When it comes to project management, it makes sense to embrace tools that can help keep you organised and make your project run as smoothly as possible. With the advent of team collaboration software like HighQ Collaborate, project managers have a wealth of resources available to them which will help keep track of projects, from tasks and comments to wikis and blogs.
Blogs allow you to publish news, updates and ideas with team members, as well as posting information, links and attachments, generate discussions and search for information, making them the perfect tool for project management. You can create blogs for numerous purposes associated with project management. Here are six ideas to start you off:
1. Blog for discussion
Use blog posts as a forum for discussion surrounding the project. Write blog posts announcing project news or updates, and your team can respond in the comments below. Or post a question or a topic to stimulate discussions or ideas about the project in the comments.
Unlike email, your team’s communications will all be held together in one place that is easy to refer to and easy to search through to find useful feedback or ideas.
2. Blog to track progress
You can track the progress of your project through blog posts. Post daily progress reports which your team will be able to subscribe to and read. Tag your posts well and team members will be able to keep up with the progress of particular project elements that are relevant to them.
What’s more, maintaining regular progress reports allow you to keep a linear record of each stage of the project. If anything goes wrong, it is easy to refer to progress report blog posts and identify where the issue started. This also allows you to keep an eye out for any patterns that may repeat themselves – in future you might be able to spot a problem before it happens.
3. Blog to store knowledge
Any information relevant to the project can be stored and held in the form of blog posts. Using tags, it is easy to sort and search for the right information when you or your team needs it.
You can also use blog posts from previous projects to help speed up parts of your current project – if you or a team member came across a similar problem in the past, this information should be held in the blog post from that project, together with solutions that you devised at the time.
4. Blog to request changes
If anyone requires changes during the course of the project, ask them to submit the changes as blog posts, or comment on a blog post. This will help you centralise all of your requests for change and keep track of them. You can post your responses and actions related to the requests. This enables transparency which means that all team members are able to see and approve changes, or contribute suggestions off the back of them.
Having this information in one place also allows team members to see the status of changes they have suggested or whether someone has suggested a change they are thinking of suggesting already.
5. Blog for your team
Communicate with your team members through the blog, and enable them to communicate with you via the comments function. Microblogs are great for small updates and information, while longer blog posts are appropriate for more detailed updates. It is vital for your team to know what is going on, and not only does blogging enable this but it also provides a platform for feedback that is transparent and quicker than email.
Not only this, but keeping communications on the blog means that you and your team members won’t interrupt one another with phone calls or emails. Non-urgent queries posted on the blog can be dealt with when you’ve got the time.
6. Blog to store files
You can attach files, documents, audio and video to blog posts, as well as inserting links to other pieces of content within the collaboration site. It is easy to keep all relevant files together for your team to easily share and access.
