Photo Credit: Stephanie Cabral
Project management has become a buzzword (or phrase?) for quite some time now. For some reason, at least for me and my experience in the workplace, project management seemed more like a way to call people out and hold them accountable for not doing their part in a project. It becomes clear as day if Steve did not complete his task and is elongating the completion time. It’s not taken as seriously as it should be, and it holds this sort of tainted reputation like it’s being used as a punishment for lack of work.
My workplace experience, however, has never been in a corporate setting where this tends to be the most successful. (This is generally because you work at the pleasure of your manager and CEO, and if you don’t show results, you’re out. I’ve worked in state agencies with ridiculously strong unions that promote a laissez-faire attitude, but that’s a discussion for another day). I’ve never been able to really see it work out in all of its beautiful glory unless I do it for my individual projects.
A Very Quick History Lesson
I’ve heard of project management through work and random webinars that I attend, but I had no idea where it came from, or that it had such a long history. What shocked me was learning that it has been around for thousands of years with massive projects like the Great Pyramids and the Great Wall of China. Imagine Hemiunu filling out a project management plan for the Great Pyramid of Giza. Obviously, that was not the case, but the process of it definitely was central to getting these massive feats completed.
Fast forward to the 1910s when Henry Gantt created the Gantt chart (a personal favorite). He was the first to develop a tool for breaking down projects into smaller tasks with time frames, which allowed someone to just look at the chart and instantly get the status of a project.
However, the formalization of the idea of project management didn’t occur until the 1950s. This was mainly due to the evolution of technology, and as that continued to evolve at a rapid pace, so did project management. So far there have been 4 periods in the history of project management: prior to 1958, 1958-1979, 1980-1994, and 1995-present. Some of the biggest accomplishments of these time periods can be found in the infographic below.
Lions and Tigers and Project Management Software, Oh My!
We are now at a point where we have a wide variety of choices to approach the planning of a project that can fit and adapt to different magnitudes, difficulties, and ways of thinking.
I have tried several of the big-name ones out there: monday.com, Proofhub, Basecamp, and good ol’ Excel. The one that I like the best, and that I’m currently using in my job, is Trello.
I find Trello to be fantastic for a number of reasons. I like how it shows items in a list format, and those items are all grouped together but are easily movable. Being able to add attachments, checklists, descriptions, and comments are ideal features that make it easy to organize everything together with a specific task. So any attachments, links, reminders, etc. can all be kept orderly.
One of my favorite features about Trello is that you can create your own set of labels that are color-coordinated. I’m a sucker for color coordination; anything that I can organize by color I will. It also makes it easier to see with a quick glance where I am at with the tasks for a project. I can also copy lists or cards that I want to duplicate or save as a template for a future project.
To create a Trello board for my ICM 501 course, I decided to change the preset lists of “to do, doing, and done” to each module (week) in the course. That way when I look at the board, I can see all of the work I have to do separated into each week of the class.
The next step is breaking down each week into smaller task cards, which I use in the “Activity Overview” section of the module in Blackboard.
Now, some of these cards don’t need to be broken down any further, as there is only one piece to the assignment. For example, the “Time Workbook” document was just a simple assignment without any other parts to it, so that is fine as it is. However, “complete this week’s readings” does need to be separated as there are several articles to read before that can be marked complete.
Of course, the most exciting part for me was the color-coded labels. I knew that I wanted the labels to represent something where if I glanced at the board for a few seconds, I could see the status of everything, and if I am on track or need to start worrying about falling behind. Therefore, I used green for complete, yellow for in progress, orange for not started, and red for late.
And a color-blind mode? Talk about accessibility!
The double-edged sword about Trello boards is how easily the cards and lists can move. It’s good in the sense that I can slide it anywhere, like if an assignment’s deadline gets extended a week or when I complete a whole list and can move it to the “back.” The bad thing is that it’s too easily moveable, and I find myself accidentally moving cards or lists when I don’t want to. If you look away for a second you could be moving something and not even know it (I’ve done that multiple times already).
With all personal project management software comes the responsibility and motivation to stick to it. Personally, I can get discouraged if I see that I’m falling behind on a lot of tasks or I’m not making as much progress as I want to. Sometimes I’m tempted to shift due dates or delete things altogether so I don’t appear as much of a “failure” as the board shows.
In reality, none of that should be messed with because you can’t learn what you need to improve on. If I keep missing due dates, for example, then that is an indicator that I need to look at how I’m managing my time. If I’m setting my own due dates, maybe I’m not correctly judging the time it takes to complete, or I don’t have the resources I need to complete the project.
It’s not a record of performance, I’ve come to learn; it’s about recognizing what’s being done really well and figuring out how to improve upon the obstacles or struggles.
Comments