Why should we use project management templates?

Why should we use project management templates?

Project management (PM) tool is the software that supports users to create and manage their projects online. Instead of using the traditional method such as paperwork and etc. In the modern technology era, the templates for PM have become popular increasingly. As its convenience, there is no reason to stop taking advantage of those to save time and effort and help the supervisor stay away from mix-ups. A decent template should be versatile to various project types.

Spare time

The project management templates are valuable when doing enormous activities is a result of the time spared in building up a task plan starting with no outside help. There is no purpose for a supervisor to create a project over and over again. In fact, there are some tools supporting to create projects from scratch. But it takes time to set up every single thing from an empty project.

In spite of the fact that it may require time to locate the correct format or layouts when they are discovered the venture of time is a once and just speculation. An undertaking chief will see the worth added to the administration procedure. Rather than being made up for the lost time in the administrative work and arranging. A director can just fill in structures as required and spotlight on getting the undertaking conveyed.

Reduce cost

Currently, It is not difficult to find free templates on the Internet. Apparently, there must be more actions from the director to make the templates appropriate to the real case of the project. However, This technique keeps away from the high costs related to outside specialists building up the documentation process.

Decline Mistakes

Following a format when arranging a large scale of the project minimizes mistakes and forgotten steps. An undertaking administrator can see where missteps or skipped steps. This permits modifying the arrangement in like manner before the dynamic period of the task starts.

Can be customized

An ideal template should be an alternative for different types or size of the projects. In other words, there is no one-size-fits-all template, because of the wide range of work fields. However, the project manager can customize the format of templates to be appropriate to the present tasks and guarantee that all members understand and finish their tasks on time.

The templates can optimize your work but It does not mean all of them are good and there is no one-size-fits-all template. Therefore, the role of manager to convert the raw template into the practical and valuable project has been essential. Understanding why PM templates are valuable when doing enormous projects enables the manager to keep up the extension and complexities requested by huge activities. Let’s use project management templates.

UpDiagram for Startup 4.0

Startup 4.0 has become a popular trend and the motivation for young enterprises to participate in the success rate, In the digital world. Startup 4.0 is well-known due to its low cost for investment, fast implementation, and effective measurement.

However, there are a modest number of Startup 4.0 that can take advantage of opportunities to achieve success. To become the ultimate winner, startup enterprises need to be well-prepared to maximize the benefits of technology in the 4.0 era. In addition to the developed countries. Vietnam and other countries, which have competitive advantages of telecommunication infrastructure and advanced technologies, have one step to be close to success.

Individual Expenditure Template

UpDiagram, an online project management software, is developed not only to optimize the productivity for large-scale enterprises. But also to mitigate risks and management efforts for startups. For beginners, it takes time, effort, human resources, and experts to ensure the effectiveness in management, maintenance, and innovation of the business organization. This is the reason why UpDiagram is here to make things simple. So, How does UpDiagram work to facilitate the startups’ work?

Define your business and projects structure

UpDiagram’s hierarchy designed under the general structure to simplify the management process. It is also friendly with all newbies who have learned how to manage a project or their work. This hierarchy can be flexible to restructure for different cases and purposes to always adapt to the changes of the business management process. Defining the structure to manage the project can help startups. Their teams easily get used to and follow up on the progress better.

Seamless collaboration for Startup 4.0

When your teams can follow the general progress of work together, every member can actively contribute their thoughts. In addition, they can communicate with all members while using UpDiagram. Because they have onboarding chat and other communication apps integration. Users can leave their comments on every single task to contribute their ideas to members. The due date or all activities are arranged to notify and make all teams collaborate.

Daily summary notification

In-app and email notification for Startup 4.0

To keep every activity live-updated, UpDiagram provides in-app and an email notifications to members who take part in the projects. This notification feature can customize to appropriate for a startup.

Variety of custom fields

In addition, a variety of custom fields will be suitable for a wide range of business types and industries. This use to highlight, prioritize, add text and images, or calculate the information and data. No matter what your startup’s industry is. UpDiagram could be the alternative and flexible option to well organize all work and tasks.

