“Are there any resources on using Microsoft Teams for Project Managers?”
With a large number of the population working remotely, we’ve been receiving questions, similar to the above, about whether or not Microsoft Teams can be used for Project Managers. This blog covers 5 tips you need to know to get started using Microsoft Teams as your project management tool.
In this blog, you will find:
❓ Why use Microsoft Teams for Project Management?
⭐ Microsoft Teams Top Features
💡 Top 5 tips for Project Managers
🎯 Final Thoughts on Microsoft Teams
Why Use Microsoft Teams for Project Management in the First Place?
Most people know Microsoft Teams as the communication tool that it is – they know that they can use Microsoft Teams to be able to connect with their colleagues and their project team members via chat and voice and video calling capabilities. Unfortunately, that’s where a lot of end users’ knowledge of Microsoft Teams ends. They’re not always aware that it can do so much more than just provide a way to stay in touch. In fact, it can be a powerful project management tool.
Microsoft Teams Top Features
📝 Document Collaboration: Microsoft Teams allows for seamless document collaboration. You can easily share, access, and edit Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations, all while keeping every member of the team in sync.
📊 Integrated White-boarding: The platform provides interactive white-boarding capabilities. This feature allows team members to brainstorm, map out plans, and visualize ideas together, making your team's online meetings more engaging and productive.
🎥 Dynamic Presentation Tools: Microsoft Teams enhances your presentations with dynamic tools, allowing for live annotations, screen sharing, and PowerPoint Live, which provides a unique presenting experience.
💬 In-App Chat and Calling: Teams offers in-app chat and calling features, making it a centralized hub for all your communication needs. With high-quality audio and video calling, it simplifies meetings, whether you're connecting with your colleagues, clients, or partners.
🔗 Integration with Microsoft and Third-Party Apps: Microsoft Teams integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft applications like SharePoint, OneNote, and Planner. You can also incorporate a myriad of third-party applications, making it a customizable and versatile tool that adapts to your team's workflow.
🔍 Powerful Search Capabilities: Microsoft Teams offers powerful search capabilities, allowing you to easily locate files, conversations, and other content within the platform.
🗂️ Task Management: Teams also offers task management capabilities, which lets you assign tasks, set deadlines, and monitor progress right within the platform, keeping your projects on track.
Top 5 Tips for Project Managers
#1 Keep everyone informed with Teams and Channels.
Project collaboration in Microsoft Teams can make your management work a lot easier.
A Project Manager needs open and transparent communication throughout every aspect of the projects they’re overseeing, and Microsoft Teams has the capability to provide that!
By utilizing the Teams tab, you could create a team for each customer, then create channels within those teams for each of the three projects you need to oversee. Then, it’s a simple matter of adding the relevant people and/or resources from your staff to each of these teams and channels (as easy as a few clicks of the mouse)!
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#2 Don't miss another deadline!
Deadlines are, of course, vitally important to those Project Managers and project management professionals, but, lucky for you, Microsoft Teams allows you and your team the ability to share an Outlook group calendar within the Teams platform. Check out this guide on how to add a group calendar to Teams. Once you’ve done so, every member of the team will be able to see their personal Outlook calendar (in blue) and the group calendar (in green) in one convenient place.
#3 Use the Planner function to assign tasks & keep track of what's important.
If your team is also using Microsoft Planner to help organize your projects, that can also be integrated into your Teams platform, giving you another efficient way to keep track of tasks for each project and its corresponding deadlines.
To integrate Microsoft Planner, follow these four simple & easy steps:
1.- Navigate to team that you want to add Microsoft Planner to.
2.- Click on the + sign to add a tab to the group:
3.- Click on “Planner”.
4.- Either create a new plan, or choose an existing plan that you’ve already saved (choose from the drop-down menu), and click “save”.
Your new plan will be added to your team!
How to effectively use Microsoft Planner for Project Management
Managing multiple deadlines and tasks? Planner in Microsoft Teams is a simple-to-use project management tool. This tutorial below will show you how to create a board with Planner to keep you and your team organized.
Want to learn more about Microsoft Teams? Register below to access our informative webinar series on how this unique Microsoft solution can help your organization today.
#4 Keep work accessible to everyone.
It’s probably safe to say that, when managing a project, time is of the essence. Is your team wasting valuable time on trying to locate and work on the vital documents from various repositories or folders?
Microsoft Teams can help save time instead! Simply utilize Teams in tandem with SharePoint to be able to access and co-author Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations and more – all from the Teams platform!
Plus, with the mobile capabilities of Microsoft Teams, this means that access to all company documents can be done from wherever your team is and whatever device they’re using – all you need is a data plan or an Internet connection!
#5 Don't be afraid to make Teams your own!
As we’ve alluded to in this blog, Teams is highly customizable with many various integrations that can be incorporated into it to make it more efficient and more effective for your Project Management team to use. So, don’t be afraid to explore those integrations and make Teams your own. The Apps tab in Teams provides you with the option to browse the vast list of third-party apps and services that are available to you.
It seems, as well, that new integrations are being developed on a fairly regular basis, so keep your eye on this area of Teams so that you’re up to date on what’s new and exciting and what could be used to help you work more efficiently and effectively as a Project Management team.
Some Final Thoughts on Microsoft Teams for Project Managers
There’s no doubt in our mind that, with the right integrations in place, and with a little customization, Microsoft Teams can be a very viable and effective project management solution for your organization. From being able to track tasks, collaborate on documents, host meetings and white-boarding sessions, and keep all the project files in one convenient place that’s accessible to everyone on the team, Microsoft Teams has the capability to become your new project management secret weapon of sorts!
