What makes Seavus Project Viewer different from other MS Project viewers?
For one thing, it is its Task Update feature that makes it a unique and practical solution for everyone, from project managers to team members. Here is why:
Provides full control over the project
This feature turns every project manager’s dream into reality. It is a crucial element that influences the project dynamics since if someone’s working progress has been overlooked by the manager, it might have consequences (in finance or resources, or both) and seriously disrupt the flow of the project. By continuously updating the progress, the managers are on track and can easily keep pace with the team members’ progress. How does this work?
Managers receive each update that the team members have done and (according to their estimation), they may either ‘accept’ or ‘reject’ it. This will later be updated in the .mpp file by saving the applied changes. The information in the update is quite detailed: it contains the number of hours spent on a specific task, the percentage of work that has been completed, and/or additional comments about the task. This creates a detailed picture, the view of the project and can be compared with the original plan – and the discrepancies or deviations from the original plan will point out what can be improved or fixed.
[For a quick overview of how it is used, click the links below]
For Project Managers
or Project Team Members
Increases productivity
The Task Update feature not only makes the project more organized and well-structured but also develops a productive working environment that boosts energy and saves time simultaneously.
How?
Well firstly, it saves a tremendous amount of time spent in e-mail communication between team members and managers and vice versa. What makes this possible is the ‘Comment’ option that everyone can use for each task update. After having the update accepted or rejected, the manager can elaborate on the reasons for his/her decision and provide feedback. The team members, on the other hand, can also add comments and substantiate their working progress. Thus, unproductive communication, endless e-mails, or ineffective meetings are avoided and this gives more time for people to actually work.
Secondly, it supplies project managers with a real-time project update status. In this way, managers have at hand a complete and consistent bird-perspective view over the project and know at every moment when some work needs extra resources to be done within the time limit. In such moments, managers can instantly react and focus on that certain critical point in the project; and it is their urgent response that increases the manager’s productivity as well. Hence, the project dynamic is not disturbed, the work is done on time, and possible consequences are avoided.
Creates a collaborative working environment and two-way communication
Companies strive to create a positive working environment that will promote teamwork and collaboration among their employees. Seavus Project Viewer with its Task Update gives this opportunity for cooperation in several ways.
To begin with, the fact that everyone can update their own tasks significantly increases their participation in a certain project. From a psychological point of view, this boosts the well-being of the employees because everyone feels involved; the individual task-update feature creates a sense of autonomy, and the whole team (and the managers) feel a forward motion – that the project is on its way to successful realization. Employees can also report overtime work even if the project manager did not plan it; every input can, basically, be used for improvements.
Moreover, the data from every progress update or comment can be used for enhancing the success not only of the current project but for future projects as well. By continually evaluating teams’ performances and providing productive feedback via comments, the manager keeps the team well-integrated and frequent feedback creates a positive emotional environment. This, too, strengthens the collaboration within a team. All this information may be used to build knowledge for future plans and projects, a pillar of experience that would build on your expertise.
Needless to say how much effective communication is important for the successful delivery of a project. Many projects have turned into failures due to the unsuccessful or untimely transfer of information. This is one of its multi-faceted characteristics: that it entails two-way communication. The Task Update feature is an excellent two-way network in which both managers and team members track their task progress.
In a nutshell
The upshot from all this is that the Task Update feature of Seavus Project Viewer truly is an amazing feature that increases productivity, creates a sense of employee autonomy, provides project managers full control over the project, and has many more advantages. It helps companies lessen their costs, it is a beneficial project tracker and a feature that cannot be found anywhere else. Another asset is that it is implemented without server installation or additional investments in hardware equipment. All you need to have is an MS Project add-in installed. Let me remind you that the Task Update feature echoes our motto: “turning technology into business value”.
Try Seavus Project Viewer with Task Update
