How nice would it be if someone just took over your repetitive tasks?
Or filled your timesheet without being asked to?
Sounds like a dream that’s too good to be true?
Here are three magic words that can actually make those dreams come true:
Automated project management.
Automation will relieve you from many of those dreary, mundane tasks and bring consistency to your day-to-day life.
Don’t believe us?
In this article, we’ll explain what is automated project management, why it matters, and explore its seven benefits.
This Article Contains:
Ready for the world of automation? Let’s begin.
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat is Automated Project Management?
By definition, automation is the use of machines and technology to do tasks once performed by human beings.
Automated project management is the use of software to complete basic project management tasks and activities without human intervention.
Why does automation matter in project management?
Two main aspects make project management automation important:
- It’s all for saving time and manual effort
- It reduces error by offloading manual work done by a human to a machine
As a result, you can reduce the time spent on irrelevant tasks and focus on more valuable ones.
Where should you use automation in your project management software?
To actually understand where you should use automation, ask yourself:
- What are the tasks that you constantly repeat with little to no modification?
- What are your most manual, time-consuming project administrative tasks?
- Which of your processes is well-documented?
- Can your project management software automate your process without your supervision?
Here are some of the most common examples for when you can use automation:
- Identify a change in the critical path
- Notify a project delivery delay or missed deadlines
- Resource allocation
- Automate workflow abilities like task assigning
- Identifying bottlenecks
- Automated invoicing
But these are just some instances.
Now let’s take a look at the benefits of automated project management.
We’re pretty sure that after you’re done reading them, you’ll have found a million ways to automate your processes. 🥂
Summarize this article for me please7 Benefits of Automated Project Management
Here’s the best part about project automation:
You can use its power to grow your output without multiplying the number of employees!
Is this your face right now?
Well, get ready because that’s just the beginning of how awesome automated project management can be for you.
1. Offloads routine tasks
Do you feel like a task is too easy or repetitive?
Well, then don’t do it! Just automate it.
Task automation gives your project team a chance to offload simple yet laborious production work. Without any coding.
Let your project management app do the routine work of assigning tasks, sending status updates, post a comment, etc., so you and your team can focus on more valuable tasks.
For example, ClickUp is a no-coding Automation expert and one of the world’s highest-rated project management tools.
Here are some project management examples to show you ClickUp Automations’ power:
- Post a comment when a Status or assignee changes
- Automatically assign tasks to people
- Change the Status when a Due Date arrives
- Add a Tag to a task when a Priority changes
These are just some of the automation ideas.
We’re all about what you want, so you can create your own for a custom automated workflow!
How?
Define three aspects:
- Trigger: what needs to happen to begin an Automation
- Condition: what should be valid to continue the Automation
- Action: what should happen as a result of the Trigger and Condition
2. Boosts productivity and maintains quality
Automation boosts productivity by letting you do more in less time.
For example, when you use automation tools like automated templates, you can easily clone tasks for multiple projects at one go instead of starting from scratch.
This way, you’re not wasting energy on something that software can do.
A quality PM tool will ideally offer a bucket load of templates.
Like ClickUp lets you implement your project plan right away with many pre-built project Templates. Some of the options include:
Alternatively, you can create a custom workflow with Custom Fields and then save the entire List, Space, or Folder template for future projects.
But that’s not it. In ClickUp, you can template so much more:
Speaking of tasks, you can manage repetitive tasks with Recurring Tasks in ClickUp. Schedule them as daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or custom durations.
3. Supports integration
You may need to use more than one app or tool for your work each day.
Maybe a time tracking app? A notes app? And a project management tool?
Using so many different tools or software can be overwhelming and can negatively impact employee productivity.
Moreover, imagine digging through a mountain of apps to find a single data point.
All that furious note-taking will now come to haunt you. 👻
That’s why you need integration support that helps all your software communicate with each other effectively.
You’ll now end up with two options:
- Either find tools that integrate with one another
- Or get a tool that can do it all
With a tool like ClickUp, you have both options.
It lets you integrate multiple tools so they can share information and automatically reflect updates.
You can integrate ClickUp with:
- Time tracking software like Time Doctor and Toggl
- Project management software like Asana and Trello
- Communication software like Slack and Google Hangouts Chat
And if you wish to glue all your work tools together, simply integrate Integromat with ClickUp! This integration allows you to create automation sequences with your email, calendars, messaging apps, and more, making all your work more manageable than ever before.
But here’s the best news: ClickUp is an all-in-one solution, so you don’t even need these integrations. It’s a project management tool with a Notepad, Native Time Tracking, Chat view for conversation, Docs for creating wikis…
We can do it all!
