How Do You Identify and Create an Impactful Project Status Report?Would you know a high-quality project status report if you saw one?Don’t worry; most people wouldn’t. And t… Read More

What is Excel Traffic Light?The global standard for a traffic light is that red means stop, and green means go. Due to this, the inherent conditioning is that red is bad, green is good, and… Read More

What is Burndown Chart?Almost all projects have deadlines and limited resources, and a burndown chart is a simple graphical method of presenting the work vs. the time left in a project while… Read More

What is a Use Case? Working in IT or systems engineering requires some disciple and structure. Have you ever had a chat with a programmer, for instance? Their mind is a combination of c… Read More

What is  a Heatmap?A graphical presentation of a matrix, where each cell coloured differently and each colour has a different significance is called a heatmap. It can be used for variou… Read More

What is a Change Request?Change request or a.k.a CR is a request initiated in a project by one of the stakeholders or team members to formally change the scope of the project.  Change r… Read More

What is RASCI?A RASCI Chart is a key ingredient in the toolkit of any project manager. RASCI is one of the most well-known variants of a responsibility assignment matrix whose main purp… Read More

What is a PMO Charter?A PMO Charter is one of the most important documents in the life of a Project Management Office. Project charters formally recognize the existence of projects in a… Read More

The conventional method to create a Gantt chart in MS Project is to fill in the task names, dates and resources in the work plan (chart) section. The Gantt chart will automatically be create… Read More

How we used Smartsheet to manage tasks with offshore team and collaborate with  a backlogAs we are content based company we need to collaborate on the tasks we need to work on. We had b… Read More

Traditional Management vs Matrix ManagementTraditional management style meant that each employee had one manager which was responsible to assign tasks to them, monitor their work and pe… Read More

What is a SWOT Analysis?A SWOT Analysis is a widely accepted tool used for strategic planning, which evaluates the internal and external factors in the environment (things you can and things… Read More

What is an Employee Training Plan?An employee training plan is document which an organisation creates and maintains so that all the employees are well trained. Training plan is vit… Read More

What is Project Closure?Project closure is one of the more overlooked aspects of project management, but project managers highly value its benefits and importance to the project and future p… Read More

What is a Business Case?A good Business Case explains to a company’s’ executive board why they should authorize a new project. Business case outlines the current problem the… Read More

What is a Quality Assurance Report?A QA (Quality Assurance) report summarizes any and all tests which are performed by the QA team. The main goal of the testing exercise is to make… Read More

What is project's success criteria?In order to take the guesswork out of the equation, agreeing on the criteria by which the project will be measured by is done at the beginning of the proje… Read More

What is an Employee Skills Matrix?A skills matrix is a table or grid that helps to visually depict the competency of an individual against specified skills and knowledge areas.  Skills… Read More

What is RAG Status?RAG is an acronym that stands for Red, Amber and Green. RAG status comes into picture when you track the status of the business project. One of the most common and simple… Read More

At some point in your professional life you will be asked to provide options for certain tasks or events to your senior management. To be able to get give all the information you need to ens… Read More

Whether you are new to the topic of PMOs and are considering implementing one in your organization or are revisiting the current catalogue of services of an existing office (or simply becaus… Read More

What is a RAID Log?A RAID Log is the 'bread and butter' of project managers and should be at the forefront of your mind if you are managing a project. RAID stands for risks, assumptions, iss… Read More

What are action items?An action item is an event, task or activity that is agreed upon by all project stakeholders and is assigned to an owner who is accountable for the completion of the ac… Read More

What is Project Scope Statement?A Project Scope Statement is written by the project manager post the project charter and outlines the project details and the outcome that is expected from th… Read More

Forecasting the required budget of a project with a defined scope is a primary part of the PCM (Project Cost Management), which involves planning, monitoring and controlling all of the monet… Read More

An RFP (Request for Proposal) is a document which is aimed at soliciting proposals from various vendors, to submit business proposals for a product or service which is required by a company… Read More

Good communications are a key factor in successfully completing a project, and full transparency between the team members (whether it’s the executive level, mid-management or the produ… Read More

In an ideal world, organizations would have all the budget and resources they need to carry out all projects in their pipeline – and I would be happily rich. Unfortunately for all of u… Read More

Managing multiple projects has become the new norm for project managers across the world. In this fast paced world where often companies invest millions of dollars on projects it is importan… Read More

Knowing where you spend your time in your day to day life is the starting point in becoming organised. This template will allow you track your daily tasks and also get a high level view of w… Read More

Once is mistake, twice is choice and third time is a habit – this is what happens when project teams don’t reflect on the challenges and issues faced. Having Lessons Learned Meet… Read More

You need an action plan when you are working on task which is not a project and not a simple BAU task. Having an action plan ensures that the task in question is planned by considering the g… Read More

Root Cause Analysis(RCA) is a step by step process used to understand an underlying root cause of an issue or incident or anything that should not have occurred in the first place.Root Cause… Read More

