Andrew Filev is the founder of Wrike. He is a seasoned software entrepreneur, project and product manager with 10+ years of experience in the IT arena, and an advisor to several fast-growing ventures. He has been featured in Forbes and The New York Times.
33 Selected Blogs Update: 11 More Blogs for Project Management Innovators
The post got over 220 comments and still counting! Some of you also pointed me to a few excellent resources that I didn’t mention in the general list. So in this post, I’d like to add another 11 blogs for project management innovators to my initial collection.
1. Instigator Blog is your destination if you are an entrepreneur or a software start-up CEO. The author, Ben Yoskovitz, writes on a variety of topics, but I especially liked his pieces on social media, start-up management and customer service.
2. pm411.org, written by Ron Holohan, is a great resource for the latest news on project management tools, tips, methodologies, etc. I’ve already mentioned in my previous post that what I personally enjoy about this site is how the author looks at the practical side of things and pays attention how the material he blogs about can be applied to real-life projects, including his own.
3. Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang is focused on defining and delivering user and community needs, business goals and technologies that help you develop successful Web programs. So this blog would be especially interesting for you if you are a Web-based software entrepreneur or work for a Web-based software start-up. You’ll hear about all kinds of useful things, like finding social CRM vendors, mobile blogging technologies and lots more.
4. I’m Not Actually a Geek is a blog written by Hutch Carpenter, a well-known evangelist of innovation and Enterprise 2.0. This is a not-to-be-missed resource for any innovator, as here you’ll find information on topics like how to accelerate innovation in your company or how to organize innovation management. There’s also plenty of interesting observations on the latest Enterprise 2.0 trends and technology.
5. How to Manage a Camel is about project management and recruitment. The blog features guest posts on a variety of project management topics, such as methodologies, soft skills, communication, etc. In addition, there are valuable pieces on how to build a successful project team and scale up your personal career in project management.
6. CottagePM.com is an unusual blog, as it mostly focuses on small-project environments. The author, Max Walker, MBA, PMP, is one of those project management professionals who have tried applying all the classic methodologies and techniques to his rather small projects, and it didn’t work. Max then paved his way to successful project completion by relying more on common thought processes. If this story sounds familiar, or if you also have to deal with smaller projects, rather than industrial megaprojects, than this blog is a must-read for you. By the way, if this is your case, I also recommend that you to take a look at my post “The Long Tail of Project Management.”
7. Torsten Koerting is a project management enthusiast who writes on all the things that interest him in life and how these things can be applied to project work. You’ll find Torsten’s fresh, creative thinking very helpful in your project management job.
8. ClearPM is your resource for in-depth knowledge for managing large IT and industrial projects, as well as good project management advice for dealing with less complex, smaller projects. The author, Brian Mossing, a seasoned project management professional with over 25 years of experience, tries to make project management clear and understandable for you.
9. Scope Crêpe is a blog by Rich Maltzman, PMP, and the founder of the "Fiddler on the Project." It represents the author’s unique point of view on different aspects of project management, as well as some project management trends.
10. Project — This rather simple name represents an interesting blog that can be your destination for how-to posts on the PMP certification exam, software project management, methodologies, as well as project management software reviews, all written to follow the four basic principles of the author: “be helpful,” “be interesting,” “be critical” and “be amusing.”
11. Reforming Project Management is your destination if you are unsatisfied with their present project management practices. If you feel that there’s a need for change, this blog will help you start your innovation journey. The resource is targeted at all project managers and people interested in this sphere, but it would be especially useful for design and construction professionals. It’s also a great place to get familiar with Lean Project Management.
The list of the TOP 10 Blogs for Project Management Innovators is coming up! Stay tuned and don’t stop voting!
Project Management
5 min read
Andatech’s Tips: How to Develop a Habit of Logging and Updating Tasks on Time
If you have just started using Wrike, at first some employees may forget to log and update their tasks in the system. Don’t worry, Andatech’s best practices will help you deal with this problem quickly!If you have just started using Wrike, at first some employees may forget to log and update their tasks in the system. Don’t worry, Andatech’s best practices will help you deal with this problem quickly!