Multiple views and perspectives

The multiple work views include Grid, Calendar, Kanban, Mindmap, and Timeline. Facilitate enterprises to manage their work in different perspectives for purposes. It can customize suitable field mapping and role views to define the most suitable display for each team in projects.

Integration with apps

Slack Integration – UpDiagram

UpDiagram also allows users to integrate their favorite apps so that they can manage and track whole things in one place. As a startup, you may need many apps with specific functions for different purposes. Now, you have an option to customize and integrate all into one place and what your startups need to do is to guarantee productivity and success.

Those mentioned above are some of the primary features that a project management tool can provide to users. In contrast, there are more particular and personal features based on startups and enterprise requests. Thus, there is no limit for UpDiagram to continually learn and evolve systems and features from users’ requests and feedback in the future.

As the consecutive innovation and competition in the era of industry 4.0, startups have a lot of opportunities to take advantage of advanced technologies to outstanding themselves in their market. However, it is also a challenge if the startups cannot exploit the full use of the technologies or have no clear organizational structure and business plan. UpDiagram is not only a project management tool, but it is also an alternative and flexible tool for startups and enterprises to manage their work with multiple industries.

Facts about Project management (Part 1)

Project management is the process of many activities that involve the application of knowledge, skills, experience, method, and techniques to obtain the project requirements. This is a significant aspect that builds a larger and professional business. Not well control projects can lead a company to get lost or go bankrupt. All factors related to project management are considerable. Let see some fact and statistics about this field of business operation. I think some information can surprise you.

Photo by Stephen Dawson in Unsplash

Statistic numbers show how projects running in reality:

What is the situation of projects in reality? How do companies run their project? Good or not good? Let’s read and get your conclusion.

Over one- third projects have no baseline. (Source: Wellingtone)
More than 10% of $ 1 billion invested in the U.S was misspent because of insufficient project management (Source: PMI.org)
Less than 30% of successful projects were completed on time with the dítributed budget. (Source: Standish Group)
Three – fourth of CTO believe their projects are failed from the beginning (Source: Geneca)
Nearly 90% of professional organizations have a 90% rate of projects are completed, while less-professional organizations only get 36% on their project are completed. (Source: PMI.org)
More than 60% of the decision related to cancel or delay a project come from the executives (Source: InformationWeek)

Statistics about project management:

Firstly, How does project management influence the result of a project? Secondly, in Which ways do companies nowadays manage their project? Thirdly, How much do you know about the project manager job in reality? Finally, The numbers below will answer these questions:

The field of project management worldwide is expected to grow by $6600 billion (Source: PMI)
A half of Project Management Offices (PMOs) close after three years. (Source: KeyedIN)
More than 50% of project managers have certification in thí field. (Source: Wrike)
Almost organizations believe in the importance of project management in business operations and the company’s success. (Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers)
A project manager in the U.S receives an $87,500 average salary. (Source: Glassdoor)
Four- fifth of project managers don’t know how to fit the business strategies with their projects. (Source: Changepoint)
The biggest threat that many businesses face is “capturing time/costs against projects”. (Source: The Access Group)
Nearly 45% of project managers don’t use any software to support their performance. (Source: Pricewaterhouse Coopers)

Photo by Alvaro Reyes in Unsplash

Why do so many projects fail?

Several reasons make a project fail. Let see and find out how is the right direction to run a project. I hope the statistic here will be useful for you.

Lack of specific objectives and goals lead to nearly 40% of projects fail. (Source: PMI)
More than half of organizations don’t set real-time KPIs to their projects (Source: Wellingtone)
70% of projects incline to fail. (Source: 4pm)
Don’t have the involvement of senior manager lead to one-third of projects fail. (Source: University of Ottawa)
80% organization said that they had spent so much time to rework (more than 50% of the time) (Source: Geneca)
A large budget can’t make a project come to success. According to Gartner, 50% of projects that fail have over a million U.S dollar budget. (Source: Gartner)
About 27% of projects spend over their budget. (Source: PMI)
Nearly 50% of companies admit that they don’t clearly understand the role of project management in their business operation. (Source: PMI)
More than 45% of the project can’t obtain their management requirement. (Source: PMI)
Running multiple projects at the same time is the biggest reason why projects fail among 37% of organizations. (Source: Wellingtone)
50% of organizations report that they do have a tracking system for successful projects. (Source: Wellingtone)
The 3 main causes of project failure according to Enkillc are: “inconsistent execution, lack of continuous team improvement and poor scalability”. (Source: Enkillc)
More than half of companies now are unsatisfied with their project management. (Source: Wellingtone)
The 2 biggest barriers to the company’s success among 38% of companies are uncertain about role and duty in the project team. (Source: Geneca)

How are projects successful?

