Forem: Olivier Chauvin

Unveiling Insights into Project Management Software and its Demographics

Olivier Chauvin — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 02:12:42 +0000

Project Management Software (PMS) has become an indispensable tool for modern teams aiming to streamline their workflows, enhance collaboration, and achieve project success. As the landscape of project management evolves, so do the trends and insights surrounding PMS usage across different demographics.

In this blog post, we delve into some intriguing insights that shed light on various aspects of PMS usage, including popular views, geographical preferences, factors influencing choice, typical team sizes, usage purposes, and fluctuating activity levels throughout the year.

Most Used Views in Project Management Software

When exploring a Project Management Software (PMS), several views are commonly utilized by project managers and team members. Nested task lists, often the most adopted view, offer hierarchical organization for complex projects, ensuring clarity and task management efficiency. The Timeline view, renowned for its graphical representation of project timelines and dependencies, is a favored tool for planning and task scheduling.

Kanban boards, particularly popular among Agile teams, provide a visual snapshot of tasks at different stages, aiding in project progress tracking. Additionally, the task list view offers a detailed breakdown of all project tasks, facilitating prioritization and organization.

To enhance PMS functionality, time tracking features are essential, allowing teams to monitor project hours and improve productivity. The Table view provides a structured layout for data analysis and comparison, enhancing decision-making processes. Lastly, the Calendar view integrates project timelines with deadlines and milestones, offering a holistic perspective on project schedules.

Continent-wise Adoption of Project Management Software

The adoption of PMS varies across continents, with certain regions showcasing higher usage rates than others. North America and Europe emerge as the leading continents in terms of PMS adoption, owing to their robust tech infrastructure and a high concentration of businesses that prioritize efficiency through digital tools.

Asia-Pacific follows closely behind, with a rapidly growing number of organizations embracing PMS to streamline their operations and improve project outcomes. Africa and South America, while experiencing growth, still have untapped potential in terms of PMS adoption, presenting opportunities for software providers to expand their reach in these markets.

Factors Considered When Choosing Project Management Software

Selecting the right PMS involves careful consideration of several factors tailored to the unique needs of each team or organization. Key factors influencing choice include:

Feature Sets: Teams assess the features offered by a PMS, such as task management, resource allocation, collaboration tools, reporting capabilities, and integration options, to ensure alignment with their project requirements.
UI/UX Preferences: Intuitive user interfaces and ease of navigation are highly valued, as they contribute to user adoption and productivity. Teams often prefer software with customizable dashboards and visually appealing design elements.
Collaboration: The ability of the software to facilitate seamless collaboration among team members, stakeholders, and external parties through features like real-time chat, file sharing, comment threads, and collaborative editing is a crucial consideration.
Cost and Value: Balancing the cost of the software with its perceived value in terms of functionality, support, scalability, and return on investment plays a significant role in decision-making. Teams evaluate pricing plans, licensing models, and additional costs for integrations or add-ons.
Workflow Preferences: The software's compatibility with existing workflows, methodologies (e.g., Agile, Waterfall), and project management frameworks is essential for ensuring smooth integration and minimal disruption to established processes.
Others: This category encompasses additional factors such as customer support quality, training and onboarding resources, security features, compliance with industry standards, mobile accessibility, scalability for future growth, and user reviews or recommendations from peers in the industry. These miscellaneous factors can influence the overall decision-making process and enhance the software's suitability for specific project management needs.

Typical Team Size for Project Management Software Users

The ideal team size for PMS users varies depending on the scope and complexity of projects. Surprisingly, solo flyers take up to 46% of the typical team size for project management software users. Small teams comprising 5 to 10 members often find PMS beneficial for enhancing communication, task tracking, and overall project visibility.

Medium-sized teams ranging from 10 to 50 members rely on PMS to coordinate activities, allocate resources efficiently, and maintain project timelines. Large teams with 100+ members leverage PMS for comprehensive project management, collaboration across departments, and handling multiple projects concurrently.

Utilization of Project Management Software

Teams utilize PMS for a multitude of purposes, including:

Marketing/Sales: Teams in marketing and sales departments use PMS for campaign planning, lead management, sales pipeline tracking, customer relationship management (CRM), and analyzing market trends.
Project Managing: Project managers leverage PMS for task allocation, timeline management, resource planning, risk assessment, progress tracking, and stakeholder communication.
Software Developing: Software development teams utilize PMS for agile project management, sprint planning, bug tracking, code repositories integration, version control, and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) workflows.
Operations: Operational teams rely on PMS for inventory management, supply chain coordination, production scheduling, quality control, logistics tracking, and process optimization.
Engineering: Engineering teams use PMS for designing workflows, managing technical specifications, tracking equipment maintenance, conducting feasibility studies, and coordinating interdisciplinary projects.
Product Designing: Design teams utilize PMS for creating design briefs, managing design iterations, collecting feedback from stakeholders, version control for design files, and collaborating on prototypes.
Finance: Finance departments leverage PMS for budgeting, expense tracking, financial reporting, forecasting, invoicing, vendor management, and compliance with regulatory standards.
Academic Purpose: Educational institutions and research teams use PMS for managing academic projects, collaborative research efforts, scheduling classes/seminars, grading assignments, and tracking student progress.
Others: This category encompasses various industries and use cases such as healthcare (patient care coordination), construction (project planning and resource allocation), event management (event planning and logistics), nonprofit organizations (grant management and fundraising projects), legal firms (case management and client communication), and consulting firms (client engagements and deliverable tracking). These diverse applications highlight the versatility of PMS across different sectors and functions.

Slow and Busy Months for Project Management Software

The activity levels within PMS often exhibit fluctuations throughout the year, with distinct slow and busy months influenced by various factors:

Slow Months: Typically observed during holiday seasons, such as November and December, when many teams experience reduced workloads due to vacations and festive breaks. However, some industries, such as retail or event management, may have busy periods during these months.
Busy Months: Commonly seen in the months leading up to major industry events, product launches, or end-of-quarter deadlines when teams intensify their project activities to meet objectives and timelines. For instance, March, April, and September often witness heightened PMS usage as teams strive to achieve quarterly goals. January has the highest peak since it’s the time for the “New Year, New Me” resolution.

