Project-based work can boost agility and foster innovation in your company. Turning your business goals into projects improves good organization, structures everyone’s actions and gives the sense of accomplishment in the end.
Here are more advantages of working with projects
Let’s take a look at these points:
1. Cross-functional teams can solve complex problems faster and better
When working on a project you assemble a cross-functional team to make sure every aspect is taken care of. This way, you ensure increased diversity of thought: when employees from a variety of specializations work together toward a common goal they bring a broader skill set, right? It results in better outcomes. There is one more advantage: team members don’t get bored when working on various projects as they keep trying new things.
2. Projects make work more organized, structured and efficient
With projects divided into stages and stages split into smaller steps, there will be no more lose tasks everywhere. Thanks to such a structure, each task has it’s project, responsible person and a time frame if needed. Everyone knows who’s responsible for each project, so that bookkeeping department doesn’t receive updates on developers work, etc.
3. Project-based work ensures better communication
Internal communication done through projects and tasks is simple and focused. By default, each comment thread is attached to only one task or project. This way there is no confusion that by replying to a comment, you’re giving feedback to two or three tasks at a time. One task, one discussion.
There are many online project management tools that are much better than email. They let your team communicate completely online and in a structured way. Most of these tools have apps for most of the platforms so the team information can be accessed from anywhere. And everyone can contribute and clearly see who is working on which project or task.
4. Project-based work provides your business a competitive advantage
Our reality changes super fast. Who, apart from the sci-fi authors, would have imagined a world of COVID-19 pandemic in 2019? New technologies emerge and various aspects of communication evolve and the traditional ways of crafting business strategies aren’t sufficient. With project-base work you use the whole potential of your team (see point #1) and move towards your business goals with maximum efficiency.
OK, so what’s a project?
- Project is any type of activity where there are series of tasks to be done!
- Project can be anything - a thing to do, a client to serve, a property to service, a case in court to follow through…
- Every industry has projects, but just they call them differently: projects, cases, clients, collaborators…
- Projects can have a clear start and end date… or can just run indefinitely, the team defines what a project means for them.
So, first you need to turn your business goals or directions into projects. Analyze them and precise. Have a vision of where you want to go and what values you want to follow on your way.
Note them down.
I have a project - and now what?
You need to determine what is the actual work you will need to do with your team in order to achieve your goal or simply follow the direction you’ve chosen. For this, define the tasks or stages and ensure there is no misunderstanding between the various members of the group.
Of course, nobody wants to just check the boxes instead of focusing on the “why” of a project. When employees step away from unnecessary or mundane tasks, they have more confidence to try innovative ideas. They look for more economical and efficient ways to solve problems because they aren’t tied to a checklist of steps, and this is the kind of work that saves companies time and money. Flexibility and communication are key here.
Gather a team of experts
The next step on the ladder to beginning any project is to choose the various team members to be involved. Remember, everyone on your team is an expert and they can do great job. With the manager’s support, they should deliver their maximum contribution to the team’s work.
Let your people decide how they can contribute and which aspects they can handle. This way, everyone will be responsible for the stuff they want and they have expertise with.
Task-based communication
Once you have a project, steps needed to get it done, and a team ready to work, task-based communication is a way to go. It promotes action, forward movement and collaboration. That’s why our main way to communicate at Nozbe is a task. And a task craves to be done.
By communicating through tasks you avoid chaos, you respect each other’s focus and make sure all the needed information and discussions are under on roof.
How to communicate through tasks? You simply exchange information, feedback and opinions contextually: within specific tasks not in your mail box or any other general space. And you delegate tasks to people who can best contribute.
Project management tools
To get your projects to the finish line and communicate through tasks efficiently you need the right environment. Environment that supports teamwork. A well-designed collaboration tool (eg. Nozbe Teams) will help you reach your goals faster together – no matter whether you work in an office or remotely. The objective is the same: to make sure the information you exchange is structured and accessible, and that everyone on the team knows what needs to be done and when.
In most project management apps, alike in Nozbe Teams, you create projects, populate them with tasks and can start working on them. Communication takes place in task comments and team members can attach files and documents.
The time sensitive tasks have deadlines set, the team members get reminders and notifications and there should be always one person responsible for each task.
Most solid project management tools are built to empower both managers and team members on all levels to work in a better way and don’t waste time on redundant meetings, email exchanges and explanations.
Watch Nozbe Teams video presentation to see, how a trusted project management and communication app works and how you can start working with a team towards your business goals turned into projects.