After understanding what factors lead a project to be a failure, so the statistic below will illustrate to you many dimensions that contribute to a successful project. Let view and find out which one helps you to ensure the project comes to succeed.

About 87% of well-performing managers believe insufficient delivery capabilities can minimize risks, maximize value as well as control expenditure. (Source: PMI)
45% of PMOs have identified roles and duties. (Source: Wellingtone)
76% of productive organizations use strategic initiatives to meet business intent and original project goals. (Source: PMI)
37% of projects are almost always delivered on time. (Source: Wellingtone)
58% of organizations said that clearly defined processes and practices as their key step to project success. (Source: PMI)
About 45% of well-performing employees realize and develop their skills as required. (Source: PMI)
ALmost firms (94%)of companies believe that project management is critical for business development. (Source: Capterra)

Using project management techniques now is a trend:

Most companies now are using a project management technique because they understand the importance of them in running their business. Project management techniques are used to increase the working productivity as well as to reduce time-consuming and cut down the cost. So, what techniques high appreciate by many companies? I hope you will find in these numbers:

21% of organizations use a set of standardized project management practices. (Source: PMI)
More than half (55%) of project managers generate an extent document before implement projects. (Source: Wellingtone)
Just nearly 30% of companies report that they are already using project performance techniques. (Source: PMI)
The mature process is more and more widespread among well-performing organizations. (Source: PMI)
In 2014, the rate of project managers use story mapping tools dropped by 13% in comparison to 2013. (Source: VersionOne)

How to survive in Working from home mode?

Working from home has been no longer a new keyword. Also, students are used to studying online without going to school. However, the keywords #workingfromhome and #workingremotely recently become very popular due to the effects of the global COVID19 pandemic. And to prevent the outburst, businesses have implemented the #workingfromhome program to ensure employee and community safety. Turn on Working from home mode.

Working from home

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

And of course, the problem of how to ensure efficiency and progress at work will always be in question. As a manager, they need to monitor the progress of the employees and make sure meetings and reports be always on schedule. In addition, transparency and collaboration among project members is also necessary to ensure the alignment and continuity of the project.

On the other hand, in terms of employees, working from home is also a tough challenge that they must experience with a great deal of temptation. Social media, games or parties are annoying enemies when they work from home. Therefore, the solution to these problems will be one of the top priorities at the time of a pandemic and remote working is also a trend.

And the solution for working from home is to choose a project management application that can work online and be suitable for connecting, increasing collaboration while ensuring productivity. So how to choose an appropriate application during the volatile COVID epidemic season and create favorable conditions for Working from home mode.

Here are solutions and steps to choose the most effective application for remote management process.

1. To identify and clearly analyze the major of the business. This is considered as the first important step for businesses to determine which service sources can be applied.

2. The next step is to establish procedures and principles to operate before applying them to the management application. Depending on the tool, the operation method will be different. So after defining a specific business major, building the appropriate process is easy to execute into the application.

3. Select the appropriate solution and application based on the processes and business identified above. At this step, UpDiagram is a suitable and highly competitive choice with other potential competitors. But if you need to consider additional alternatives we are also willing to share tips. In order to make the right choice, you need to define specific and simple goals. It should not be too many and ambiguous expectations, because there is no perfect application to cover everything.

At the same time, it is also advisable to follow specific criteria for an appropriate choice.

– The application must be appropriated with the existing workflow of the business

– The application must be friendly to users and high operational quality during using process

– Provide additional customized services or upgrade options as business requirements

– Be able to import and synchronize data from other channels and link with different applications

– Reasonable price is also a top priority. Besides choosing free packages, advanced packages for businesses with more specialized features should be considered to achieve maximum work efficiency

4. Test with some teams to estimate their effectiveness. It is possible to build a standard training process when achieving satisfactory results. In addition, you can also test multiple products with different teams to give the most objective results.