Andatech is one of our customers, and it wholesales a vast variety of innovative electronic products for home in Australia. There are several teams within the company that are working on completely different projects, and the same employees take part in several projects at once. Prior to Wrike, the general manager spent several hours every week on collecting updates across different projects and putting them together into a general overview.
Now, every team member keeps their tasks up-to-date in the system, so it’s a matter of a click or two to see how things are going. This approach is beneficial for both managers and the team, as everyone is on the same page and is moving faster. We've asked Andatech's team to share how they managed to make logging tasks into Wrike a habit so quickly!
Leverage e-mail integration
Andatech managers wanted an easy way to track all work that has been done, especially by remote team members. So the first thing Andatech did was to create a simple rule: Any task that takes more than half an hour should be logged into Wrike.
Making this happen was easy. A lot of the team’s communication takes place via e-mail, so logging new tasks from e-mails into Wrike is literally a matter of a click, thanks to Wrike’s Gmail gadget.
“Most project management tools are hard to adopt right away because people think that it’s actually more work for them. But with Wrike, the biggest thing for our staff was understanding that it’s not just a separate platform. It naturally supplements other habitual tools, such as e-mail, easily converting e-mails into tasks,” says Sunil Joseph, the head of digital strategy at Andatech.
If your team is used to communicating issues via e-mail, make sure everyone on your team knows the fastest way for them to turn e-mails into Wrike tasks. This means the add-ins for Outlook and Apple Mail users, the gadget for Gmail users and simply forwarding an e-mail to [email protected] for anyone else.
Update tasks in Wrike after everyday standup meetings
When tasks are logged into the system, at first people may still forget to update them. So Andatech managers decided to update tasks right after the everyday standup meetings.
They created a folder called “Morning standup,” where the project manager puts tasks that need to be done today and prioritizes them after each meeting.
After the meeting, team members also check that all updates they have reported during the meeting have been logged into the system. If they have previously forgotten to log something, it's high time to put it into Wrike, making sure the project picture is complete. This approach makes it easier to collaborate with remote team members, as the manager can quickly show them today’s agenda and the team’s priorities. The manager also sees the overall team’s progress in one place and can quickly measure the progress for any given period with the help of Wrike’s advanced filters.
Suggest that employees create personal folders for the most important tasksQuick access to all current tasks is vital to set the priorities correctly and get things done in time. That's why every Andatech employee has a special widget on the Wrike dashboard with all tasks assigned to them (by default, you only have tasks assigned to you for this week). The widget automatically shows the up-to-date list of tasks with every login.
If you want to create such a widget for yourself, all you need to do is go to “My folders,” click on the Descendants button, filter tasks assigned to you and click on the “Create a widget” button. This is a good exercise for all team members! :) The widget automatically shows the up-to-date list of tasks with every login.
Sometimes there are too many tasks assigned to one person, so it's hard to quickly grasp the ones to focus on. Andatech's employees have come up with a solution! Some of them created the personal “Most important” folder (not shared with anyone else) and put the most important tasks from different projects there. This is easy to do, thanks to the ability to put one task in several folders in Wrike. Within personal folders, people can drag tasks up and down the list to prioritize, and then complete items on the priority list from top to bottom.
Following these three easy principles, Andatech’s team adopted Wrike quickly and smoothly! In turn, Wrike helped them greatly with tracking work progress, prioritizing things and figuring out what needs to be done and when.
Learn more about how the Andatech's team successfully uses Wrike for their workflow in our podcast with Sunil Joseph.
What are your team’s best practices in making task-tracking a habit? Do you have any particular rules in using Wrike and tracking the progress?With Wrike, it gets easier to share and collaborate on any kind of data. We’re sure that the relevant people will see what needs to be seen, and things will get done in time.” — Sunil Joseph, the head of digital strategy at Andatech.
Project Management
3 min read
5 Most Common Mistakes in Managing Multiple Projects: Project Planning (Part 2 of 5)
Once you fail to keep your project plans updated, you fail to monitor and influence the progress of any of your projects.
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