As we all slowly transition to working from home, one important question pops up:
What’s the difference between project management and project coordination?
We’re all familiar with project management – complete tasks, get results. But project coordination is more complex than that.
In this article, we’re going to explain what project coordination consists of, and show you the best project coordination tool for your team.
Let’s take a look!
What Is Project Coordination?
Projects are comprised of numerous moving parts. And in order to wrap them up successfully, teams need project coordination.
Project coordination handles all the daily tasks related to projects:
- Task and project management
- Administration and paperwork
- Resource allocation
- Time management
- Communication
- Collaboration
- Framework
Project coordination is not just project and task management, nor is it just collaboration and communication.
Project coordination is all of these things, and more.
That’s why you need a powerful project coordination tool.
The best tools provide support for all the different disciplines within project coordination:
- Project Coordination Is… Communication
Communication is one of the most important disciplines within project coordination.
During projects, teams have to communicate with each other, but project managers also need to communicate with other stakeholders (e.g. clients and top management).
However, communication itself is not enough to successfully coordinate projects.
Typically, project teams use tools like Slack to communicate.
Unfortunately, it’s pretty hard to provide context when Slack doesn’t allow you to navigate to your project plans and share files (with feedback) within the chat.
If your team only uses Slack, you will stay in touch. But you’ll still need to pay for other tools to create your project coordination stack. You won’t be able to collaborate effectively, and your team might lose track of important tasks and deadlines.
Alternative: heycollab
We recommend using heycollab instead of Slack.
As the only project coordination tool that encompasses different disciplines (from team chat and task boards, to collaboration and online storage), heycollab allows you to reduce your costs and maximize your productivity.
- Project Coordination Is… Project and Task Management
Another discipline within project coordination that is often approached as though it exists in a vacuum is project and task management.
Project management tools primarily focus on:
- Creating timelines
- Adding tasks
- Monitoring KPIs
Now, this can be – and it is – useful. But again, project coordination is much more complex than that.
If you’re only using project management tools like Trello, you’re missing a huge part of the conversation.
Another problem with just using project management tools, without using tools for communication and collaboration, is knowledge sharing.
On average, employees spend 25% of what could have been productive time at work searching for information.
This is especially pressing when it comes to task dependencies.
Mary needs to complete her task, but she can’t do it until Joe hands over the necessary materials. From online storage to emailing, it’ll take hours to get what she needs.
Since project information is not centralized if you’re only using PM tools, and tools like Trello don’t offer anything but task boards for project management, there will be delays.
How heycollab Helps
On the other hand, heycollab offers task boards for project management, but it also offers team chat, as well as online storage and features necessary for collaboration and knowledge sharing.
With heycollab, Joe can simply add his files to his task card.
When Mary has to complete hers, she can easily download the materials within the task board, team chat, or the online storage.
As the only project coordination tool that encompasses different disciplines, heycollab gives your team the framework you need to succeed.
- Project Coordination Is… Collaboration
Feedback is one of the most important aspects of project collaboration.
Teams have to share feedback in order to deliver a great end product.
However, standard collaboration tools such as InVision break the project coordination loop.
As soon as your team members need to switch tabs to discuss feedback in a different app, they’re losing focus.
Better Solution: heycollab
As the old adage goes, in the right place, at the right time. The same is true for feedback, the foundation of collaboration.
Your team needs context to properly process feedback.
Collaboration tools like InVision require you to switch to Slack to communicate in depth, update task cards on Trello, and ultimately spend hours on updates alone.
heycollab, on the other hand, gives you everything you need for project coordination. In addition to team chat and task boards, you can:
- Add visual feedback directly to files
- Share files with feedback within the team chat and task cards
The context is there, making it much easier to share knowledge and complete your projects successfully.
- Project Coordination Is… Online Storage
Finally, your team needs a central hub for project files.
However, if you’re using Google Drive or Dropbox, your team members will need to access them, download the files, and then switch to another tool in order to collaborate effectively.
Unfortunately, multitasking impairs productivity.
Don’t Use 10 Tools, Use One
Every team that uses heycollab for project coordination gets a virtual workspace, complete with their Media Hub – a central file storage.
From there, it’s simple to add feedback directly to files just like you would do in InVision.
You can share them with your team, collaborate across all heycollab apps, and make sure your project is a resounding success.
Project Coordination: The New Era of Digital Office
Project coordination does not exist in a bubble. If you rely on only one of these disciplines, you’ll be losing out on the benefits of a combined approach.
Communication without collaboration does not bring great results.
Task management without communication or collaboration creates confusion.
The solution?
The best project coordination tool, and the only tool that encompasses every project coordination discipline: heycollab.
- Team messaging
- Task and project management
- Online storage
- Collaboration
It’s everything your team needs to succeed. And with no per-user fees, improving your bottom line has never been more affordable.