There are several ways to organize and manage a project and the truth is that each one adapts to the needs and adaptation of the project manager and/or the people involved.
With this in mind, we work within iClips with some of the most widely used activity dashboard models, which, aligned with agile methodologies, can optimize your work and ensure that your team is organized and achieves consistent results.
Today the goal is to show how each of the dashboards works within the software and what makes them different, so stay with us and learn more about using Kanban, activity blocks, lists and Gantt.
Let's go?
Why different dashboard models?
We know that there are different ways to manage a project and those involved adapt in different ways, but when we talk about activity dashboards, we need to provide comfort to users with different profiles, as there are those who do not know or are not familiar with one organization system, but have in-depth knowledge about another.
And thinking about user adaptability, we chose these four models that resemble current practices.
Let's go through each of them now!
1. Block view
A classic view that has accompanied iClips architects email lists uk over time, the block view shows us activities in categorized ways, such as activities without responsible parties, those that are late, those that have a delivery deadline for today and those that have no delivery deadline.
This view shows us a reduced space of time, between what is overdue, daily activities and activities that are missing responsibilities or dates, being perfect for those who like to have control of what is happening at the exact moment and giving the possibility of seeing more details through the lists.
We can consider the block view a neutral view and one that many people will be familiar with right away!
2. List
The list shows all your activities together and in ascending order of job number or alphabetical order, it's up to you. Its distinguishing feature is the possibility of having information about all tasks, whether they are unplanned, planned, in progress, awaiting approval or completed.
Within the list dashboard you will also find a complete option to filter activities , ideal for organizing yourself and finding the right options.
If you have a centralized profile and prefer to have all the information at your disposal, the list can help a lot in controlling execution, in addition to having a complete idea of deadlines, those responsible and being able to interact by inserting comments or analyzing the layout inserted in some tasks.
3. Gantt Chart
Using bars that represent the timeline of each stage, this type of visualization allows you to have a clear view of the estimated time for each activity and its final delivery deadline.
Therefore, if you have a job that will progress as a sequence of items or tasks, you will want to use the Gantt Chart to track the task.
A great way to manage your projects and find free time in your or your team's schedule, as the maximum custom filter for display in the Gantt is 6 months. Overdue steps are shown with a red dot in the left corner, so you know what to prioritize.
A Gantt chart is very valuable if you are dealing with
Tasks that depend on each other;
tasks that require the use of limited physical resources;
tasks that require the use of unique and limited skill sets;
all value is obtained at the end of the project.
The nature of a Gantt chart is to allow you to connect all of your tasks together so you can visualize critical paths and resource constraints, these are all the things you're trying to eliminate when developing projects in an agile way.
4. Kanban
One of the most widely used project management models today, as Kanban is closely linked to the business agility model, which refers to the way of increasing the company's effectiveness through an agile work model.
And what is the relationship between this model and Kanban?
Kanban, unlike Gantt, is a system for controlling and managing the production flow for projects, in an agile manner and that uses visual management, through post-its or virtual cards, due to the use of colors as indicators of project stages and this brings us the idea of different projects in execution but with an open scope, where it is possible to change the scope of the project before, during or after its execution — providing agility to those who use it.
We can then say that projects with a tendency towards constant updates, such as an MVP, are recommended to be worked on using the Kanban model, or projects with a transparent workflow that seek to advance through complete activities.
So, which model should you use?
As stated at the beginning of the text, the reason we provide four types of dashboards for activity management within iClips is to provide users with adaptability, leaving it up to them to choose which model best suits their work process.
To find out which one suits your way of working, we suggest using them all for a period of time to familiarize yourself with the view, dashboard and routine in each of your projects.