Over the last decades, Project Management Software continues to revolutionize how teams collaborate, plan, and execute projects across various industries and demographics.

Understanding the nuances of PMS usage, including preferred views, geographical trends, decision-making factors, team sizes, utilization purposes, and activity fluctuations, empowers organizations to make informed choices and optimize their project management strategies for success.

Some graphs to show how people use Project Management

Olivier Chauvin — Wed, 10 Apr 2024 08:05:47 +0000

Source: Quire

We Calculate Array Formulas in a PMS

Olivier Chauvin — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 09:02:58 +0000

Picture this: you're looking at your project management software, and you're like, "Wait, do array formulas even belong here?" I mean, we usually think of formulas as those things that just add or subtract numbers, right? Well, hold that thought.

Because here's the deal: when you've got a bunch of tasks in a project, each doing its own thing, you need to be the master of metrics to succeed. That’s where array formulas swoop in to save the day. In this blog post, I'm going to show you how these fancy formulas can jazz up your data game. Get yourself a Quire account and let us dive right in!

What are Array Formulas?

An array is a collection of data, such as tasks, assignees, durations and numbers. An array formula allows you to perform multiple calculations within the selected collection of data, i.e., an array.

For example, if you’d like to calculate the schedule variant of a task, you can write a formula as follows:

timeSpent - estimated

Then, if you would like to calculate the schedule variance of all subtasks, you can write a formula as follows:

subtasks.timeSpent - subtasks.estimated

It might look alien to you – I’ll explain it later. Here, you just need to know, in the above formula, subtasks is a collection of subtasks, and, with array formulas, you can simply subtract one array from another like manipulating simple values.

Some Basic Array Operations that You Should Know

Within Quire’s formula, you can prepare an arbitrary array with [ and ]. For example, you can have a collection of 1, 2 and 3 as follows:

[1, 2, 3]

Then, if you’d like to multiply with a value, you can do:

[1, 2, 3] * 5

The result will be

[5, 10, 15]

Also, you can do a calculation for two arrays:

[1, 2, 3] - [2, 1, 3]

The result will be

[-1, 1, 0]

OK, now we can explain the formula mentioned above now:

subtasks.timeSpent - subtasks.estimated

Assuming we have three subtasks, their time spent is 1h, 2h and 3h, and estimated time 2h, 1h, 3h. Then, subtasks.timeSpent is actually calculated to [1h, 2h, 3h], while subtasks.estimated is calculated to [2h, 1h, 3h]. And, the result is [-1h, 1h, 0h].

Sorting and Filtering

The `sort` function

To sort a collection of data, you can simply use the sort function:

sort([3, 1, 5, 2, 4]) * 2

It will return with the following result:

[2, 4, 6, 8, 10]

The `limit` operator

If you filter only the first three elements, you can use the limit operator as follows:

sort([3, 1, 5, 2, 4]) * 2 limit 3

The `where` operator

If you’d like to filter out smaller values, you can use the where operator as follows:

[3, 1, 5, 2, 4] where any > 4

It will return with the following result:

[3, 5]

The `order by` operator

Let us go back to the formula that calculates the schedule variance and play around with it: subtasks.timeSpent - subtasks.estimated.

It returns with the time variance of all subtasks. Now assume we’d like to retrieve the tasks instead of the schedule variance, then we can use the order by operator as follows:

subtasks order by any.timeSpent - any.estimated

The default ordering is ascending order. You can change it to descending with the desc keyword as follows:

subtasks order by desc any.timeSpent - any.estimated

Here is a more advanced and complicated formula. Let’s try if you can tell what it is up to:

subtasks where any.timeSpent > 1d and any.due < tomorrow and any.priority >= high order by desc any.timeSpent - any.estimated limit 3

Knowing Your Project Dynamics with Array Formulas

Custom Field with Formulas

Applying this is a piece of cake – just create a custom field with a formula. Let's say you're all about keeping tabs on how much each task is costing you. First of all, you can define a custom field, say, Cost to record the cost for each task.

Then, you can define another field, for example, Total Cost to calculate the total cost of each task including its subtasks as follows.

There are a few things worth to pay attention to:

The formulas are case insensitive. That is, Cost and cost are equivalent. So are SUBTASKS and subtasks.
If a field’s name contains spaces or other non- alpha-numeric characters, you have to enclose it with {% raw %}{{% endraw %} and {% raw %}}{% endraw %}. It is why you see {% raw %}{Total Cost}{% endraw %} in the above formula.

Let us dig a bit further about how Total Cost is calculated. At first, assume we have three tasks: A, B and C. And, B and C are subtasks of A. Also, you entered Cost for A, B, C as 50, 30, 10, respectively. Then,

The total cost of B and C will be 30 and 10, since they don’t have any subtasks.
A’s total cost will be SUM(30, 10, 50). It will be 90.

Summarize Project Dynamics in its Description

Here's another cool way to use formulas – you can slip them right into the project description. Imagine you want to show the total project cost. Just jot down something like this in the project description:

{% raw %}Total cost: {{SUM(tasks.{Total Cost})}}{% endraw %}

Where:

The description is Quire-flavored markdown. To specify a formula, you have to enclose it with {% raw %}{{{% endraw %} and {% raw %}}}{% endraw %}. Also, once entering {% raw %}{{{% endraw %}, an auto-complete dialog will help you to complete the formula.
tasks is a built-in identifier to represent all tasks in the project. Again, it is case insensitive.

If we’d like to know the most 5 expensive tasks, we can do:

{% raw %}{{tasks order by desc any.{Total Cost} limit 5}}{% endraw %}

Or, you’d like to list the tasks that spent too much time:

{% raw %}{{tasks where any.timeSpent - any.estimated > 1d order by desc any.timeSpent - any.estimated limit 5}}{% endraw %}

You can put the formula into any description, as long as the markdown is supported, including tasks and comments. You can even summarize the performance of your colleagues by writing down the proper formulas in the description of his profile.

