Project documentation is arguably one of the most important elements of any new venture. It’s designed to ensure project requirements are met and guarantee full end-to-end traceability, including what’s been done, who did it, why and when.
Good project managers are skilled at ensuring documentation is:
- Well-organised
- Easy to understand
- Provides the appropriate amount of detail and
- Exists in formats that are both useable and useful to the business
Rationalisation and accountability sit at the heart of project information management, and a lack of documentation or unexplained gaps in the information trail caused by a poor project mailbox set-up, for example, can be costly as resources are required to trawl servers, emails and disparate files to find the full iteration history of documents vital to the tracking of a project’s progress.
How can project information management help a business?
A project manager is only as strong as the data they’re working with, making reliable information management a prerequisite for success.
Here are five key benefits good project management software can deliver for any business.
- Avoiding the paper mountain
A poorly managed project can drown in documentation and it’s easy to see why when you break even a standard project up into the typical phases and look at the amount of documentation required.
- Initiation: Feasibility report; Project charter
- Planning: Requirement specification; Design document; Work plan; Resource estimate
- Execution: Traceability matrix; Issue tracker
- Control: Change management; Test documentation; Compliance documentation
- Closure: Technical document; Functional document; User manual; Roll out plan; Handover document; Contract closure; Lessons learned.
Staying on top of all of that lot is a full-time job itself, so a system that reduces the work, rework and stress of everyday project management by enabling easy access to the relevant documents by the right people is an investment that will pay for itself ten times over.
- Standardisation and automation
Creating templates that can be reused and ensure consistency are big wins for any project team.
Employing master documents that are proven to work well will substantially reduce the time it takes to create new project plans, business cases, requirement sheets and project status reports. Meaning project managers can focus on successful delivery of key milestones, as opposed to struggling with administrative paperwork.
Adding automation to the mix wherever possible can be hugely beneficial too, allowing teams to saving time, report faster, share information and reduce the risk of human error.
- Improved collaboration
Project Managers thrive on their ability to communicate well across teams.
Multiple workstreams operate in parallel with the help of real-time access and unlimited storage. Successful collaboration can also lead to improved working relationships and because the information management systems have global reach, they can help reduce perceived barriers of time and space.
- Better version control
Multiple documents, versions and users can spell disaster without good version control. By keeping documentation up-to-date and making it available to everyone at the same time, teams stay informed and there’s less opportunity for misunderstanding or miscommunication.
- Robust compliance controls
Compliance documentation also needs to be available on-demand if any of your projects involve holding personal data about clients or employees. If you work within the realms of the existing Data Protection Act, you might be used to that but it’s likely to have a spot light shone on it as GDPR kicks in and the regulators assert new authority, so if you’re not there yet – you need to get your skates on.
Remember good project information management isn’t just about getting the job done well. It’s about being able to revisit good (and bad) outcomes so the business learns from the past and builds on success.
We’ve all worked in businesses where people have used the ‘I didn’t manage that’ card to get out of jail free when it comes to resolving issues or updating poor performing legacy systems.
With good documentation it won’t matter who was responsible at the time, everything the existing project manager needs will be at arm’s reach, so it’s future proofing the business too.
pebble.it can help with all of this
We can work with any size business in any industry to help assess your project management needs and offer an end-to-end service that you can pick and choose from, including:
- A full audit of your current documentation management
- Mapping existing processes
- Identifying where software could improve or streamline your operation
- Making practical recommendations for change
- Selecting the best software solution
- Managing software licensing
- Integrating the new system
- Training staff where necessary and
- Maintaining the software to give you 100% comfort around security and patching
With better project management, increased accountability and more reliable system intelligence, your business can be more effective, efficient and competitive.
Discover how pebble.it can help your business improve efficiency and increase project profits by downloading our eBook on The Better Way to Manage Project Information:
