click of the mouse will bring up your reference point saved in the Projectmap to compare to the current plan. You can set multiple reference points! Tracking your plan vs. actual project has never been simpler.

Print Project Plan: Ever try printing a Gantt chart? It will take reams of paper, or you’ll have to shrink it to a size where it’s illegible. Thanks to the Projectmap, you can easily generate screenshots of your project plan that you can share with anybody. There’s a handy “screenshot” button at the bottom of your Projectmap interface, and you can use it anytime.

JIRA Integration:Proggio boasts a full integration with JIRA, which when used properly will end the software development silo and increase visibility across the organization. JIRA Project management doesn’t have to be a contradiction!

Proggio and JIRA integration

The JIRA Listener tool lets you pull data from JIRA into activity boxes on the Projectmap – you can track progress in JIRA without ever entering the platform! If you’re using Proggio for enterprise-wide planning and collaboration, you no longer need to silo software development teams and run after them for progress reports. 

Finally a Task Management Tool Serving the Team

We all know the hidden inefficiency in project management tools: the data within is only as good as the data your team puts in. And guess what? Most of the time, your team hates your project management tool and don’t want to spend additional time on it. 

Think about the features you love in your project management software: budget tracking? Your team doesn’t care about that. Gantt chart? Your team doesn’t look at those, and doesn’t understand them to begin with. Resource loading? Is that a tool for the team, or for you?

Your team spends their day looking at the task management interface of the program, and that is the reason they hate most project management tools. They’re being asked to use a tool that was not designed with them in mind, and offers them nothing in their work.

Proggio Backlog

Proggio, however, was designed with the team in mind. The task management tools are built to make the team’s life easier, starting with multiple task management views customizable by each team member. The Projectmap is designed to impart clarity to the entire project team. The collaboration tools are built to give the project momentum towards successful delivery. Proggio is all about the team – and the team can tell.

Subscription and Pricing

Proggio offers three subscription plans: 

Starter:Perfect for small teams, the starter package is only $8 per user per month when billed annually. This package allows 3 ongoing projects and comes with 200MB of storage. There is a minimum of 3 users for this account.

Business:The business plan is only $15 per user per month when billed annually, and allows for 25 ongoing projects, 5 viewers, and 5GB of storage. There is a minimum of 3 users for this account.

Enterprise:The Enterprise plan is unlimited – unlimited projects, unlimited storage, and unlimited viewers. Pricing is available upon request.

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A Project Manager Is As Good As His Last Project

Surely you have all heard the phrase: “a project manager is as good as his/her last project. Today I want to share a story with you that will also illustrate this point.

project manager is remembered by his last projectIn December (our summer holiday time) we went to a beautiful beach town where many people enjoyed their yearly leave. In this small town there are many small traders who sell things from the side of the road, on the pavement. It ranges from jewellary, sunglasses, souverniers, clothes, etc. A lady who use to sell handmade dolls, walked across the road to give a doll to the daughter of a friend of her. When she crossed the street again to walk back to her stall, she was hit by a car and she died in hospital a few hours later from head injuries.

The following day there was a photo of the lady in the local newspaper with a picture of the 5 year old girl holding the doll that was given to her by this lady. She would always be remembered not only by her beautiful handmade dolls, but also by her last act of kindness, giving one of her precious dolls to a friend…

As a project manager I know this holds true for projects as well. People will remember you from your last successful project. For this reason it is very important to treat every project as if it is your last. It may be your last project for that specific company, or for that specific customer or with that specific team.

A project manager should not only look after his/her reputation, but also the perception of the project he/she is responsible for.  You should be doing the right things, but also doing things the right way in the eyes of your customer. Work with your team to please the customer.

Sometimes the customer requires small things, like providing refreshments at a Steering Committee meeting for senior managers, to keep him happy. Your team requires your support, your guidance and leadership, and consistent communication regarding project related work. If team members are treated with respect and much is expected of them for delivery, they will live up to your expectations.

Creating a culture of collaboration where team members provide feedback and discuss problems openly, will contribute to a successful project. Building good relationships with your team as well as your customer, is an essential ingredient for making your current project worthwhile to remember. When coupled with on budget, on-time delivery you will be remembered as a good project manager, but even if you don’t achieve the triple constraint (on time,within budget and with quality), but through good communication practices you managed to keep your team motivated and the customer happy, you have hit the target to execute a successful project – one people will remember you by!

By the way, being called back by customers for additional projects, is one of the best recommendations (and compliments) that a project manager can hope to receive.

Please comment and share if you have had good experiences with ‘last’ projects.