Let’s Write Your First Formula in Quire!

So, there you have it, the scoop on array formulas in Quire – your ultimate project management sidekick. And guess what? Quire isn't just hopping on the array formula train; it's driving the thing! It's the pioneer, the trailblazer – the first-ever project management software to bring you array formulas, and not just that, it's acing the game.

With Quire, array formulas aren't just a feature; they're an experience that's fine-tuned to perfection. So, if you're all about supercharging your project insights, Quire's array formulas are here to rock your world. Get ready to crunch numbers, uncover insights, and take your project management to a whole new level with Quire's cutting-edge array formulas. Your projects will thank you – and so will your organized, data-loving side!

The Zeigarnik Effect and How it Affects Productivity

Olivier Chauvin — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 07:05:22 +0000

The Zeigarnik Effect refers to people’s tendency to remember interrupted or incomplete tasks better than they remember completed ones. Which sounds good, after all, it’s more beneficial to remember what needs to be done. Also, it’s good that we should want to finish tasks that we have started.

Except, it’s actually been shown that the Zeigarnik Effect can negatively impact your productivity. And it can do this for two reasons: first of all, every incomplete task you’re thinking about makes it harder to concentrate on what you’re doing right now.

A 2011 study concluded that when interrupted during a task people tend to perform worse on the next task than people are who are allowed to complete one task at a time.

The second reason is that the Zeigarnik Effect means our unfinished work goes home with us. Unfinished work is much harder to forget, and so makes relaxing or unwinding much harder.

With that said, there is research to indicate that you don’t have to complete a task to feel some measure of mental relief. The researched shows that all you need to do I planning to finish incomplete tasks can help stop your brain from constantly reminding you about all your unfinished work.

5 ways you can use the Zeigarnik Effect to boost productivity

With all that said, there is actually a way you can use the Zeigarnik Effect to boost productivity. The task-specific tension can be used to sustain productive momentum, and focus.

Here are 5 ways the Zeigarnik Effect can be used to boost productivity:

1. Start now and create momentum

Procrastination is part and parcel of office life. And that’s true whether you’re working in an office or from home.

We have all been in that situation where we’ve left something to the absolute last minute. Usually because of other small tasks that have cropped up and stolen our attention. Which then leaves us racing through an important task in a stress-fueled frenzy.

Which invariably leads to mistakes. Which leads to going back and reworking the task.

The way to get around this is to mark a start. Not start with the intent to finish the whole thing. But rather, if you know you’ve got a deadline in ten days, and you think it’ll be fine to leave it to the eleventh hour. Don’t.

Instead, create a brief outline of what you need to do or in some small way start the ball rolling. This will do wonders for your motivation. Because once you’ve started your brain will keep prompting you to do a little bit more, and a little bit more, and a little bit more; and then the task is complete.

One way you can achieve this is by blocking out small sections of time. Anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes, or whatever works for your schedule. Committing small units of time helps get you started and stay motivated to finish.

It also means you stay fresh, and are far less likely to make mistakes.

2. Take strategic breaks to help memory

Taking strategic breaks can actually help to boost your memory and improve productivity. Specifically, you want to take short, deep breaks while working on a task.

A deep break is short yet productive rest break that can help you maintain concentration and productivity for days on end.

Essentially what you want to do is at a prescribed time, stop what you are doing and do something unrelated. There have been studies which show that students who take study breaks to do anything else have a tendency to remember what they are studying better than students who study until they drop.

To ensure you maintain momentum on a task, make sure to take dedicated short breaks during the day. And make sure the breaks are not work related. Go for a walk, make a drink, play a mindless game for a few moments.

These breaks don’t have to be long: they can be 5-10 minutes. As long as you completely disengage from work for those 5-10 minutes the deep break will help your memory and your productivity.

3. Write a to-do list at the end of the day

If not properly managed the Zeigarnik Effect will hinder your productivity and make you less efficient. Which is why, as stated at the top of this post, finishing your day with a to-do list can help you relax at home, and so be better focused—and rested—the next day.

A to-do list can give you a sense of completion, and it can combat your brain’s desire to constantly remind you how much work is left to do. If we can’t switch off that part of our brain, it tends to lead to tension, anxiety, stress and eventually burn out.

And none of those are good for productivity—or your health.

A study was conducted at Florida State University which demonstrated a to-do list or detailed plan of when work was going to be completed led to fewer distracting thoughts about incomplete work.

Essentially, all you have to do is acknowledge that there is still work left to do by writing it down. And this will help reduce mental strain. It will also allow you to unwind and relax so you can return to your work rested and ready to go.

4. Compartmentalize your day

Do you find yourself checking your email every now and then “just in case”? And then you see 10 to 12 emails, and you think, “I’ll get to that later, but now I need to focus on this task.”

Well, you are no longer completely focused on that task. Those emails and whether or not they are important, or need to be delegated out will gnaw away at the back of your mind.

Eventually you will have to do something about them, and too often this means pausing the current work to address emails. Which, as we all know, can be a rabbit hole where productivity goes to die.

Where possible: don’t check your email consistently throughout the day.

Block out specific time in your day for emails, and other things that you know will distract you from your work. Knowing that you have a block of time in the day to handle emails will help you to forget them and keep all your attention squarely where it needs to be.

This will improve your concentration and so help you better complete work.

5. Use project management software

Project management software tools are often the easiest and most efficient way to stay organized and focused.

They allow you to see not only your own tasks but also how those tasks and your team’s tasks relate to a project. Which helps to keep your day compartmentalized.

Having detailed tasks list nested in order of priority, can help you stay focused on the task at hand. Start and due dates as well as time to clearly specify the schedule of the task are also there to make it easy to plan out the days ahead.

Which is very useful if you want to get started to create momentum and ensure a task is completed before the due date.

