Managing team projects is a demanding role in any organisation. Businesses are increasingly keen to automate as much of their administration as possible, and that’s where online workflow tools can be helpful.

Before we examine the basics of organisation and management, it’s important to understand the difference between tasks and workflows.

● Tasks are individual assignments: small chunks of a wider project.
● A workflow is a series of tasks which are joined up in a specific order.

Using tasks and workflows, the right software can streamline your daily routine and free up valuable time.

Managing Work Using Tasks

Tasks are simply checklists that allow individual items to be assigned to one or more people.

Some project management tools allow the creation of assignment of tasks, but that’s about all they will do. For small organisations, this might be sufficient, but growing businesses are likely to need more features.

Comindware Tracker includes additional functionality in its Tasks interface. You can click Start to begin working on a task, Defer to pause it or Stop to complete it.

The application also allows you to split tasks into subtasks to make them easier to process and track. This makes it more comprehensive than many cloud tools, which simply assign a checkbox to the task and prompt the user to tick it when the task is complete.

Managing Work Using Workflows

A workflow is basically a series of tasks with rules to determine how they are processed and assigned.

Most organisations use some kind of workflow in their daily routine, whether they’re handling human resources, processing IT help desk enquiries or following up sales calls, but they may not have software to manage their workflow.

● Automated workflows are therefore a powerful tool that can help you organise tasks and ensure staff are completing them in the right order.
● When a workflow is overlaid onto a series of tasks, automation helps employees to ensure each step is assigned to the right person.
● Because this assignment is automatic, project managers and team leaders no longer have to manually check everything their team members are working on.
● A pre-defined, automated workflow dramatically reduces the scope for error.

Workflows need to be built from scratch, but once they’re in place, they can be re-used and modified. In Comindware Tracker, the process of alerting users is completely automated, and the software also builds a handy to-do list, allowing each member of staff to keep track of their own individual work schedule.

Want to know more about Comindware Tracker? Visit our website and learn about our workflow tracking software.