Project Tracking is important in ensuring the success of your projects.
This presentation gives a basic overview of tools you can use to make your team more efficient and accountable. It also provides insights into how existing tools can be used more efficiently.
2. My Profile
Project Manager at INITS Limited in Lagos
Experience in Technology Project Management, Program Management and
Business Analysis
3. Table of Contents
Paper Notepad
To-Do Lists
Email
Calls / SMS / OTT Services
Kanban Boards
Issue Trackers
4. Project Tracking Tools
Tool / Phase Conception Initiation Delivery Support
Paper Notepad Yes No Yes No
To-Do Lists Yes No Yes Yes
Calls / SMS / OTT Yes Yes Yes Yes
5. Project Tracking Tools
Tool / Phase Conception Initiation Delivery Support
Email Yes Yes Yes Yes
Kanban Boards No No Yes Yes
Issue Tracker No No Yes Yes
6. Paper Notepad
Very useful for requirements gathering.
Can always be referred to without having to charge a device or access the
internet.
Deeply personal
Also useful for meeting notes during the course of project delivery.
7. To-Do Lists
Useful for tracking individual tasks and Subtasks
Helps Measure Level of Completeness for Tasks.
Can be physical or software (Web app / Mobile App)
Examples: todoist.com, Google Tasks (embedded in Gmail), Google Keep,
Wunderlist
8. Calls / SMS / OTT Services
Useful to provide general updates and to communicate urgent details to client.
In order of reliability
1. Calls
2. SMS
3. OTT
OTT most flexible
9. Kanban Boards
Kanban - japanese word meaning “visual signal / card”
Kanban Technique first used by Toyota in the 1950s
Used to communicate and track project status, progress and issues
Ensures everyone sees the entire project at a glance
10. What Kanban Boards do for Teams
Kanban Boards help teams to
Visualize and optimize workflow.
identify Blockers and Dependencies
Provides transparency to all stakeholders
11. Kanban Boards Types
Physical Board
Physical sticky notes with different colors used to denote category or
segment or type of task.
Color strips used to denote status
15. Email
Useful for tracking conversations around issues
Email trail can be used to keep either party in a project accountable
Not very good at tracking tasks
An Examples of task based email service - Google Inbox
16. Issue Trackers
Used to collate and monitor problems that are reported by customers
Has different names in different industries
Some examples of Issue Trackers: Sifter, Jira Bug Tracker, FogBugz, Remedy,
Bugzilla
17. Conclusion
Project Tracking helps teams to
Become more efficient
Track costs
Complete projects on time
Identify issues early and fix them
Today we are going to talk about project tracking tools that can make your team move faster. Not knowing what is going on at any point in time slows down projects and makes them harder to manage.
Paper Notepad - requirements gathering, meeting note taking
To-do lists - task tracking
Email - ensuring that there is evidence of what has been discussed
Calls / SMS / OTT Services - for asking urgent questions
Kanban Board - Workflow
There are four different phases to every project: Conception, Initiation, Delivery and Support. And each of these tools play a role in each phase. These tools are used in different phases of the project (some in multiple phases)
Deeply personal - because you can add in your own notes and observations beside everything that is written
Can also be cleaned up and transferred to documents online
Constant Communication is very important, it can make or break a project
OTT - WhatsApp, Google Hangout, Skype etc
Calls - require only airtime
SMS - might not deliver in time
OTT - requires good internet
OTT flexible because you can share images, video, code / document snippets, screen etc depending on software being used.
Toyota introduced and refined the use of kanban in a relay system to standardize the flow of parts in their just-in-time (JIT) production lines in the 1950s.
Map out workflow - figure out the process used in their day to day operations. Every team has its process for completing work
Blockers - issues that cause work to stop on the project
Dependencies - what is required for the project to continue
Transparency - everyone knows who is assigned to what, how long it’s going to take and how much work has been done.
Color strips - red for “to do”, yellow for “in progress”, green for “done”
Software Board
Mobile Apps available - Sometimes available as Mobile Apps for tracking on the go
Flexibility - Allows the kanban board to be flexible and customizable to fit specific team needs. Customizations include card colors, list names, labels, background colors
Innovative Features - Has additional features that make the project accessible to team members. Additional features include checklists, subtasks, attachments, search, time tracking, recurrent tasks (repetitive), intuitive reports.
Examples of software used to create Kanban Boards: Kanban Flow, Trello (https://www.trello.com), Jira (https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira)
Color strips - red for “to do”, yellow for “in progress”, green for “done”
Software Board
Mobile Apps available - Sometimes available as Mobile Apps for tracking on the go
Flexibility - Allows the kanban board to be flexible and customizable to fit specific team needs. Customizations include card colors, list names, labels, background colors
Innovative Features - Has additional features that make the project accessible to team members. Additional features include checklists, subtasks, attachments, search, time tracking, recurrent tasks (repetitive), intuitive reports.
Examples of software used to create Kanban Boards: Kanban Flow, Trello (https://www.trello.com), Jira (https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira)
Useful for tracking conversations - email threading
By default, Email is not very good at tracking tasks so you’re never sure if you’ve resolved the issue mentioned in the email or not.
Can serve a general purpose or can target a specific industry (IT Support, Software Development)
Different names for Issue Tracker: Bug Tracker, Issue Tracker, Incident Tracker etc