Project Management
When approaching a big project, the first action you should take is creating a plan or a timeline to help organize your project, especially with that project involving multiple people over a long period of time. Project management creates an orderly process, quality control, clear focus & objectives, as well as continuous oversight and a realistic timeline. When working in a team, it is essential that there is one organized plan that can be referred back to, in order to ensure that not only the project is completed on time, but tasks are delegated and completed by all team members. It also creates a way to hold people accountable for their work, ensuring that it is divided equally, but also appropriately, depending on the team member’s specific skill sets.
Project management is so important that in some cases, it is its own entire job. In most cases, the project manager is the owner of the project and is there to lead and manage the team throughout the project, as well as maintain a healthy client relationship.
To explore and expand upon my own project management, I have set up a free account on Asana. There, I have planned out the work that is to be done for my Foundations Graduate Studies class to test how a project management site would work.
Here is my list of tasks broken down into what has already been done, what I am in the middle of doing, and what is still left to do. I first broke down the course by module and from there I broke it down further to create subtasks, with their own individual due dates. Some of my subtasks even have subtasks within them.
This is my project board. Here is where I personally like to organize the best. It is also broken down by section of to do, doing, and done. You can also see the breakdown of tasks and subtasks, seeing that you can complete some subtasks, which can be marked as completed, without marking the entire module is complete. This makes it clear to see exactly what has been done. I also like the feature of being able to add a cover image to the modules, which I can add after I have created it for the blog post. You are also able to add external links, tags, and attachments that create an easy sharing space if you are working in a group.
Here is the calendar page, where you can see the due dates of each module.
Finally, this is the files page. If you don’t remember which task a file was in or are searching for multiple, it is much easier to just head straight to the files page, where you can find every file that has been uploaded for the project.
Overall, I enjoyed the experience of making this project management plan for my class. I think an organizational system such as this is not only useful for group projects and collaborations but also for staying focused and organized on individual projects. The program was very straightforward and easy to work with. There are also many additional features that can be accessed if you decide to upgrade your account. As a graphic design major and advertising minor that works on many projects, especially group projects, programs like this can be invaluable to have and work with. Without a timeline and delegation of work, projects may come to suffer and confusion can occur if people aren’t aware of what their teammates are working on.
Sources:
Aston, Ben. “Why Is Project Management So Important To An Organization?” The Digital Project Manager, 20 Sept. 2020, thedigitalprojectmanager.com/why-is-project-management-important/.
Carr, Emily. “Why a Project Manager?” AIGA, 2007, http://www.aiga.org/why-a-project-manager.