Hello! I am Elizabeth Oyer, President of EvalSolutions, Inc. where I provide program evaluation and business consulting services.
Regardless of the type of evaluation work we do, project management is a necessary evil. At this stage of my work, I have been trained in and adopted a range of philosophies, strategies, and technologies to organize my work both internally as well as in my interactions with clients.
Lessons Learned
Whether you have explored Agile, Lean, Project Management Institute or similar philosophies, common themes in any effective project management are related to collaboration, communication, and coordination. First, co-creation has become a mainstay in professional work; the project management priority for collaboration revolves around the ease of sharing work. Second, communication is often the foundation of successful (and unsuccessful!) projects. Because the completeness, correctness and timing of information can be critical supports or sabotage, project managers implement strategies to control communication. Third, an effective project manager is one who makes linking people, steps, and resources look easy. Action steps need to be clear and accessible to all the relevant stakeholders to reduce friction in a project.
Rad Resources
OneNoteTM is an Office365TM product that uses the metaphor of the 1980s style TrapperKeeperTM notebooks (time warp engaged) with sections and pages. Any user with Office365 has access to OneNote already, where features like multiple notebooks, sections within notebooks, and pages withing sections are readily available using intuitive menu and icons that follow standard rules (e.g., a “+” adds a page or section).
OneNote notebooks are easily added to Office365 Teams by simply adding the app to existing Teams making co-creation in the notebooks immediately available. The familiar arrow to arrow icon creates easy sharing of notebooks, sections, and pages with users outside the Team ecosystem. Finally, simple to use checkboxes and automatic OneDrive integration make coordinating files seamless. Using OneNote has reduced my time, improved my communication, and increased collaboration with my clients significantly!
Hot Tip
Learning a new tool should be easy. If you want to dig into OneNote quickly, The Digital Project Manager site has easy to follow hacks to shorten the runway on using OneNote for project management.
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