PCM (Project Cost Management) is a method used to measure the productivity and the cost of projects, throughout their full lifecycle. The goal of the method is to complete the project on bud… Read More

The RACI matrix is a table used to clarify the R&R (Roles & Responsibilities) in a matrix or cross functional organization, in regards to tasks that need to be completed throughout t… Read More

While 85% of organizations have a PMO in place (The State of Project Management 2016), most PMOs close within the first 3 years (APM). This is a shocking statistic so no wonder most companie… Read More

A Project Brief is an important document which is created at the start of a project and provides a clearly defined synopsis of a client’s requirements. This document mainly summarizes… Read More

A Schedule Management Plan (SMP) is a document which outlines how the plan for a project will be created and maintained. It is basically a roadmap of how to plan the project, and how to main… Read More

This template provides an easy means of tracking and reporting on defects. It also allows the end user to see at a glance how the QA process is performing. The charts on the Dashboard w… Read More

Learning from one’s past mistakes is a great way to improve the outcome of the next project / task / assignment. Learning from other people’s mistakes and implementing the conclu… Read More

Agile management is a method of managing projects that aim to provide new products or services. The management style is highly flexible, and focuses on short iterations (called “sprint… Read More

The inception of every project is a Project Charter. In the Initiation phase, the Project Charter is issued by the project sponsor and it defines the existence of the project. It captures hi… Read More

The Statement Of Work (SOW) document defines the goal, overall deliverable, and timeline of a project. In most countries it is a binding contract between the vendor and the client.The purpos… Read More

Implementing the SAP system in a company is a strategic project that affects each and every employee, and the implications need to be understood and planned before taking on this endeavor.SA… Read More

The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a view of the entire scope of a project broken down into smaller work blocks, in a hierarchical structure. The completion of the work blocks will result… Read More

The first thing to do when a project manager starts managing stakeholders is to know who are the key stakeholders and then document them. This stakeholder template built in excel helps in do… Read More

The critical path of a work plan is made up of tasks that together determine the overall duration of a project. Each task that is a part of the critical path has zero slack, and this means t… Read More

Scrum meetings are everyday meetings for the entire project team. To make these meeting more effective the following best practices will be useful. Scrum meetings are crucial to ensure the e… Read More

Agile project management has made a name for itself as being the most efficient way to tackle any business goal, especially when it comes to developing software. However, other companies hav… Read More

Like most things, implementing a Payroll solution all comes down to the amount of planning and preparation that’s gone into the project. However, because of the legislative requirement… Read More

Selecting a vendor is a long and exhausting process, but since the alliance between the chosen vendor and the company has an immense effect on the success of a company, it is well worth the… Read More

Being a project manager comes with a lot of responsibility. Although you may have a number of employees beneath you, it is you who will be harshly judged if the result is not what was promis… Read More

For professional workers, time management is an essential skill. In addition to helping produce higher-quality work, good time management also allows workers to be more efficient and product… Read More

A Gantt chart is an illustration of several project tasks, and depicts who does what and especially when it is scheduled to be done. It can also show the predecessors and successors of each… Read More

Multi-tasking has become the industry standard for most of us, and the days of performing just one task at a time have long passed. If a resource is allocated to multiple tasks during the sa… Read More

Having a proper agenda for a Project Meeting is absolutely crucial to make sure you use everyone's time effectively.  The excel and word templates for project meeting agenda will ensure… Read More

Tracking project benefits is a core part of Project Benefits Management. This excel template allows a project manager to track various aspects of project benefits including type, alignment a… Read More

What is a project benefit?A project benefit is defined as an outcome that is beneficial to either an individual or a group of stakeholders. In order to define project benefits, there initial… Read More

Tracking SLAs are the biggest challenge for anyone managing a help desk. It is important that the the manager is on top of SLAs, resource utilization and queue management. This excel help de… Read More

When you have a small team and want to manage a few tasks all of need is a simple tracking mechanism for team tasks. This excel tracking template is simple and easy to use. It allows trackin… Read More

Kanban is a simple but yet a very powerful tool for management workload of a team. Using Kanban board provides visibility and structure to the way a team manages  its workload.Kanban Te… Read More

Project management is a balancing act – and one that’s commonly misunderstood. In fact, nearly 50 percent of organizations express a poor understanding of project management, its… Read More

What is a Sprint Retrospective Meeting?A sprint retrospective meeting is part of the Agile method of project development. The sprint retrospective comes at the end of each sprint… Read More

When managing a small team it is vital that a manager has all the tools required to do capacity or workload planning. This template which is calendar based allows resource planning for the t… Read More

Do projects at your company often come up short? Are you and your team constantly taking two steps forward only to take another back? If you’d love to overhaul your approach into somet… Read More

Capacity Planning for Sprint based Agile projects is the process in which the amount of work that can be done in the sprints with available resources is planned. This excel template helps a… Read More