Project management software also allows you set reminders either for when a task needs to be started or when its due. This way you will not have to worry about incomplete tasks. You will know that when it is time to start a task you will receive a notification.

A quality project management software tool also allows you to communicate in real time with other team members, as well as share documents, and get notified about the most important updates in a project.

By organizing a team through project management software, not only will efficiencies be improved and processes streamlined, it will also help to minimize the negative affects of the Zeigarnik Effect on team members.

How the Zeigarnik Effect affects your team's productivity and what you can do about it

The Zeigarnik Effect can—if not properly managed—negatively affect your team’s productivity. However, with the ways outlined above, you can actually use the Zeigarnik Effect to boost productivity.

Project management software will help your team to stay on top of tasks, to know how long they have to complete a task, and also keep everything so well organized they can let their brain relax when they clock off.

Using project management software to compartmentalize a team members day and allowing them to focus on one task at a time will allow them to be more productive. A key advantage of this is it will help to ensure projects are completed on time and to project’s agreed-upon specifications.

How a Task Management Software Helps Online Businesses Achieve Higher Productivity in a Post-pandemic World

Olivier Chauvin — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 03:11:38 +0000

Before the pandemic, roughly 30% of the part-time workforce was working remotely. It is estimated this will expand to at least 48% post-pandemic. Until the pandemic is over, it’s unclear exactly how much of the full-time workforce that can work remotely, will continue to do so.

However, the reality for managers is that they are facing a greater need to prioritize cloud-based systems for:
▪︎ collaboration tools
▪︎ employee evaluations
▪︎ performance management

It also means employees may find themselves in more important strategic roles than they were pre-pandemic, which is due to the rise in the need for structured autonomy as a result of remote working.

These reasons are why task management software has become even more important than it already was. With task management software you can:
▪︎ set up smart folders
▪︎ outsource work to an external team
▪︎ setup specific roles and permissions
▪︎ share and delegate teamwork in real time
▪︎ Setup recurring tasks and reminders

How task management software improves productivity
With data from May 2020 about future work trends, it looks like the at-home workforce is not only here to stay, but here to change how many businesses approach their day-to-day management and implementation of tasks.

While many businesses will attempt to return to office work, the number of outsourcing and work-from-home staff won’t return completely to pre-pandemic numbers.

The gig economy and the rise of outsourcing
With the rise of the gig economy, more and more businesses are hiring freelancers who offer project-based work, or who will work on a retainer. With there being no sign of this slowing down, it’s become important for project managers to be able to quickly and efficiently keep tabs on all aspects of the projects in their portfolio.

Industries such as digital marketing, finance, product management, event management, IT, and manufacturing are the ones which need task management software the most. As these are the industries which currently rely heavily on task-orientated projects for their venue. And outside of retail, hospitality, and tourism are some of the hardest hit by the pandemic.

Many of these industries have already had to adjust to an at-home work force to navigate through the pandemic. However, in many cases it’s been a ‘by the seat of your pants’ operation, which is hardly sustainable. Task management software has a range of benefits to sustainably improve productivity now and into the post-pandemic future.

How task management software can help your business be more productive
Here are four ways task management software can help your staff be more productive, and so improve your profits:

1.Easier task prioritization
Prioritizing tasks is an important part of being able to meet deadlines. When a team doesn’t know which tasks need to be done first, it becomes difficult to manage them on time. Essentially, when staff start work, they can get stuck on low priority tasks which drain time away from important tasks.
With task management software you can overcome any prioritization problems or issues by establishing lists and sublists to ensure the right tasks are being focused on. This streamlines staff time and ensures work is done in a timely fashion.

2.Keep track across all tasks
Manually tracking tasks burns a lot of time for management staff, especially where they have to check their team’s work individually if there’s a problem. With a task management software, you can view all the tasks on any given project on one screen.
You can see the whole project, and quickly check notes and comments of every staff member to identify what is going on, and where the tasks and projects are at.

3.Central hub to manage everything from
Whether you’re working on a single project or many projects, it’s necessary to maintain everything essential about the project close to hand. With task management software, you can keep everything together from notes and calendars, to tickets and cards, and much more.

With the right management software, you can save all activities your team performs while working so they won’t have to memorize things. It also makes it simpler for the whole team to stay on track and on top of their tasks.

If you want to avoid losing any sensitive information, important tasks or deadlines, tasks management apps can help you. Software like Quire, will not only help you save time, it will also help to digitize your whole process making your data more accessible, easy to track and easy to manage.

4.Productivity booster
To boost productivity is simple: spend more time working on tasks, and less time finding the tasks to work on. Sounds simple right? But too often in organizations, a project is not planned out correctly and teams are expected to figure out what, how, and by when they are supposed to complete tasks.
This is really the job of a project manager. And while it is necessary for a project meeting to happen prior to the commencement of work, there should be a clear direction for each team—if not for each team member.

To avoid staff spending a lot of time finding tasks, and there being no real guarantee they find the most important task, management software can help. With project lists and sublists, as well as an easy search function, staff can find their tasks quickly. They can also decide which tasks are the priorities, and which ones can be left until the end.

All the staff have to do now is plan out their time to ensure they complete the tasks, and then start work.

Why this is especially important for remote workers
For staff working remotely, clear direction is vital to their success, and the success of any given project being worked on. Communication is an important part of successfully managing a team and completing a project. This becomes emphasized when the team is no longer in the same office as you.

Instead of having video conference calls, or phone calls every 5 minutes with different staff checking up on them, a centralized hub where you can check all projects, and all team member’s tasks just makes sense.

It means the project manager isn’t spending their days doing nothing but auditing and cross-checking. They can do the whole thing quickly and painlessly, allowing them to work on new projects, liaise with clients, or any other sort of work which can help bottom-line revenue.

Remote workers will feel more effective working in a centralized hub, where they can quickly communicate with team members and project managers. It also makes them more accountable, and easier to track just how much work they’re getting down and how quickly it’s being done.

At the end of the day, this is why businesses want task management software: it is an efficient and cost-effective way of improving productivity and increasing your revenue by ensuring all projects are completed to the letter and on time.