5. Combine professional, working processes and standards of working principles to build a comprehensive system for members to follow. When working remotely, everyone working on a common standard will help managers easily control the progress without distracting the remaining members.

6. When the system operates stably, apply to other departments with a larger scale. By this stage, the business has fully understood the level of application efficiency with the business. When applied to the entire system, you should consider carefully because the application will be applied as a long-term strategic partner.

With UpDiagram

We provide a free version and it is fully online, so the activities on the project will be updated continuously. Therefore, the manager can directly monitor each activity of each member. With the daily or in-app notification, the admin can also update the project status wherever you are.

For employees, they can also track activities and task status. Simultaneously, they can comment or interact with other users on the same project. In an epidemic situation and people have to work at home, UpDiagram always ensures collaboration and transparency throughout the management process.

The project management application always offers more than the specific features that support maximum management and collaboration.

– Multiple Work Views (Grid, Kanban, Calendar, Mindmap)

– Variety of Custom Fields (Text, number, list, timeline,…)

– Formula Field for estimation

– Apps integration (Slack, Zalo, …)

– Input data from other tools (Trello, Excel, …)

– Custom Data / Tables

…and customized services and upgrade options as business requirements

The management process can be simplified due to all the features mentioned above. And working from home will no longer be a barrier for individuals and businesses. However, the result also depends on human resources when responsibility place first, when Working from home mode.

Begin your language learning journey with this template!

Language learning is a long journey. And it is hard if you do not know where to begin with. Why don’t you make a learning roadmap for yourself: determine what basic things you need to learn in a specific period of time and try to complete it.

Photo by Paul Hanaoka in Unspash.

When learning a foreign language, especially those with a completely different alphabet letter, it is extremely hard to grasp the core of it. If you have someone to guide you through it things would somewhat easier but what if you are a self-learner, there are a lot of things and you might get confused. Therefore, it is essential for you to come up with a roadmap, a plan to learn. There are different skills sets in learning a language, there are listening, writing, speaking, reading and definitely a lot for you to learn.

This template can help you with your language learning journey. UpDiagram provides you with an easy to use and keep track template, where you can freely edit and make it your own.

The template divide into 4 main packages including Listening, Writing, Speaking and Reading. We have already provided you with some suggestions for your language learning journey, but it is up to you to delete or add any new, more suitable items for the long road ahead.

– We have the attachment column if you want to add any recorder of yourself speaking or your favorite line in a movie, or just simply a memorable quote for motivation.

– With the utilization of the status column, you can get access to the board view where things will be more general. With that being said, you can see how far you go, what have you done and what things you need to complete.

– The template can also serve as storage, you can put idioms, new vocabularies and grammar as an item so that whenever you sign in UpDiagram, open your template you will see it and it will slowly get into your mind.

– If you are not a self-conscious person, try to put yourself in the discipline by setting out what you think is a possible timeline and then strictly follow it. This, you can also see in the calendar view and check your tasks.

Remember, learning a new language takes a lot of effort and patience. No one is forcing you to master it just in a few months, since it is impossible to do so. Let UpDiagram be a companion in this long and tough journey to foster you toward success. Hence, go check it out and start using it right now.

How to manage personal expenditure well?

How to manage personal expenditure well? This is a big question with many people who often spend over than they have. To change your spending habit and become a smart buyer, let start with a daily expenses diary in which you will know how much you pay for each item. Below, I will share with you the process of managing your expenditure.

Photo by Alexander Mils in Unsplash

Set the budget:

To control money in your pocket, the first thing you need to do is separate it into smaller portions for various purposes:

– Come up with the first portion combined with fixed expenses (renting, utilities, food, transportation,…) which are essential for life.

– The second part of your budget is for saving and emergency. It is helpful in case you want to change something like a new laptop, new motorbike, or saving for a new house. It is considered as a future investment.

– The last one is variable expenses which include party expense, extra money for shopping, food, vacation, or something you purchase accidentally, not be in your schedule.

