Project management tools offer users more than large-scale projects management. They help many organizations manage processes as well. Understanding the nuanced differences and similarities between project and process allows organizations to get even more from their project management tool by going beyond projects to include processes.
The Key Differences: Project and Process Management
Project management and process management are closely related. Projects generally have a defined end date. Processes re-occur with the goal of producing the same result each time. Two classic examples: a software implementation project vs. accounting’s monthly close process. Each has a role in an organization and can support each other.
The Key Similarities: Project and Process Management
Communication is at the core of project and process management. This is how we can leverage this tool type to get more from your project management tool. Although different in what they produce, projects and processes have many things in common. Both require performing tasks, coordinating resources, and most importantly, communicating. This overlap presents opportunities to use traditional project management tools to manage processes. Even “one person” processes result in a deliverable that is communicated (e.g., the monthly close process or creating a newsletter).
Marrying Project and Process Management
At Achurch, we took advantage of this symmetry to develop a project methodology for the American Association of Endodontists (AAE). Organizations are implementing project management tools such as Asana, Monday.com, or Smartsheet (to name a few) to improve project organization and facilitate team communication. AAE was no different. They migrated projects, such as their Committee Nomination Process, to ClickUp as part of their new Project Management Initiative. Implementing ClickUp created a centralized project information repository for team members to find tasks, schedules, or documentation. More importantly, the tool actively pushes information to the project teams – providing information about both their and others’ tasks. The ability to communicate and track information is the power behind the tool. Information is readily available for team members to reference when needed. Everyone maintains communication while reducing the need for meetings and allowing for fewer emails.
During ClickUp’s implementation, Achurch expanded ClickUp’s use by developing templates for key processes across the organization, such as their end of month accounting. We set up tasks, put them in sequence, assigned them to resources, and tracked progress just like we did for their projects. This provided transparency by granting access to information on progress and effort for those who need to know. There are even other benefits beyond these. We created multi-homing, the idea that a task can belong to multiple processes or projects (think of a trigger like month end or establishing a conference date), for other organizations which allows the completion of a task to trigger items in other projects or processes.
Getting the Most From Your Project Management Tool
Combining projects and processes within the same tool helps you get more from your project management tool by assisting in workload management at both the individual and enterprise level. When projects and processes are combined, a project manager can see what process related tasks a resource has on their plate in addition to their project work. This visibility allows the project manager to better understand team members’ responsibilities and improve project scheduling. At the enterprise level, it allows a bird’s eye view across individual workloads and the ability to share tasks across processes and projects while managing initiatives across the enterprise.
Project management and process management are different and yield different deliverables. Yet, both can benefit from the investment made in project management. Thoughtful planning can help organizations sync their communications, track progress, and store information to help monitor project progress and improve organizational processes.