Task Priority Matrix is a approach of categorizing the tasks you have into Critical, High, Medium and Low. The categorization helps you to address the tasks on priority basis. This priority… Read More

One of the key challenges for any project manager responsible for an agile project is report the right picture of the project progress. Because of multiple sprints involved stakeholders may… Read More

Managing project cost is one of the key tasks for any project manager. This project cost management excel template will help you with managing the project costs for resources, hardware, soft… Read More

Agile project management - most notably Scrum - is a progressive framework for development teams aiming to complete tasks more efficiently and effectively. Agile project management is n… Read More

While it’s important that your company imposes a structure on as many business operations as possible, if you also handle unique projects on a regular basis, you’ll want a proven… Read More

Iterative software development has demonstrated itself as a time-honored methodology of producing and refining a quality product. Understanding how to harness the power of this process can h… Read More

Not all projects need a complex status report which has all the KPI. Sometimes you need a simple status report which can help in conveying the required message. In this article we will look… Read More

Product Backlog in Agile Project ManagementWhat is an Agile Product Backlog?In Agile methodology, the product owner gathers required tasks or requirements as Product Backlog Items (PBIs), al… Read More

Product backlog templates are standardized repositories for tracking PBIs through prioritization and inclusion in sprints, usually retained in standard Excel format. Product Backlog Exc… Read More

A Sprint Planning Meeting is the foundation of the Sprint whereby a designated Product Owner communicates the priorities of the Product Backlog (open business requirements) that will be pull… Read More

Sending status reports is an important part of project management. This article will help you understand the reasons why you should status reports, what should the status report contain, who… Read More

Agile is a methodology for the management of software project development. In contrast to a traditional sequential approach to software development, Agile focuses on the development of a ser… Read More

As the project progresses through each of it phases it is critical that the project manager keep track of tasks to be done. This simple template comes pre-populated with 100 questions for th… Read More

The Waterfall and Agile models for software development project management each offer advantages and disadvantages, and the best model for a given project depends on project goals, client pr… Read More

It is important that a project manager manages his/her tasks effectively. This personal task management template is loaded with features like sorting, highlighting task status and task dashb… Read More

When managing multiple projects one of the constraints is the number of environments available to test. It is important that multiple projects be planned by considering the number… Read More

Sprint planning and tracking is an essential part of Agile Project Management. This template will help in planning, tracking and resource management for a two week sprint.Sprint Planning and… Read More

Executive Management always like an update at a high level. They do not have the time to get involved in details. This dashboard will give the executive management a birds eye view of the en… Read More

When managing a team it is good practice to send out a periodic status report for the team. This template allows a manager to report on team utilization, achievements, risks /issues faced an… Read More

One of the key challenges when managing a portfolio of projects is to make sure that the projects start on time. If the project pipeline is not managed then there is a good chance that the p… Read More

There are always times when you want to show a simple status of your portfolio of projects. This dashboard displays the status up to 8 projects and is very easy to use PPT Template.Simple Pr… Read More

Sometimes when projects are not complex you need a simple project plan to track the progress. This excel based template is easy to use and encompassed within a single tab.Simple Project Plan… Read More

As a team leader it is important that you are able to effectively communicate the status of the tasks for your team. Providing transparency on the resource plan for your teams helps you to m… Read More

The excel project plan template has some advanced features which help in identifying delayed tasks, traffic light indicators, using predecessors will make any project managers life easy.Proj… Read More

This Project Tracking Spreadsheet is for simple projects and can help a project manager in task and overall management. This spreadsheet has been designed based on IT Projects but with littl… Read More

Planning project resources is an integral part of project management. In this article we will look at what a project manager should know about resource planning and management.  Project… Read More

How long will this take? Can you find out how many resources will we need? How many weeks will this run for? Can we do it faster if we throw more resources at the task? T… Read More

Gantt Chart is one of the most used method of displaying a project tasks with a timeline view. This template is designed is designed to allow easy creation of tasks with smarts like highligh… Read More

Sometimes it can be difficult for Product or Project Managers to visualize the different goals or a project or product development. Using a road map template allows visualization of not only… Read More

One of the key motivations for me to put this template together was the fact that we tend to document a lot of things about the project in various spreadsheets. For example, we have sep… Read More

The excel project plan template has some advanced features which help in identifying delayed tasks, traffic light indicators, using predecessors will make any project managers life easy.Proj… Read More

Heat maps provide a simple and effective way of communicating status of tasks, issues or project modules . In this article we will look at two types of heat map dashboards - List and high le… Read More

This Project Tracking Spreadsheet is for simple projects and can help a project manager in task and overall management. This spreadsheet has been designed based on IT Projects but with littl… Read More

Showing multiple project timelines is a routine task for anyone managing multiple projects. The multiple project timeline not only allows displaying multiple project is also allows to provid… Read More