Record your daily expenses:

Write down what you spend daily as detail as possible. Answer these questions is useful not only in accounting for all the expenses but also for your spending schedule.

– What you pay for?

– How much you pay?

– It is combined in what type of budget? (Fixed expenses, emergency, or variable expenses)?

– The total amount of money you spent on that day?

– How much I should use on the next day is suitable?

Keep track of what you pay for:

When listing all your expenses, don’t forget to take a look at:

– What kind of product/ services/ activities do you spend the most?

– The total amount you pay for?

– It is necessary?

Answer these questions to help you cut down the wasting cost for unnecessary things and smarter in making a purchase decision.

Calculate total expenses by type of budget:

At the end of the month, you should summary the expenses for a month by the types of money which are mentioned above.

– How much you need in basic for daily life? put on your savings fund? or you spend unexpectedly?

– Is your budget credit or debit in the closing balance of that month?

After a month of making expenses diary, you will find out how you spend your money now, which activities or items that waste your money. Cut down these unnecessary costs, the rest of the money you have will much more than in the past. You can make an easier decision for what you spend money on as well as have the larger overage money for saving or investing.

Continue practice recording expenses in a long time, you will have a good habit of spending money, you also should practice making a monthly spending schedule to become a smarter customer and keep your money never be waste again.

Using our template as an example. You also can build a calendar view to see the timeline of expenses.

Have problems with your SEO checklist?

One out of several merits of UpDiagram – a project management software – is the customization feature. It is never been easier to create your own project that is suitable and appropriate for your own purpose or company/business demand. However, it takes time to create a good one in the first try, it could turn out to be a long process until you finally come up with the one that is suitable. The same reason why we are here to provide you with this template: SEO checklist.

Photo by William Iven in Unsplash

As you might already know, SEO is an ongoing process. As a marketer, we all want our site to rank high when it comes to search engines since it seems to be the easiest way that companies can reach out to customers and gain recognization from partners. There are a lot of steps, things, and tools that you will need to set up with SEO checklist?, especially when you are a beginner. Things could be difficult since you don’t know where to begin with. Why don’t you try to create your own SEO checklist?

As we understand what you need, we are here to provide help. With a lot of things going on, it is understandable if sometimes things get confusing and slip out of your mind instantly. This template is just what you need, which is extremely easy to use and keep track of. Save your time and effort, just follow these simple steps. Feel free to add your own and create new package or custom fields.

Let go through some feature and see how this template can help you with SEO checklist:

– This checklist is derived from The complete 51-point SEO checklist for 2020 by Tommy Griffith, which is the lastest updated version and said to be “a direct, straightforward process that will drive more traffic and more customers to your site as quickly as possible”. Therefore, this could be a good source of reference for you.

– In the name column, there are main items and smaller sub-items, you can add more or delete in compliance with your purposes.

– With the attachment column, it is up to you to put image, video or audio, whichever you need to store to review.

– The checkbox, you can check or uncheck each item accordingly, and then re-use it every time you want to start a new project.

– Template have the note column, problems or explanations will be added in a way that you and your team can understand and agree on a general process.

– The status column, you can change between Complete/ Doing/ Not ready and get a better and general view of what you still need to do in the board view.

– And the timeline column, you can set a period of time for yourself or the members to complete the task, which you can also easily follow using the calendar view.

Go check it out and explore more useful templates for project management or any related field on UpDiagram

A project budget and how do you manage it?

Every single project costs money and it is important that all these numbers are kept and recorded in detail. It helps to manage how much money is needed and when it’s needed for a project budget.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash.

All costs such as labor cost, material cost, fixed/variable costs or any other costs that might affect your project expense need to be measured and listed out. Also, a predicted budget is also given for a project and served as a baseline to see how much over or under between actual cost and the budget.

As noted above, there are a lot of numbers to manage. Therefore, a project budget must be created thoroughly to prevent missing any items. To do this, we’ve outlined four essential steps towards creating and managing your project budget:

1. Use Historical Data

This project you are trying to manage is likely not the first and there could be similar and historical projects. Try looking back at it and learn from any successes or mistakes that you have already made. It provides a proper way to start. List out all the necessary costs and put them into separate columns. Making sure that you do not miss any single items.