Online businesses in the post-pandemic world
Businesses that did not want staff to work remotely because of either trust issues or infrastructure issues, have had to make some hard choices. For some, it was implementing the necessary infrastructure to be able to work from home. For other business owners, it was taking a hard look at their staff and deciding whether to trust them and keep making money, or shut the business down until they could operate as normal.

Every online business that could have its staff work remotely did. Because otherwise it would have spelt financial ruin for them. So, they had to trust staff, and they had to implement infrastructure to support a remote team.

Now, with over three months of data at analysts’ disposal, it looks like the number of people working from home will only decrease slightly in the post-pandemic world. This is for a number of reasons: but the key ones seem to be that many employees have stated they feel happier and more productive at home.

Because of the way work has to be tracked with remote workers, managers can more easily see who’s doing what, and how long they are doing it for.

The advantages of cloud-based services to online businesses
When we get to the post-pandemic world, online businesses will see that with a task management system, and other cloud-based services are cheaper to operate, easier to scale, easier to manage, and better for productivity and profitability.

6 Mistakes Project Managers Make that Kill Productivity

Olivier Chauvin — Fri, 12 Jun 2020 06:50:48 +0000

With so many businesses having had to move to remote working, not all were ready for this big shift. So, we thought we would look at six common mistakes project managers are making in managing remote teams, and how those mistakes can be easily corrected to improve productivity.

The common mistakes of project management that can kill productivity

It’s only useful to point out mistakes if you’re going to provide the solution to the problems. As we look at each mistake, this article is going to focus more on how to solve the mistake than on the mistake itself.
Common project management mistakes that kill productivity include:

Not managing people correctly.
Not meeting the whole team before work begins on a project.
A lack of prioritization and breakdown of projects into manageable tasks.

Also, using a mess of spreadsheets and emails rather than a project tool is a very common mistake that occurs when people are trying to cut corners. Here are some of the most common mistakes that kill productivity and how you can avoid those mistakes altogether.

1. Forgetting people management is part of project management

A project has so many moving parts it’s sometimes easy to forget that a project needs people to complete the work.

To get the best work out of people there needs to be clear communication. Which means making sure each team member knows what they’re doing, and how their part affects the whole project.

If you just assume everyone knows their role, you run the risk of:

The project being delayed.
The quality of the work not being as good.
It costs more than it should.

If your employees are working remotely, clearly communicating their role and how it affects the overall project is vital to complete the project to specifications.

2. Forgetting to set goals with the whole team at the beginning

Following on from the first point: the whole team needs to the know the roles, responsibilities and deliverables of the project from the beginning. Having a project meeting can help define and set the expectations of the project’s outcome.

Not having this meeting takes more time than having it. After all, if you’re a project manager, would you rather explain the project goals once or to each team member individually?

Having this meeting before work begins on a project can help make the team better equipped to be organized and ready to meet the project’s specifications.

It also is a great way for people to ask questions and have issues ironed out before work. Which is far more preferable than finding mistakes or confusion mid-project.

3. Not prioritizing tasks and projects

Without proper management, organization, and prioritization, it can be alarmingly easy for important projects to lie forgotten. Especially, with a remote team.

It’s not an uncommon sight in some companies to see staff with their head down working hard on some low priority project while the higher priority ones languish in a queue.

In this scenario, the staff member may not be aware of the higher priority task. If that has not been communicated to them, a staff member is always going to work on what’s immediately in front of them.

It’s the job of the project manager to ensure all team members are aware of the hierarchy of priorities. As well as when priorities change. It’s not uncommon for a previously low priority task to change in a matter of days into a high priority task.

By clearly communicating project priorities, team members know exactly what they should be working on; how long they have to work on it; and what’s next in the queue for them.

4. Not using the right management tools

Every point so far has driven one thing home: the need for communication. Not having a management tool for projects in this digital age, is a recipe for disaster.

The right management tool helps keep everyone on track, it shows what tasks have been completed, and what’s left to do and by whom it’s left to do.

The right management tool will make it easier to:

Tackle big projects by breaking them down into easier-to-manage steps.
Visualize your workflow so you can better manage and focus on the necessary tasks.
Create sublists for individual team members to help them stay focused on the right tasks at the appropriate time.
Instant messaging.
Share and delegate tasks, and see their modifications instantly.
And so much more.

By using the right management tool, you can give everyone on your team the most accurate, up-to-the-minute project information.

5. Not breaking down large projects into manageable pieces

Not breaking down large projects into manageable pieces is a great way to make your team fill overwhelmed, uncomfortable and unsure if they’ll be able to complete the project on time.

The answer is to break down a project into manageable tasks. This enables your team to successfully complete tasks in the right order to better complete the project on time and budget.

When you do break down a project into manageable tasks, the next important step is to ensure each task is handed off to the team member most suited for the task.

6. Forgetting to communicate regularly with team members

We’ll end this list of mistakes where we began: communicating with your team. But it’s not enough to only do it at the start of a project. It’s important, especially with a remote team, to establish regular meetings. Which don’t have to be long.

Five- or ten-minute meetings can help to track things. And these meetings don’t have to be with the whole team. But it is ideal to speak to key members of staff regularly to ensure everything is on track.

This is not micro-managing either. You’re not looking (virtually) over your team’s shoulder, you’re just having a quick check-in to make sure everything’s going to plan.

4 Tips for Newbie Software Developer 🥳

Olivier Chauvin — Tue, 05 Nov 2019 08:36:47 +0000

So... I just got a job in a software company in the bay area!! One of my questions is how I can keep improving as a software engineer? I've put together some of my thoughts and tips for beginners.

1. Optimize your code

This isn't applicable for beginners only, even if you're a very experienced software developer, you should always optimize your code. Practice making your code better for readability, stable performance and maintainability. Fix what isn't broken. You can go through the codes you've written in the past and optimize them.

