Managing Projects in Microsoft Teams

I have the privilege of speaking to individual Project Managers, PMO Directors, and Executives within client organizations on a daily basis. And while each project, program, portfolio, and business is different and their needs vary, there are clear trends in remote work that have emerged and that you should consider.

In this blog post, we explore these trends and how we have seen our clients successfully transition to a single source of truth and centralized collaboration with project management in Microsoft Teams.

Related:

Project & Portfolio Management in the Microsoft Cloud with Sensei IQ

Three Trends in Project Management Today

1. Remote work and virtual project management are here to stay

Based on recent surveys, the remote work trend has accelerated in the past year with 80% of corporate remote work policies shifting to virtual and mixed collaboration. What really surprised us is how overwhelmingly team members have embraced the technology that allows them to communicate collaboratively, with over 90% responding that they are satisfied with its use. Perhaps not surprisingly, Office 365 was the #1 tool used by virtual teams. 

2. Using multiple tools and context switching challenges productivity

There are downsides of using multiple tools and context-switching which results in 69% of workers wasting up to an hour each day – that adds up to 32 days per year of wasted time navigating between tools. Because of this, it is not a surprise that 66% of workers crave a single platform for all their communication.

3. Switching between multiple tasks is very expensive

We also know that switching between multiple tasks has a compounding effect on a worker’s ability to focus and is very expensive from a productivity perspective. Switching between just two projects causes a 20% productivity loss, and it takes up to 23 minutes to regain productivity from an interruption.

What we have learned is that success for virtual teams means:

• Reducing context-switching as much as possible to allow teams to stay focused from a tool and task perspective
• Storing all data in a single location for easy access and reporting
• Prioritizing real-time communication and collaboration (particularly for early in career)
• Automating reporting for projects, programs and portfolios to avoid stale data and to reduce overhead

Most of our clients have embraced Microsoft Teams for Project and Portfolio Management to help improve collaboration and outcomes.  Let me share with you what that looks like.

How to use Microsoft Teams for Project Management

The best analogy for Microsoft Teams is that of Picture-in-Picture television.  In addition to the native messaging and calling features, Microsoft Teams allows you to pull together all the tools you use to manage work and collaborate for a single source of truth.  For example, you can see a status of all the projects in your organization through your favorite Power BI reports and dashboards, embedded directly into Microsoft Teams.  You can also bring in your favorite project management tools like Jira, Azure DevOps, Microsoft Project, and Project for the web.  Regardless of where you manage your tasks, you can surface them through Microsoft Teams and have a centralized collaboration space.

Getting an overview of the portfolio with Power BI

For visibility and insights into your projects, programs, portfolios and resources, nothing beats Power BI. You can pull in data from most commonly used project management systems for a view into all work going on in the organization.

The visualizations help to highlight variances and exceptions, making it easier to spot problems and escalate issues that require corrective action or decisions from executives.

Within Microsoft Teams, there are two primary ways to connect your Power BI reports (see screenshots below):

1. 1. App: The Power BI app provides a very clean visual that looks native to Teams.
   2. URL: The ‘website’ link surfaces Power BI functionality like commenting, bookmarks, subscription, export, and much more.

In addition to the many data connectors, Microsoft has also released Power BI templates for both Project Online and Project for the web.  Both of these templates can be downloaded from the links below.

Download Now:

Power BI template for Microsoft Project for the web or Power BI template for Microsoft Project Online

Figure 1 – Power BI in Microsoft Teams through native app

Figure 2 – Power BI in Microsoft Teams through embedded website link

Managing a Program or Portfolio in a Single Location

With the right combination of ‘Teams’ and ‘Channels’ in Microsoft Teams, it’s easy to pull together a program or portfolio of projects for easy access, visibility, and collaboration.  See screenshots above for examples of both.

Since a ‘Team’ is built on Microsoft 365 Groups, the access and permissions are already built in and can be made even more granular with ‘Private Channels’ for projects with sensitive information, such as budgets, resourcing, and strategic positioning.

Each channel also automatically gets an e-mail address and a SharePoint document folder under the Team Site, making it easier to inform the team about key activities and keep all documents in a single location.

Collaborating on projects with your virtual team

Once the structure of portfolios, programs and projects has been established, it’s off the races for the project team.  It’s time to get some work done, and this is where Microsoft Teams really shines. The Teams Channel keeps you focused with a single place for collaboration, including:

• Posts – Each channel by default comes with a feed that summarizes activity on the project and enables the team to chat and collaborate easily.
• Files – All project documents are accessible here, where we can have conversations about the documents in addition to co-authoring in real time. No more e-mailing documents.  The backend is SharePoint, so you have the native version control and alerts and much more.
• OneNote – This is a great tool for meeting minutes, vendor conversations and anything related to the project. And your notes are searchable and available offline.
• Tasks – On this tab, the team has access to the detailed tasks for the project, regardless of which project management tool you’re using.
• Status Report – Automated project status reports pull together all relevant information for the project. These reports can also be e-mailed automatically to your stakeholders on a regular basis through the ‘subscribe’ option in Power BI.  Reports range from a high-level status that summarizes the project to a more detailed view of the work, and you can even track all the collaboration details and financials.
• Governance Process – Your organization can apply a governance process to all projects for gated approvals and consistency in deliverables and reporting. If it looks familiar, that’s because it’s using the native process flow from Dynamics.
• Business Case – The detailed justification and business case for the project should always be available for the team to refer back to. This helps to provide context and guide any decisions that need to be made during project execution.
• Key Dates – Your project may have key dates, which are the top-down dates that you want to report on to senior management.
• Status Updates – The project manager can capture the overall status of the project (typically weekly) through Key Performance Indicators (KPI) as well as narrated details for each. A snapshot of the data at the time of statusing allows stakeholders to refer back to a previous point in time for the project.
• RAID – Risks/Actions/Issues/Decisions (RAID) are key collaboration elements of most projects. Rather than separate spreadsheets or other disconnected tools, all RAID items can live centrally and be available for reporting, alerts, reminders, approvals, and automation.
• Change Requests – Formal project change requests can be captured electronically and sent for digital approval with automated notifications and custom triggers.
• Lessons Learned – Over time organizations can build a knowledge base of lessons learned by capturing these for each project and categorizing accordingly.
• Financials – Approved budgets can be recorded and the project manager can plan the spending and track actual costs on the project. This makes it easier to identify variances and report on the financial state of the project.

Figure 3 – Managing a project within a program in Microsoft Teams

Figure 4 – Automated project status report in Microsoft Teams

Figure 5 – Governance process and business case for the project

If your organization is a ‘Microsoft Shop’, you probably already have the tools you need to provide centralized collaboration for your virtual project teams.  The benefits are clear, and the ROI is well documented.  Keep your teams focused on doing the work and help them avoid context-switching and bouncing between tools.  It not only improves their productivity, but it also produces better quality outcomes and healthier teams.

Using this insight and knowledge, we’ve helped hundreds of organizations improve the way they work.

If you’re not sure how to get started, reach out to us at:

info@senseiprojectsolutions.com