Task management compared to project management; Which is better for you? The terms project management and task management are often used interchangeably. On the surface, they look similar, but there are many differences that set them apart. Also, it is important to understand the key objectives of each of them.
Both help us to organize ourselves, our work, and our activities; But that’s not all they do.
What is challenging or confusing for some is understanding the fine line between project management and task management.
For this reason, in this article, we have discussed the differences and similarities between project management and task management so that we can easily choose what is most suitable for us in the future.
Task management
“Task management is the process of managing a task through its life cycle. Task management includes planning, testing, tracking, and reporting. Task management can help individuals achieve their goals or help groups of people achieve collective goals of cooperation and shared knowledge.”
Therefore, task management can be defined as follows: the act of listing, grouping, and prioritizing the activities of the day, week, or month and performing them on time.
Therefore, task management activities can include the following:
- Related to work (work related to various projects, practical cases from meetings, etc.)
- Planning an event (holiday, birthday, anniversary)
- Daily personal tasks etc
Depending on your needs, you can plan and track activities using a simple spreadsheet or notepad, or choose one of the task management and collaboration software available in the market.
But note that the chosen tool should provide the features required for meaningful task management.
By classifying what kind of activities can be considered as tasks, here are some main characteristics to perform them:
Characteristics of tasks
Regardless of the activity you have to do, you need to be very clear about what needs to be done by whom, when, and what the expected outcome is. This includes the following:
Task Title: A brief idea of what needs to be done. If you can also cover the expected result.
Task Description: Try to describe the activity, its impact, its importance, and the desired results in detail.
Assignment of duties: Who performs this activity? This is necessary when more than one person is involved in doing the work. This helps maintain accountability and ownership.
Start and End Date: You won’t do anything until you have a specific start and end date.
Task Prioritization: Prioritization is the key to the successful completion of tasks.
Task Type: This is a simple way to categorize tasks. Just take a look to understand what this task entails.
Task Tags: Another layer of task classification when you’re doing complex activities that require extra focus.
Task Reminders: Who doesn’t love automatic reminders?
Files and Attachments: It’s always good to have records of activity related to tasks. This can include a requirements list, checklist, photo, image, sketch, etc. It becomes very easy to understand and do things with files and documents.
Benefits of task management
The benefits of task management in general include:
- Greater customer engagement and satisfaction
- Collaboration that enables effective discussion and decision-making
- Optimal workload management for teams
- Higher employee productivity and motivation
- Ability to do more, with less effort, time, and resources when needed
Project Management
The senior official of the Project Management Institute (PMI) describes the project as follows:
A project is temporary because it has a specific start and end time and therefore has a specific scope and resources.
A project is also unique in that it is not a routine operation but a specific set of operations designed to achieve a single goal. A project team therefore often consists of people working together, usually from different organizations and in several different geographies.
Therefore, project management involves the use of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to meet project needs.
Project management ensures efficiency, effectiveness, and success in the tasks you have undertaken.
Each of the following can be a project:
- Creating a new software
- Build a new house, dam, or shopping mall
- Renew the entire IT infrastructure of the company
- Product launch
- Expanding products or services to new geographic areas
Basically, any activity with a specific start and end date to achieve a macro business goal is a project.
Projects are programs that are carried out to provide strategic or financial benefits to the sponsor (company, business).
When you undertake a project, there are many other factors to consider. These factors include:
- The budget
- Resources (people, process, technology)
- Project scope, needs, goals
- Managing stakeholder expectations
- Agreed quality and schedule
- Regulations of geography, government, or local bodies
Project features
Range
It is one of the most important critical success factors (CSF) for any project.
It is important that you have a consensus and written agreement on the scope of the project from all stakeholders. Because the moment you allow domain creep, you open the door to failure.
Simply put, you lose control of the project and everyone starts protesting. Therefore, you should avoid this at all costs.
Communication plan
Communication management is very important when implementing projects. Develop a solid plan of who to communicate with, when, and how, and share it with the entire project team.
Provide the team with a central platform that enables and records all project communications with time stamps for audit trail and faster issue resolution.
Ensure that all relevant information is readily available to the right audience when needed.
Work breakdown structure
A detailed execution plan is very important in the timely delivery of the project. A work breakdown structure (WBS) is an enlarged version of your task management.
The following must be clearly defined:
- Grouping tasks and milestones
- The task, side tasks
- Link work and dependencies
Also, ensure absolute clarity and transparency of implementation
Conclusion
Project management and task management go together when tasks are related to planning, collaborating, organizing, and delivering successful projects. In some cases, tasks are independent of projects and can be completed on an individual level using task management software. With the right choice of project management software, you can not only manage projects and tasks, but also access reports, request forms, time tracking, various assignments, roles, and more. Project management software gives managers ultimate control over projects, tasks, and teams.
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