INTRODUCTION
SCENERIO
Working on NetSuite tools, I realised, each week, when faced with creating project updates, it can involve digging through various spreadsheets, emails, and Slack channels to find the information necessary to summarize how the team is progressing toward key project milestones. One of the most critical factors one should consider when it comes to keeping your team on track and stakeholders informed is a project status report. Unfortunately, manually gathering information from various sources can be time-consuming and prevents you from focusing on the important tasks at hand. Instead of trying to collect all forms of communicative information about your project, creating a project dashboard and/or a daily update template allows a project manager to focus on more pressing issues while avoiding getting stuck in a data collection process.
PROCESS
In my experience, one of the most effective ways to keep a project organized and keep stakeholders informed is using a dashboard for daily project updates. When tasks fall behind and project timelines are in jeopardy, one key responsibility of the project manager is to ensure that both your team and other key stakeholders are aware of what tasks were recently completed, are currently in progress, and what the current priorities are for the project.
An updated dashboard and/or a daily project update are tools that provide a succinct summary of high-level information about the project status. These tools can be used to highlight key tasks, provide updates on integrations, or just insight into what is happening next. These proactive tools help to avoid speculation or cross-talk about deliverable priorities that often produce unhappy customers. The dashboard and/or report can also answer questions/or provide key answers from resources that your customer or internal team might need to share. A regular cadence of project communication over the course of the project helps everyone involved feel more comfortable and confident.
Sample Summary Dashboard:
Sample Daily Update:
Depending on the size and complexity of your project, you may need to share a project update on a daily or weekly basis. These should not be reactive reports that provide little insight into the project’s progress. Instead, they should only report on progress and potential blockers to keep your own team and the stakeholder informed. If you need additional information on any topic mentioned here, feel free to connect with NetSuite experts and get what you need.
CONCLUSION
As information workers continue to embrace on-demand updates and instant access to knowledge, status meetings will continue to dwindle giving way to more effective ways to gather project information. The tools described above allow team members and stakeholders to check project status on demand. Since one size never fits all we encourage you to test creating separate version of dashboards and/or daily updates like v1) customer-facing (succinct & summarized) and v2 for the internal team (technical & detailed). Hopefully, one of these tools can help your team cut down on the need to attend regularly scheduled meetings, which ideally should be reserved for brainstorming, collaborative work, and social sessions.
About Us
We are a NetSuite Solutions Partner and reseller with 30+ years of combined experience. We specialize in implementation, optimization, integration, rapid project recovery and rescue as well as custom development to meet any business need. If you would like more information on NetSuite or are in need of consultation for your project or implementation, feel free to contact NetSuite support.
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