2. Learn the program, not only the language

Just build something. Build anything. Sometimes your head is way too deep in the books and resources you just lose your potentiality. Some of the newbie software developers I know always rely on the books to find the "perfect first language". Nah, it doesn't matter. Your language doesn't matter. What matters is your ability to program and code. Learn the program.

3. Improve soft skills and productivity

Coding isn't everything. No company would want to hire a person that has nothing without the coding ability. Spend sometimes outside of the computer and improve your soft skills. Personally I think communication skill is very important. Learn to communicate with your teams. Talk to people. There are tons of productivity tools for you to work with your team. Use some of the apps to collaborate with the team and maintain the tasks progress (Github Projects, Quire, Trello, etc. are one of the best task management software for developers).

4. Know your limitation

Don't be afraid to admit with your team that you don't know or need more time to fix the bugs. Make mistakes, ask questions, take advantages of the resources like Stackoverflow or Github to ask questions. Compare yourself with no one but your old version. Keep going, keep moving forward :)

Share your tips and stories with OpenAPI

Olivier Chauvin — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 10:19:44 +0000

When it comes to a good project management software, there's no perfect solution.

I myself prefer a project management software that does not have heavy features, instead, they offer OpenAPI for contributors and developers to integrate different apps with their platform.

Recently, Quire released their OpenAPI - in case you don't know, Quire is a completely free project management software designed for small teams - and I'm working on integrating my own humble time tracking app with their platform.

I'm very excited, however, it's very challenging since I'm just a junior dev.

Do you have any tips or inspirations for people who are working on integration with OpenAPI?

8 Best Tips for Remote Teams to Boost Productivity at Virtual Office

Olivier Chauvin — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 04:58:39 +0000

We are living in a fast-paced society where everything needs to be done quickly without any hassles. Nothing kills joy and productivity more than being chained to a desk for 8 hours a day and 5 days a week. Managers have found a better way to boost productivity and save infrastructure cost by supporting remote work for full-time employees. According to OwlLabs research, “companies that offer remote-friendly options see 25% less turnover than those who do not.”

Employees are happier when they can choose to work from home or at a rustic coffee shop, no matter if they are night owls or early birds, they have different options to make the schedule work best for their creativity and productivity.

Though it is inevitable that remote teams can deliver many benefits for companies overall, it still remains as a challenge for managers to ensure productivity for the whole team. Given the fact that each team member has a very different work schedule, team collaboration can suffer if not being handled carefully.

We have put together some tips to help entrepreneurs manage high-performing and productive remote teams.

1. Adopt an effective collaboration tool

It is critical for the whole team to have a platform to share the work and collaborate together other than using email loops and messaging. One of the top challenges for remote teams is to keep track of the progress and streamline workflow with the time and location differences. A cloud-based project management software is a perfect option to help teams coordinate and collaborate. Everything is laid out neatly within a single platform where anyone can access and be in sync with the whole team.

2. Set a clear agenda

One of the worst nightmares for remote team collaboration is to get lost in the information loop, especially if you are dealing with an international team who speak different languages. Important messages can be easily lost in translation. As an entrepreneur or manager, you should set a clear objective for each project and create different milestones so that your team can easily check in and track the progress.

3. Digitize the workflow

Not only you need a good project management software to keep everyone on the same page, you should digitize every communication channel or file storage system as well. There are tons of productivity apps that guarantee to actually make differences to teamwork efficiency. By making every information available and accessible with an internet connection, you have saved hundreds of hours for the team to find the note sticking somewhere on the desk or arguing about the project deadlines.

4. Schedule conference calls and video-based coaching regularly

The perk of being a virtual employee is to have a relaxing working environment, but sometimes it can backfire on the productivity. It is very easy to get lost and mess up the whole plan when you cannot run into your supervisor’s office anytime to ask questions or just turn the chair around to discuss with your teammates. Many remote teams swear by a good video conference app to enhance their face-to-face communication. Just schedule a weekly or monthly call, get everyone join the session from anywhere and discuss the projects. Even 10 - 15 minutes can make a huge impact on the team productivity.

5. Build the trust among team members

Some people have trust issues, it is completely understandable. But an entrepreneur that wants to embrace a remote workforce cannot have trust issues. There is always uncertainty about whether or not your team members are working or they are actually lying in Hawaii with a glass of Maitai on a Wednesday afternoon. Some remotely working guidelines should be established, such as standard response time, time-tracking tasks, regular updates and reports, etc.

6. Have time for 1:1 review session

It is difficult to manage a team that locates literally everywhere in the world. A company that supports work-from-home culture should really take feedback seriously in order to establish close bonds between team members and provide guidance when needed. Managers should schedule periodical 1:1 review session with the team members (the meeting can be easily conducted with a conference call app) to learn about the concerns or suggestions that might fly under manager radar or give out support when necessary.

7. Data analysis is the key

If you are managing a remote team, chances are sometimes you will find it very challenging to evaluate the workforce performance. Without the face-to-face conversation, monitoring employees’ productivity can be quite tricky. To get deeper insight into worker efficiency, data analysis can help you spot which projects need immediate attention or which employees may need some extra coaching effort. You can also share the data analysis with the team so that everyone learns more about their productivity and how to improve if necessary.

8. Remove the remote once in a while

Working remotely can sometimes make employees feel isolated. Once in a while, you should get the whole team together and spend quality time to share the work experiences or just having face-to-face conversations. Team collaboration can be greatly benefited with some interactions among team members. It helps build strong relationships, create trust among workers, boost productivity and enhance team adaptation.

Remote team becomes a trend that a lot of enterprises embrace in order to expand their international market. A remote team can be an invaluable asset to the whole company. However, if managers fail to handle the working remotely culture, productivity can suffer and might result in revenue lost. Managers should be the one who glued the team together, and with the above tips, remotely working should be a very relaxing experience.

What is your top productivity apps that you cannot live without?

Olivier Chauvin — Wed, 28 Aug 2019 10:24:09 +0000

I'm an engineer who is very keen to find different things to try out on daily basis.