2. Enhance Your Accuracy

Second, you can reach out to experts, who have enriched experience and knowledge in the field to consult for a reasonable amount. Getting advice and feedback from them can help your project be more accurate and efficient.

Once you have your budget and all of the numbers filled out, checking it again would not be a waste of time. You can also seek those experts and other project team members to check all the numbers and make sure it’s right. Although there are a lot of them, typo or mistake should be avoided to the least in the project.

3. Budget Baseline

A project does not always stay stable and sometimes there are changes that could not be predicted. As stated above budget is the baseline of the project and when changes occur you will need to re-baseline the budget. The sooner you change and notify your team the better. You can utilize project management software to manage and ensure your team is updated at any time.

4. Track Your Project

The benefit of using a project management program that monitors in real-time is that it gives you the details you need sooner rather than later to get back on track. Things change all the time and the ventures go off track. It is ideal that everyone in the project keeps information updated and get back on track the fastest.

UpDiagram can totally help your team with your project budget management, there is also a customized project budget template, which you can easily start manage your project right away without creating again from scratch. Go check it out now!

Keeping track of Your Social Content Post at anytime!

In order to reach out to customers and targeted audiences, posts on social media should be updated continuously. If you are a marketing executive, you might have already heard about social content calendar. This calendar not only keeps your work organized but also makes things become easier to keep track of.

Photo by Tim Bennett on Unsplash.

Let see how social calendar can assist your job:

– First, it can save your time, by having a list of what you are going to post throughout the week, you won’t have to search everyday or prepare for what to post online.

– Second, as you have more time to check, you will reduce your chance of making mistakes and unnecessary typos.

– Finally, longer time means higher quality posts since you have plenty of time to check and analyze more on the subject you are writing.

However, to do so, you would need a proper tool to create an effective calendar for your social post. This is exactly what you gonna need.

This template serves you, especially those who work in content marketing field, as an easy tool to put your ideas beforehand for social media posts. Just simply put all your contents in, decide whichever one is the suitable one for posting and schedule it. You could also change it if you find it no longer appropriate.

Our template provides you with:

– You can easily put any images or pictures that go along with your post in the attachment column.

– Our template also provides you with calendar view, which you can have a general view of what you have planned, on which date.

– The template also provides you with a checkbox column, if you need approval from an executive.

– Note down and track who in charge of which article and does it suitable for posting yet.

– Change status and keep track of the post in the most specific way (New/ Composing/ Reviewing/ Approved/ Scheduled/ Published).

– Categorize posts into different types of content, which make it simpler to manage.

Experience the benefits of our social content template by exploring and utilizing it for free on UpDiagram today!

Human Resource Management must-have template!

Sometimes things happen and it is hard to predict. The absence of a person could result in a pause in the whole process. Therefore, the absence notification must update to all relevant employers. It is also the reason why we come up with this template. The Human Resource manager can use it as a database to store all information of absent employees. All the information is also accessible by the rest of the employees to see, update information, and contact if any emergency happens.

It is important to keep an accurate record of sickness absences and keep track of the absence reason as well as how long they have been off so you will have a proper cover plan or determine if there is anything that needs to be adjusted. One more reason is that when looking at the absent pattern of a person. It helps you to understand more whether they have any mental or physical issues. That might affect their work attendance frequency or job efficiently to intervene as soon as possible.

And as you have already known, we are in the middle of a pandemic, absence record could come handy.

Here is how it works:

– Absence notification send to Human Resource Management (HRM) and then the manager updates the information on the template where everyone can check and updates.

– There is a note column for the employee to fill out how to work done. This column can also serve as notification of human resource manager’s cover plan for the absent employees.

– The contact column will include the contact number of the unavailable person or the cover person for other employees to contact if there are problems that need the absent person insights.

– Information about which department they are in also listed out, which you can easily see in both grid view and board view.

– Calendar view is another way to have a general view of who will absent in the month.

– The data can also be exported for report and information storage

Go check Human Resource Management Template and use it for free on UpDiagram now!