4. Streamlines communication
Communication gaps are the worst. 🙄
You’ve probably faced these issues at some point:
- Losing messages under a pile of notifications
- Stakeholders in the dark about what task awaits their approval
- Discovering multiple email threads on the same topic
This results in bottlenecks and delays in the review and approval process.
Don’t want that?
Your project management system should have collaboration abilities that bridge this communication gap.
It’ll optimize this process so that all the approvers and stakeholders get notifications when they need to review something.
Additionally, everyone can view the project’s status in seconds!
All you need is ClickUp’s Custom Statuses.
Once you’ve completed the task, change the status to ‘done,’ and everyone can see the project progress.
Define the Statuses depending on your team.
They can be to-do, in-progress, under-review, awaiting approval, etc.
Keep updating the task statuses, and you’ll unlock the power of transparency.
Want to know when a task’s status changes?
ClickUp can notify you with its custom Notifications.
You can choose whether you want the notification to pop up on your mobile, browser, web app, or email.
And lastly, keep all your conversations related to a project task in the Comments section.
Assigned Comments let you turn a comment into a task so that nothing slips through the cracks.
5. Identifies bottlenecks
If you try to identify bottlenecks manually, you may miss out on some.
It’s only human. 🤷
However, you’ll then need to attend that scary Zoom meeting with your clients to answer, “What’s causing the delay?”
No, Ron. Not yet.
Because you still have project automation!
It’ll identify bottlenecks beforehand so you can stay ahead of the curve.
But that isn’t all.
A good automation project management solution should also help you calculate the critical path. It’s basically all the essential tasks that you must do to ensure project completion.
ClickUp can calculate the Critical Path for you in just a few clicks.
- Go to a Space, Folder, or List
- Create a Gantt Chart view
- Click the Path Calculations icon
- Toggle on Critical Path
Another ClickUp feature that acts as a bottleneck radar is Time in Status.
What’s that?
Time in Status shows you how long a task has been in a specific Status.
It’s basically like Netflix asking you, ‘Are you still watching’ long after you’ve dozed off on the couch.
The silence will wake you up. 👀
So if you notice a task that usually takes three hours to complete is still a work in progress after nine hours, that’s a bottleneck.
And a ClickUp notification will be your alarm bell. 🔔
6. Automatic reports and insight
Another benefit of managing projects with automation is automatic reports.
That means, as a project manager, you can skip that Starbucks Venti ☕ to fuel those solo sessions of data analysis.
Try ClickUp’s Dashboards to track data on projects, tasks, assignees, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), etc. Create it within a few minutes and visualize all your Workspace events.
Here’s how:
- Click on the Dashboards icon in your sidebar
- Click on + and name your new Dashboard
- Click + Add Widget to bring in your data
Front and center in your Dashboards, you’ll find Widgets, which will present all the data you need.
Here are some of the Widget types:
7. Ideal for agile methodology
Agile methods like kanban have become the go-to for many product and software development teams.
An automated project management software will help you handle Agile practices by helping you:
- Manage processes and activities to set deadlines
- Balance activities throughout each project phase
With your automated project management software recording each activity as you go, you can stay updated on all that needs to be done.
Transparency 101!
And guess who happens to support an agile workflow?
That’s right. It’s ClickUp.
We have a Board view for kanban for task management.
Just like any kanban board, you can move your tasks from one status to another.
Nothing complex; just drag and drop them to the appropriate task status.
Then there is the Work In Progress ClickApp, rescuing you from too much workload in specific task status.
It’ll show you whether you’re above, at par, or below the limit, so you never exhaust your agile team.
But hold up! Did you know ClickUp can do way more for you?
Check out some of its other features to get an idea:
- Set project Goals and Milestones to track your progress
- Send and receive emails from within ClickUp with Email ClickApp
- Work on the go with ClickUp’s mobile apps available for both Android and iOS
- Enjoy super-rich and real-time text editing abilities
- Share views and tasks with people outside your workspace with Public Sharing
- Work without an internet connection with the Offline Mode
Summarize this article for me pleaseDo Less, Achieve More 💪😎
With automation, you’re free from all the tedious and repetitive work that used to haunt you.
This way, you clear up time for valuable work that you can’t automate, like innovation and creativity. 💡
To do this, look for project management software that comes with easy automation abilities.
Like ClickUp!
This powerful project and workflow automation software lets you manage simple and complex projects.
Use it to create custom Automations, kanban boards, set Reminders, manage documents, identify bottlenecks, enjoy team collaboration, and so much more.
Sounds like a sweet deal, doesn’t it?
Then join ClickUp today to make all your automation dreams come true!
Questions? Comments? Visit our Help Center for support.