I love big brands, like Google, Asana (if you don't know, it is one of the most well-known project management software), Slack, etc. But I also love to try out new apps.

So here's the list of the best productivity apps that help me overcome my overloading task list.

1. Buffer

If you are very active on social media, you must download Buffer to help you manage all of the content for your social media accounts. You can share content and stay connected with all of the social media apps using one app only.

2. Quire

I like Quire because they're a very young team and they're super open to constructive ideas. They're a project management software, quite new to the market, at least they're not as mature as Asana or Trello. But for a small team like mine, Quire has enough features to offer.

I like their clean interface and the way their task list behaves just like how my mind works. Beside Quire, my team also uses Notion for dashboard view.

3. CamSanner

I cannot highlight enough how I like this cool app. If you're an engineer, you know about the OCR technology. CamScanner lets you use your phone to scan documents, and turn the scanned documents into searchable PDF. COOL right?

Our team uses this app EVERYDAY!

Bonus

4. MindMeister

My team deals with a lot of brainstorming and ideas gathering. MindMeister is such a powerful online mind mapping tool that allows team to visualize the ideas and share with each other in real-time.

They're NOT new. But we love them so we just want to include them into this list :)

How about you? Tell me more about which software you think is the best productivity apps?

How to Manage Your Product Backlog

Olivier Chauvin — Tue, 27 Aug 2019 06:42:42 +0000

The product backlog is probably one of the most controversial and misunderstood artifacts of an agile organization. Everybody seems to have an opinion about what should be on it, how it should be organized, and who should manage it. As a result, creating and managing product backlogs has become more of a dark art than a science. Tools that are optimized for running an agile team sometimes don’t work well for a product owner trying to keep track of stories that the team hasn’t started working on yet.

One option product owners might want to consider is Quire, an online project management software tool with task and subtask tracking as well as Kanban board features, that can keep pace with an agile team while remaining unopinionated about how a product owner crafts upcoming features and product enhancements. The folks at Quire reached out to me to take a look at their product, and they may have come up with a solution that would work for product owners creating and maintaining a backlog for their teams.

What is a Product Backlog, and How Do You Manage One?

A product backlog is a collection of potential stories describing features a team may work on eventually that each add value for the customer. In scrum and Kanban, stories are discrete vertically sliced chunks of end-user functionality that are independent, negotiable, valuable, estimable, small, and testable.

That’s quite different from a waterfall organization, where each chunk of work may be a thoroughly thought out task in a much larger plan that should eventually add value for a customer. Gantt chart tasks are usually presented as sequential and interdependent building blocks from a product requirements document represented by a detailed Gantt chart or something similar.

An agile team doesn’t default to Gantt charts or detailed up-front plans. Before the team sits down to groom it with the product owner, an agile story is usually much less detailed than a typical Gantt chart task, driven by customer objectives that add value, and with acceptance criteria written in readable Gherkin syntax for clarity. An ungroomed potential story should create an opportunity discussion with the rest of the team about what should be developed and how.

As a result, the changes in the product backlog can look however the product owner wants them to look in order to stimulate that discussion. And this makes it challenging to find a consistent way to manage and store ungroomed stories so they can be tracked and organized in the context of an active development team.

Where Should the Product Backlog Be Stored?

Unlike many agile artifacts, which thrive in the light of transparency, the product backlog actually benefits from a little bit of secrecy. This is a place where the product owner can fantasize about what the user might want, and keep track of external requirements as well as experiments that are underway during user experience testing. Only once a feature has been groomed and the team start development do these potential stories need to be converted to a format that can be shared with the rest of the team.

And that’s the hard part. Often a product owner will default to developing their upcoming features in the same tool that will be used for sharing and tracking them as stories, such as JIRA Agile. Most of these tools expect their stories to be populated with estimates, epics, dependencies, owners, etc.

Full-featured agile tracking tools often need to be configured by a scrum master or someone else in the organization to meet agreed standards that limit how stories can be written and edited. Those settings may not give a product owner the option to keep potential stories private before they are ready to share with the team unless the stories are written on a separate board and then transferred later to the team board. That’s a lot more complexity than a product owner needs to think about at the early product backlog stage.

Some product owners just write up their plans in word processor, copying and pasting the text into the appropriate tool when necessary. While this has the advantages of being a familiar and convenient writing environment, it’s difficult to keep track of multiple developing features with various levels of detail. Word processors also don’t provide an easy way to keep track of what stories the team is actually working on are while you’re developing new functionality.

Spreadsheets can make it easier to keep track of relationships and associations, but they also tempt a product owner to go deeper into the weeds of a more waterfall process, thinking about stories as sequential elements rather than individual independent features with their own value. Spreadsheets also don’t support a very convenient editing environment for writing and manipulating stories.

So a best of both worlds solution might be a lightweight and independent agile project tracking system like Quire. Using the task-based interface in Quire, it’s possible to keep a running history of all of the stories the team is working on, and simultaneously develop new ideas to think about how they might fit in and be prioritized once they’re ready for the team to start working on them.

What Information Should Go into a Product Backlog?
In an agile organization, stories represent possible directions to take the overall product to add value for the customer, not fixed requirements with intermediate deadlines that may or may not be driven by the intrinsic value they deliver. Quire allows the product owner to maintain as deep a list of potential changes and features as they like, in various states of preparedness and with or without documentation, reorganizing and shuffling them as appropriate before presenting them to a team for grooming and development. Quire calls these tasks, which is a useful naming convention since they may or may not become true stories until a team grooms and accepts them and starts working on them.

It’s up to the product owner how much or how little information goes into the product backlog, so having a flexible tool that will get the job done and get out of the way is essential. Each task in Quire needs to capture just enough information that it will convey the vision of the product owner, and stimulate the creativity of the team when it’s presented. Quire even supports tagging and filtering, so tasks can be labeled as in-progress, bug fixes, or whatever makes sense for a particular situation.

There can be fully fleshed out features…

…tiny bug fixes, optionally including subtasks…

…or they can be fanciful one-line aspirations fleshed out with potential subtasks and sub-subtasks, even ones that might not be technically possible.

