Secrets to Seamless Project Management

Being a project manager is a difficult, sometimes thankless job. You’ve got executives above you looking for fast and efficient solutions. You’ve got co-workers looking to you to give them the information and guidance they need to complete their part of the assignment. And you’ve got that ever-present clock ticking away, telling you that you’re running out of time. At the first sign of trouble, all heads will turn to you for answers.

Good project managers don’t get that way by accident. They all follow a similar guideline from kickoff to completion to ensure that the project goes smoothly. The most successful project managers:

• Get key participants involved early in the process to get consensus on buy-in and commitment
• Listen and react to feed back every step of the way
• Accept feedback, ideas and suggestions from people at all levels
• Hold frequent, collaborative check-ins to make sure everyone knows their roles—both overall and in relation to the immediate tasks at hand
• Get an executive champion who will extol the virtues and value of the project

The other thing that stellar project managers have in common is their use of a sharable, collaborative, flexible software program. After all, it’s nearly impossible to get anything done when, say, your e-mail system can’t handle a large file. And that’s where Quickbase database software comes in.

Quickbase provides rapid deployment of web-based project management, CRM sales tracking and, of course, document sharing. You can create an approval process that allows multiple departments to review, comment and approve documents. You can provide on-line document library that’s always available to your co-workers. And you can do it all safely and securely with Quickbase. While some project managers have to resort to free and insecure document sharing sites and others have to request proprietary document management systems that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in hardware, licensing and IT hours, Quickbase does it all seamlessly and cost effectively.

From automatic encryption and indexing to unlimited version tracking, Quickbase adapts to your company’s workflow and approval process without having to track every new document and revision. As a project manager, you couldn’t ask for a better ally in the execution, delivery and success of your project.

Being a great project manager takes flexibility, adaptability and attention to detail. It also helps to have a database software system with those same qualities.