In many organizations, the only projects that get formally tracked are large, complicated projects.

Easily manage your projects with a free SharePoint project management template 

They tend to be complex in nature, with a long duration, multiple stakeholders, and many moving parts. These projects do require a high level of project management processes.

However, these large projects are not the only projects that an organization typically works on!

Every department, team, and group will have their own initiatives and project work to carry out. This can range from small projects with tasks and documents to larger, complex projects.

Smaller projects can start to add up over time, creating strains on personnel resources and time allocation. You need an easy way to track this work without adding too much process or administration work.

In this article, you’ll learn more about the Projects and Work Tracker Template from BrightWork. The template is an ideal way to track multiple projects in a SharePoint site.

Managing Smaller Projects

A lot of the time, the projects that get “formally” tracked are the ones that require significant capital investment.

Smaller projects happen without visibility into how they fit into the overall strategic picture. So start by admitting that the smaller projects are just as important as the “big” ones

With these lightweight projects, you’ll want to manage:

• A few tasks (and maybe some issues).
• A couple of project documents and deliverables.
• A record of the project.

In this scenario, having to set up and use an individual project site may be overkill!  What you need is a place that you can rapidly add a few project details and get stuck into the tasks straight away.

BrightWork Projects and Work Tracker

The Projects and Work Tracker Template from BrightWork provides a single site for tracking high-level details about several projects in SharePoint.

It’s the perfect solution for all those smaller projects you may have. This template is ideal for teams who are not yet ready for complex project management processes.

The template includes:

• Project Statement / Charter
• Project Tasks
• Project Deliverables / Documents
• Project Issues
• Work Reports / Dashboards
• Project Reports / Dashboards.

So how does it work?

One site to manage many projects

The below screenshot is based on a marketing department with numerous “mini-projects.” This team has to create email templates, new ebooks, publish new website pages, and produce video content.  Not all of this work requires its own project site, but the team does need visibility into who is working on it and the status of the work.

The Projects and Work Tracker is the perfect solution! You see there are three projects in there that the team is working on right now.

Simply click on any project to see the tasks, documents, and issues associated with that project. It’s a very “lite” level of project management.

From the Quick Launch, team members can see all the work or issues assigned to them across these mini-projects.

Work report according to the logged-in team member

A list of issues across the projects in the site

Where it fits in the project hierarchy

BrightWork supports a hierarchy of sites within SharePoint that could look something like this:

• Top-level Project Office (Organization)
  • Department 1 (HR)
    • Project A
    • Project B
  • Department 2 (Marketing)
    • Project A
    • Project B
    • Project C
  • Department 3 (IT)
    • Project A

In the screenshot below, you see how it all fits together in a real SharePoint site collection.

• The Marketing Mini-Projects (the Projects and Work Tracker!) is nestled underneath the Contoso Marketing Project Office.
• The PWT template rolls up to the Contoso Marketing (PO).
• In turn, the Contoso Marketing PO rolls up to the Business Project Office.

Rollup dashboards for all projects

In this example, data from the Projects and Work template automatically rolls up to the Contoso Marketing Project Office and the overall Business Project Office. This capability increases visibility for various stakeholders across relevant departments and throughout the organizations.

Contoso Marketing Project Office

In the image below, you can see the three projects in the Marketing Mini-Projects, along with key information, on the site homepage.

Business Project Office

Here is a screenshot from the Business Project Office at the top of the hierarchy. It’s pulling data from all the project sites underneath it, including the three projects from the Marketing Mini-Projects PWT.

Conclusion

Remember those smaller projects are just as important as those bigger projects.

The Projects and Work Tracker is a good choice for lightweight management to track several small projects in one place. It will give you the visibility you need to make sure those smaller projects don’t fall through the cracks!