High-performing Project Management Organizations (PMOs) are looking to deliver projects faster, more efficiently, and with greater consistency. However, many teams struggle with inconsistent project workflows, unstructured planning, and poor collaboration. You don’t want your projects to fall through the cracks or derailed from the track due to these causes.

BrightWork 365, built on the Microsoft 365 and the Power platform, addresses these challenges by providing a complete, configurable project and portfolio management solution. BrightWork 365 solution helps project managers to easily standardize project workflows, improve efficiency, and enhance team collaboration.

Why Should Organizations Standardize Project Workflows

Standardization is the foundation of successful project management. When project workflows vary across teams or departments, it becomes difficult to measure performance, ensure compliance, or replicate successful outcomes.

Unstructured workflows often lead to:

• Duplicated efforts
• Inconsistent task tracking
• Delayed approvals
• Inefficient use of resources

By implementing project standardization, organizations can enforce a repeatable, best-practice-driven approach that leads to higher project success rates and greater operational clarity.

BrightWork 365 in Project Standardization

BrightWork 365 helps organizations implement standard project processes and best practices through predefined templates and structured project management workflows. Whether you’re managing Agile sprints or traditional Waterfall projects, BrightWork 365 provides a consistent framework that aligns project teams with strategic goals.

• Built-in project templates aligned with PMO standards
• Governance controls that guide users through each project stage
• Centralized project registers to ensure accurate tracking

By making standardization easy to implement, BrightWork 365 removes the guesswork from project management.

Key Benefits of Workflow Standardization

When workflows are standardized, the entire project team benefits. BrightWork 365 enables:

• Improved project team collaboration with clearly defined roles and responsibilities
• Greater transparency across teams and stakeholders
• Simplified compliance and audit readiness through consistent reporting

These benefits translate into more predictable outcomes, faster project delivery, and better team morale.

How BrightWork 365 Enhances Workflow Efficiency

In addition to enforcing standard processes, BrightWork 365 is designed to enhance the efficiency of every project stage. By automating routine tasks and providing real-time visibility, the platform streamlines execution and boosts productivity.

Automating Repetitive Tasks

Manual processes are often time-consuming and prone to errors. BrightWork 365 uses Power Automate to trigger approval workflows, task reminders, and document routing. This project management automation eliminates bottlenecks and frees up time for high-value work.

Using Kanban Boards and Gantt Charts

Visual planning tools like Kanban Boards and Gantt Charts are built into BrightWork 365, helping teams stay aligned and on track. By supporting a kanban framework in agile, project managers can visualize progress, adjust timelines, and identify issues before they escalate.

Tracking Performance with Real-Time Dashboards

Real-time dashboards allow you to track KPIs and make informed decisions throughout the project lifecycle. With built-in reporting features, BrightWork 365 supports project portfolio management KPI tracking, helping organizations deliver consistent business value.

Seamless Integration with the Microsoft Ecosystem

BrightWork 365 is deeply integrated with Microsoft 365 tools, making it easy to adopt and use across departments. This includes integration with Microsoft Teams, Power BI, and SharePoint tools your team already relies on.

Enhancing Team Collaboration in Microsoft Teams

Project conversations, documents, and tasks are all accessible within Microsoft Teams. This reduces the impact of lack of communication in project management and ensures team members stay engaged and informed.

Using Power BI for Data-Driven Decision Making

Power BI integration enables rich, visual Power BI report creation for predictive analytics and performance tracking. Executives and PMOs can quickly assess project health and forecast future outcomes.

Customizable Templates for Different Project Needs

Every organization has unique project requirements. BrightWork 365 offers customizable templates that adapt to different industries and project types. Whether you’re in healthcare, education, or manufacturing, BrightWork 365’s flexible design supports your needs.

Agile Project Management Capabilities

BrightWork 365 fully supports agile system development, including sprints, standups, and user stories. Agile teams can use task boards, sprint planning views, and iterative cycles with ease.

Tracking Risks and Compliance Metrics in BrightWork 365

Managing risks is critical to project success. With SharePoint integration, BrightWork 365 enables advanced SharePoint risk assessment and compliance tracking, ensuring projects meet regulatory standards.

