Project schedules provide a framework (WBS) of high level tasks. Progress on these tasks is regularly updated in terms of a percentage complete. Based on the percentage complete of each task, project managers look for exceptions to the project plan and make appropriate corrections.

This is a high risk approach, because the management of each project task is left to a task manager to get the task done and report progress. There is an air gap between the project schedule and what is actually happening to do each project task.

It can be argued that task managers face more complexity than project managers, because they are usually managing many competing tasks. Project managers use project management software to manage the complexity they face, but task managers have no such tool. Some try to use project management software, but it lacks the flexibility required to manage at the working level.

Consequently task managers use whatever methods and tools work for them. The variety of methods and tools makes meaningful coordination very difficult, so many meetings and other communications are used to try to keep work coordinated. The problem is that projects need work to keep flowing – this requires tight coordination or synchronization.

Synchronization requires the To Do lists of people collaborating to be aligned to project tasks and tightly coordinated. TASKey has developed and validated task management software that keeps To Do lists synchronised and aligned to project tasks.

The software easily handles the dynamic complexity of tasks; so task managers have the information they need to make timely decision that optimise task performance. Project performance is simply an aggregation of the performance of project tasks. Therefore linking meaningful task performance to project schedules provides the critical information required by project managers to effectively manage their projects.

Project blowouts usually occur from many small task blowouts. So providing task managers with a powerful collaboration tool that makes it easier for people to synchronize what they are actually doing, reduces the likelihood of task blowouts that can aggregate into project blowouts.

TASKey web and mobile access task management software provides task managers with the capability they need to globally synchronise the work their team members are doing to contribute to project tasks. By linking task management to project management, project schedules and progress can be based on what is actually happening in close to real-time (rather than guesses of percentage complete). This significantly reduces the risks and surprises faced by project managers.

More information is available at www.taskey.com or www.me2team.com