By Emma Miller

In the era of hyperconnectivity, project management has become an integral aspect of your business growth. According to recent research, 97% of companies believe that it plays a pivotal role in their organizational success. As this field of management initially required making great capital investments and hiring industry experts, its implementation was considered the privilege of large corporations only. However, with the rise of numerous sophisticated and yet affordable tools, it has become accessible to small businesses, as well. To supervise your teams, improve productivity and handle your tasks efficiently, you need to build a solid project management strategy.

Stick to proper methodologies

Did you know that 39% of projects fail due to the lack of planning? To prevent this from happening, you need to conduct an extensive research and choose an adequate methodology to back your organizational efforts. Designed to manage your team’s performance from beginning to end, these methodologies depend on both your goals and the complexity of a project. For example, instead of going for complex options that demand rigid task organization, small businesses should concentrate on a good project management system based on flexible organization.

One of the most popular project management approaches is Agile. Comprising various frameworks such as Scrum, Kanban, Extreme Programming and Adaptive Project Framework, it is used by teams that work in repetitive cycles to boost their collaboration. On the other hand, the traditional Waterfall Method provides a linear approach to delivering work, meaning that you need to complete a task before you move to the next one. Its main disadvantage lies in a fact that the entire project strategy is planned at the very beginning, so any additional changes might make the tasks difficult to control. Finally, when choosing a methodology that meets your needs, you also need to predict its effect on the final outcomes, assess your team’s preferences, and go with a solution that has worked for your employees in the past.

Implement collaborative tools

A key to successful project management is to have a staff that is skilled at collaboration. Over the last few years, numerous productivity tools were created to enable a project manager to facilitate team collaboration.  A recent survey supports this statement, showing that 77% of companies use project management software to increase their performance. The main aim of such platforms is to help you double your efforts by synchronizing your team and enabling uninterrupted workflow transmission.

– Productivity software enables you to transfer both your projects and your teams to the digital workplace and, in this way, improve employees’ productivity. Providing you with user-friendly interface, timers, calendars and notes, intuitive platforms like Basecamp, Freedcamp, Asana and Trello facilitate the way your data travels and thus save you a significant amount of time.

– Real-time messaging tools such as Skype, Viber, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Chatter enable your employees to communicate through a wide range of platforms and devices.

– Knowledge base software, like Zendesk, Desk, HelpDocs, Timelapse and SlimFAQ, helps you record your employees’ best ideas and share them with all members of the team.

– File sharing tools including Dropbox, Box, OneDrive and Google Drive allow you to easily save, synchronize and share files with your team.

Focus on cost control management

As an integral aspect of project management, cost control is based on the process of planning and handling the budget assigned to a particular project. Covering the full life cycle of your project, it comprises numerous steps, such as conducting assessment, budgeting, financing, funding, organizing and tracking the expenses. Consequently, the main purpose of cost control management tools such as aPriori, Microsoft Project and TruePlanning is to help you automate your billing efforts, minimize billing mistakes and, most importantly, keep the pace with your expenses in real time.

Conclusions

Directly associated with the success of your entire business plan, project management isn’t about organizing your tasks solely. On the contrary, it revolves around some other aspects vital for your business growth, such as improving the transfer of massive data, facilitating administration, tracking expenses, meeting your team’s communication needs and boosting productivity. Most importantly, the implementation of the right project management tools will help your small business move up to the next level.

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Emma Miller is a marketer and a writer from Sydney, Australia. Her focuses are digital marketing, social media, start-ups and latest trends. She’s a contributor at Bizzmark blog and a mother of two. Twitter.