Sometimes it’s very clear what the acceptance criteria might be, although usually those acceptance criteria need to be fleshed out in conversation with the team. Quire is unopinionated about where you create these, but the logical place is in the description field for the task.

Product backlog tasks also may be driven by very specific technical requirements, user experience testing, and other documentation that needs to be associated with them, so is convenient if you’re using a tool like Quire that allows you to attach other documents to an individual task. It even has Google Drive integration.

Who Needs to See the Product Backlog?

Quire tasks can be kept in the product backlog at all stages of planning, but by the time they’re presented to the team they should be ready for a complete discussion. I like to think of the product backlog as a magic bag of secrets a product owner controls. Over time, and with appropriate fanfare, the product owner can reveal plans to the team and engage them with the value that these new features promise to the end user.

Which is not to say that the team must be kept in the dark about where the product is headed. The reason a product owner sits with the development team is so that there can be a constant back and forth dialogue as features are developed and as plans for future features are being created. But one of the benefits of working in an agile way is that the team can productively focus on stories as they are defined and groomed without worrying that they will be interrupted by scope creep from shifting requirements after the work has started.

So feedback should be sought from the developers as needed to make sure a potential feature is possible, but the discussion needs to be handled carefully, so the team doesn’t misinterpret a potential new feature or enhancement as a mandatory shift to the work currently in progress.

Tools like Quire, that sit outside of the traditional agile storyboard tools, are very useful for maintaining the privacy of a product backlog. There’s no need for setting special permissions on descriptions of features that may never be worked on so the team doesn’t get distracted. That allows a product owner to avoid contaminating the work in progress with possible changes coming down the road. Since the product backlog is being managed with a separate tool, only the product owner needs to have direct access.

How Do You Keep the Product Backlog in Sync with the Team?

The final challenge for a product backlog solution is how well it can stay in sync with the work the team is doing. One of the main advantages of using a shared tool that everyone on the team can see is that any changes are immediately reflected to everyone using the same board. But that usually comes at the cost of being able to keep potential future features private until it’s time for the team to start grooming real stories.

If the product owner tries to maintain the backlog using a non-agile tool, such as a spreadsheet or a word processor, the difficulty is doubled. Not only does it require manually synchronizing the backlog with the work the team is doing, it also means developing a system of coding the ideas so that it’s clear what state they are in. For example, how would a product owner distinguish in a word processor backlog among features that are in progress, that may never happen, or that are fully developed and deployed?

An agile-friendly notebook is what’s needed, and Quire serves that purpose admirably. The default Quire interface includes just enough detail to create and track the progress of tasks as they get fleshed out without getting in the way of the creative process for the product owner. But Quire also provides a customizable Kanban board view that product owner can use to track the status of tasks after they have been groomed and transferred to other systems as fully estimated stories, without interfering with the rest of the team.

By configuring the Kanban board view to match the states the team is using, a product owner has the option of adding Quire tasks to the board and tracking their progress through development and deployment as the team moves forward. It’s as easy as clicking the Board icon in the task detail view…

…and selecting the configured Kanban board, and then switching to the Kanban view to drag tasks around.

If used this way, Quire can also generate reports on the status of stories in development with integrated tools, using attractive and executive-friendly charts and graphs. These can be referenced in discussions with executives and stakeholders or shared with the team as the product owner sees fit.

If the team finds them useful, they’re available, but the product owner may decide that some charts, such as Quire’s Gantt chart view of potential planned work, don’t add value or may actually be a distraction to an agile team.

Creating and maintaining a product backlog is an essential part of the role of the product owner. The product owner needs to maintain a backlog to facilitate creating and tracking the priority of potential stories for the team to work on. Because of its native integration of Kanban features in a task-oriented interface, and its convenient nested subtask interface, Quire may be a better solution than trying to use the same board the team uses for active stories, or cobbling together a custom solution with spreadsheets and word processors.

Time to Break the Myth of “Multiple Assignees” in Task Management

Olivier Chauvin — Mon, 26 Aug 2019 03:06:18 +0000

We often get asked, “Can I assign a task to more than one person?” Maybe you have this question too. Now the answer is, “Yes, you can!”.

While other task management tools or to-do list apps out there say you may be confused as to who’s responsible for what or tasks may be overlooked with multiple assignees, we say otherwise: there are times that you don’t want to bother deciding which member in the team should handle a task or breaking down a task that shouldn’t need to be broken down into subtasks just so you can assign them individually.

Case 1 Effort to Assign Task

Let’s say you and your sales team have potential customer inquiries coming in, and three people are responsible for replying them.

If you could assign such task to these three people, they’d each receive a notification when a new inquiry comes in and any of them could simply pick it up.

Honestly, you wouldn’t want to make the effort checking your resources, deciding who in the team should do it, or worse, change the habit of how you delegate tasks, just as long as it’s done by the team.

Case 2 Hard to Divide Task

You and your co-workers need to make an animated video, and there’re two graphic designers responsible for the concept of characters.

This task is lacking specific details, like how many characters, what kind of characters and the relations of the characters, for it to become well-defined.

So, imagine going to the trouble of breaking it down when it’s perfectly alright the way it is.

If you could assign this task to both designers, they’d be able to work it out among themselves to complete it. This is what teamwork is about.

Case 3 Not Enough Hands on Deck

Here’s another scenario that you may have already experienced yourself.

You and your engineering friends have finished building a product, and since it’s ready for evaluation, you created a task named “Review.”

Of course, you can assign a person to do it but it’d be better if more than one do it, so to give you as many feedback as possible. In other words, the more the better.

Now you know, it’s not always a one-man’s job when it comes to some tasks. Limiting you to single assignee and asking you to decide who’s the best person for the job or breaking down a task that doesn’t actually need to be broken down into smaller ones is frustrating. It’d also be going against how our minds naturally work.

That’s why we made assigning people flexible, so you can get the best of both worlds, without having you compromise your usual behaviors or us compromise our simple UI!