Project management techniques range from the traditional Waterfall Method to Extreme Project Management. But one thing they all have in common is that they require you to stay atop of the project management triangle and balance scope, time, and cost.
Project management automation tools can help you streamline tasks by doing some work for you: creating new tasks, sending out reminder notifications, and assigning tasks to team members. More advanced project management AI tools can even help with budgeting, scheduling, note-taking, and more.
Here’s what team leaders need to know about project management automation and how using the right automation software can help you become a better manager.
What Is Project Management Automation?
Project management automation means using software to streamline the project management process. It’s similar to other types of business process automation in that it uses technology to automate routine tasks, but the focus is on eliminating repetitive tasks rather than on complete workflow automation.
For example, a project manager might use automation to perform administrative tasks like scheduling team meetings and assigning new tasks to team members.
Automating project management doesn’t replace the need for human input, but it sets your team up for success by getting the busywork out of the way. Automation helps to streamline workflows, reduce human error, and eliminate bottlenecks that result from tedious, time-consuming tasks that get in the way of project progress.
3 Benefits of Project Management Automation
Whether you use the agile method or another project management framework, starting a new project is always challenging. Project management automation can benefit you and your team members in a few key ways.
Streamline Processes
First, it allows you to streamline and standardize processes for more predictability and greater quality control. Assign tasks, create invoices, and deliver status updates using standardized templates to ensure consistency from project to project.
Plus, by inputting all of your tasks into a project manager, you can more easily track deadlines and milestones and stick to your project timeline.
Eliminate Manual Tasks
Manual tasks aren’t just tedious: they can create bottlenecks in your workflows and contribute to burnout of members on your team. When you use automation to offload repetitive tasks onto project management software, you free everyone up to focus on the work they really want to be doing.
Reduce Human Error
From scheduling conflicts to typos, sometimes human errors can contribute to delays and financial losses for your project or team. Automating administrative tasks won’t remove the risk of error, but it can significantly reduce the likelihood of copy/paste errors, typos, and other common mistakes.
4 Project Management Tasks That Can Be Automated
Some project management tasks, like onboarding new team members and signing off on deliverables, still require a human touch, but many project management tasks can either be eliminated or automated so they take less time and effort.
Here are just a few examples of project management automation at work.
Note-taking
Taking great notes and meeting minutes is essential to ensuring that everyone’s on the same page about a project. From kickoff meetings to scrum meetings, automated note-taking tools like Anchor AI take notes so you don’t have to.
Whether you need detailed meeting minutes to send to your stakeholders, or just a list of action items to add to your task manager, choose a project management tool with note-taking capabilities so you’ll always have a record of what you discussed.
Scheduling
The more people on your project team, the harder it can be to schedule a meeting time that’s convenient for everyone. Project management software can do the work for you by reviewing your project calendar and suggesting a suitable meeting time.
But why stop there? By integrating your task manager, calendar, and video conferencing software, you can automatically send out invites by email or Slack with a Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams meeting link so it’s easy for everyone to join.
Task assignments
Delegating tasks is a big part of project management, but it can be a challenge to know how to assign tasks so as to optimize team productivity. With the right task management software, you can track how many tasks are on everyone’s plate, and view each task status and any associated dependencies in real-time.
When you use Anchor AI for project and task management, Max Tasks can assign tasks and create a due date automatically based on your meeting notes so you don’t have to go hunting through email threads to find the right action items.
Invoicing
For cross-functional teams, or teams with multiple projects in progress, invoicing can be a time-consuming process. You need to track billable hours for each client or customer, and make sure that all team members logged their hours accurately.
With automatic time tracking, you can spare your team members from having to track their hours by hand. Use your platform’s automation capabilities to generate invoices from pre-existing templates and verify them against hours worked.
Project Management Automation Best Practices
Project management automation can help you boost your team’s productivity and avoid feeling overwhelmed at work, but there are still some pitfalls to consider. Follow these best practices to ensure that your automated systems work as planned:
Automate one thing at a time
As a project manager, it’s easy to get excited by all the apps out there and the sheer number of project management tasks you can automate. But it takes time to set up an automated workflow and get your team members up to speed.
Instead of trying to automate everything at once, automate one task at a time. That way, if something goes wrong, you won’t have to deconstruct the entire workflow to find out which step isn’t working as planned.
Make use of integrations
Project management automation isn’t limited to a single platform. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) tools like Zapier, Asana, and Jira all have an application programming interface (API) that allows them to interact with one another. These integrations make it easy to link together multiple steps in a workflow across different systems.
For example, if you’re hosting a free webinar, you can integrate your video conferencing platform with your customer relationship management (CRM) software to automatically collect customers’ contact details and send them a follow-up email.
Use an AI project manager
Automated task managers and scheduling tools can seem intelligent, but many tools are just following the rules that you set out for them. Most of them don’t understand natural language, and can’t analyze data or make decisions for you.
To level up your automation capabilities, choose an AI project manager like Max, who brings artificial intelligence to project management. You can ask Max questions in plain language, such as “How did the meeting go?” or “Which project tasks should we work on next?” and gain more insight into resource management and project planning.
Get Real-time Project Assistance with Anchor AI
Project management automation can work wonders for your team. From scheduling team meetings and delegating tasks, to generating reports and email notifications, automation helps you eliminate routine tasks and streamline your workflows.
For even more advanced functionality, get real-time project assistance with Anchor AI. Anchor AI brings the power of artificial intelligence to your project. Max, your AI project manager, will create seamless transcripts and meeting summaries, assign new tasks automatically, and provide detailed project insights and follow-up emails.
Get started for free and see how Anchor AI can boost your productivity with the power of AI project management!