I once worked for a startup where our team was scattered across the globe (from Asia to North America and Europe!). The team consisted of the typical roles like product managers, developers, designers, and content writers.
One aspect that stood out during my time there was our team's outstanding cross-functional visibility despite being entirely remote.
Dependencies were clearly defined. Everyone from every department knew exactly what their role was at every stage of the project. This clarity and organization meant that our projects always moved forward smoothly, without the usual hiccups.
Later, I realized that this level of synchronization is often missing, even in teams that share the same physical workspace.
Imagine the time, money, and resources wasted due to poor visibility between project managers and their teams. This lack of coordination typically leads to communication breakdowns and workflow problems.
The secret to our success at the startup was a strong focus on project management. We heavily utilized tools like monday dev - a project management tool designed explicitly for dev teams - for clear communication, progress tracking, and task automation.
We integrated everything into monday dev, from communication channels like MSTeams, Zoom, and Gmail to code repositories like GitHub. This approach built exceptional team collaboration and enabled seamless interaction, even on a global scale.
The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of such project management processes. It ushered in a new era of remote work where cross-team collaboration has become more critical than ever (even though many employers are trying to claw their employees back to the office).
If your team (whether remote or not) needs more visibility between product and development teams, this guide is for you. We'll explore practical strategies to enhance visibility and cooperation among teams.
Let's dive in!
1. Centralize Information for Improved Communication
Centralizing communication and ensuring access to information is important because employees who get enough information to do their jobs well are 2.8 times more likely to be engaged.
A single, central location for information exchange ensures that everyone, from project managers to development teams, stays on the same page.
Using a project management (PM) tool can streamline this process. For example, it allows you to set up a board specifically for project handoffs.
This board becomes a one-stop repository for all essential project details, giving the development team a thorough understanding of what's required.
Another aspect of improved teamwork is the collaboration on documentation. monday dev workspace facilitates this by providing a platform where teams can jointly work on documents.
This is vital for keeping everyone aligned on product requirements, technical specifications, and project plans. Its diverse view options, like Kanban and Gantt charts, cater to different preferences in visualizing work progress. Such flexibility accommodates various working styles and ensures clear task management and progress tracking.
Monitoring sprint progress is also simplified with tools like burndown charts. These charts are helpful for quickly spotting potential issues or delays.
They help product managers track how progress measures up against the planned timelines, allowing for timely strategy adjustments.
Most project management platforms offer tools for managing the entire sprint lifecycle. This includes planning, daily standups, retrospectives, and sprint reviews. Such tools are instrumental in syncing the efforts of product managers and developers, ensuring a cohesive approach to project execution.
2. Use Automation
Automation plays a vital role in increasing cross-functional visibility as it helps get rid of repetitive, manual tasks.
More than 90% of workers surveyed said automation solutions increased productivity, and 85% said these tools boosted team collaboration.**
Project managers can set up notifications to alert the development team about new projects while visualizing resource allocation through chart views, which, which enables efficient task assignment based on team capacity.
Below are a few things you should know about automation:
- Understand automation components: Familiarize yourself with triggers, conditions, and actions. For instance, a trigger could be a status change (from ‘under progress’ to ‘under review’), a condition might specify the change, and an action could be archiving an item. Define what initiates the automation.
- Initiate custom automation: The PM tool we used enabled us to set up custom automation. Just choose "Create custom automation" to design a workflow tailored to your team's needs.
- Establish conditions: After setting a trigger, specify conditions. For example, your automation can activate when a 'Contract' status changes to 'Signed.’
- Set an action: Decide what happens once the trigger and conditions are met. Options include sending notifications or updating other columns. Customize the action to suit your workflow.
- Implement multi-step automations: Add multiple actions to a single automation for complex workflows. This allows a series of tasks to be executed sequentially.
- Set up time-based automations: Understand how automations based on date or time work, especially considering different time zones. Ensure your time settings are accurate to avoid discrepancies.
These are just a few examples of how automation can improve cross-team visibility. Create your own to streamline workflows, enhance communication, and ensure everyone is up-to-date with ongoing projects.
3. Integrate Project Management Tools with Communication Services
Using too many tools can create chaos within a team and lead to communication gaps rather than improve visibility.
Your project management tool should have the capability to integrate with communication services such as Gmail or Outlook to facilitate efficient and quick communication.
This integration was a crucial factor that greatly improved our team's communication and visibility.
For instance, if a team member from India needed to connect with someone in Georgia (Europe) via Zoom, they could easily manage everything within our project management tool - from sending meeting notifications to setting up reminders.
We had all the necessary tools (Slack, GitHub, etc.) integrated into our PM tool. This allowed seamless collaboration. The tool we were using (monday dev) had integrations with over 200 tools. Anything else we needed, we mostly set up through third-party services like Zapier.
This centralization of work eliminated the need to constantly switch between different platforms. HUGE bonus if you ask me…
Maintaining ongoing communication on the board proved essential in reducing excessive emails and meetings.
By standardizing project initiation using template boards, we were able to streamline processes and visually track progress indicators.
Additionally, inviting clients as guests on the project board for projects involving client interactions proved beneficial, and shared dashboard views helped keep everyone aligned.
4. Utilize Dashboards for Data Analysis
Set up dashboards (or whatever your PM tool calls them), as they can significantly enhance visibility among teams.
By centralizing data from multiple boards in one location, dashboards provide a high-level view of:
- Project progress
- Budget tracking
- Team workload estimation.
This unified view helps teams stay aligned on key objectives and enhances productivity by keeping everyone focused on the same goals.
Dashboards are typically customizable, allowing teams to tailor the displayed information to their needs. Whether through summarizing reports or generating detailed analyses, dashboards ensure that developers and project managers have real-time access to the same data. This fosters:
- Better communication
- Quicker decision-making
- More efficient project management
Additionally, the ability to filter information, toggle between public and private views, and even export dashboard data for external review ensures that the right information is accessible to the right people at the right time.
5. Practical Tips Beyond Tools
Enhancing cross-team visibility between project managers and development teams is about using the right tools and creating a culture of transparency and collaboration.
Here are some practical tips for project managers and dev teams:
- Schedule regular joint meetings to discuss progress and challenges and share ideas.
- Appoint cross-team representatives as liaisons to facilitate smoother communication and understanding.
- Involve members from both teams in decision-making processes to ensure all perspectives are considered.
- Recognize milestones achieved through collaboration as a way of celebrating joint successes.
These tips will help project managers and development teams work more efficiently and ensure that every project is handled without any communication gaps.
In Conclusion…
The synergy between project managers and development teams is crucial for the success of any modern business organization.
Companies can unlock new levels of productivity and innovation by employing strategic management techniques and fostering a culture of collaboration.
Remember, the goal is not just to work alongside each other but to work together toward a shared vision of success.
So, set up a central project management tool and:
- Utilize automation for seamless information flow and resource allocation.
- Integrate with email and CRM systems for comprehensive data accessibility.
- Encourage continuous communication on the board, and use template boards for consistency.
- Lastly, analyze team performance regularly to identify and address any potential inefficiencies.
With these strategies in place, project managers and development teams can work efficiently towards achieving their goals from start to finish.
I hope you found this information useful. If you have any questions (or would like to add your own tips and tricks) please comment below!
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