Optimizing Resource Allocation and Process Automation

BrightWork 365 goes beyond workflow management to help teams get the most from their resources. Built-in tools for resource allocation and optimization ensure workloads are balanced and capacity is well managed.

Simplifying Approval Workflows with Power Automate

Approvals are a common source of delay in project workflows. By using power automate workflow, BrightWork 365 automates routing, escalations, and notifications to accelerate project momentum.

Steps to Implement BrightWork 365 in Your Organization

Getting started with BrightWork 365 is straightforward and scalable. Here’s a high-level guide:

1. Define your project management goals and workflows
2. Choose the appropriate templates and governance controls
3. Train users and promote adoption via Microsoft Teams
4. Monitor usage with dashboards and adjust as needed
5. Follow a proven PPM implementation roadmap

The result? A standardized, efficient, and scalable project management environment.

Elevate Your Project Management with BrightWork 365

BrightWork 365 empowers organizations to standardize project workflows, improve collaboration, automate processes, and gain real-time visibility across projects—all within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

Whether you’re starting with a few projects or managing an enterprise-wide portfolio, BrightWork 365 scales to meet your needs.

Ready to take your project management to the next level? Request a demo today to see BrightWork 365 in action.

 

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Simplifying Project Management

Project management automation uses software to complete tasks with minimal human input and can transform project processes. Power Automate for project management is our top recommendation because it is built right into the Microsoft 365 platform.

Think about how much time you spend answering emails, finding information, and reminding your team about upcoming tasks! Now, imagine how your day would be if these tasks were running automatically in the background.

Sounds good? Keep reading to find out  how Microsoft Power Automate makes this possible for anyone.

What is Project Management Automation?

Project management automation refers to the use of software tools and technologies to streamline project management processes, reduce manual work, and improve overall efficiency.

This involves automating routine tasks such as scheduling, task assignment and notifications, resource allocation, and communication, among others.

Tools that Support Project Management Automation

Automated project management can be achieved using various software tools and platforms, including project planning, budgeting, task management, time tracking, reporting, and risk management.

These tools can help project managers manage projects more effectively, reduce the risk of errors and delays, and improve overall project outcomes.

Using a Project Management Software

Project management software provides a centralized place to manage all aspects of a project. It keeps information organized, accessible, and easy to update, making collaboration easier for everyone involved.

It also involves the use of other technologies such as workflow automation. It streamlines routine processes, such as approvals and notifications. This frees up more time for teams to focus on strategic work and project success.

Benefits of Using Project Management Automation

Automating project management tasks helps teams work faster, more accurately, and with less effort. Here are some key benefits to expect:

Improved Efficiency

Automating approvals, task reminders, deadlines, vacation requests, and purchase orders helps move projects faster. It frees up time for more strategic activities and reduces the need for constant manual follow-ups.

Increased Accuracy

Automation is suited to well-documented processes. This reduces errors and rework, improves data accuracy, and leads to better project outcomes.

Better Collaboration

Automation tools facilitate communication and collaboration among team members, stakeholders, and project sponsors.

As teams work remotely, automating project processes will help you to track work and improve communication without adding more administrative work.

Real-Time Tracking

Automation can enable real-time tracking of project progress, milestones, and potential risks, giving you clearer visibility without extra effort.

Cost Savings

Automation can reduce costs associated with manual labor, such as data entry and administrative tasks, improving project profitability.

Improved Quality

Automated workflows help enforce quality control standards, such as ensuring that all necessary reviews and approvals are obtained before moving forward with a project.

Scalability

Automation tools can help manage larger and more complex projects. It allows project managers to handle more tasks without adding extra burden.

Integration

Automation is also ideal for teams using multiple tools to manage their work. With the right processes, you can pull information from different sources to create a single source of truth.

This way, your team can use the tools they prefer while you maintain visibility and control over progress.

What is Microsoft Power Automate?

Microsoft Power Automate is a cloud-based service that enables users to create automated workflows between different applications and services. It enables users to connect a wide range of tools without having to use code.

Automating Workflows Across Multiple Tools

Power Automate integrates with over 400 different applications and services, including Microsoft Office 365, SharePoint, Dynamics 365, Salesforce, and many others.

This makes it easy to connect and automate processes that are commonly used in business workflows.

Common Uses for Power Automate

Using Power Automate, users can create workflows that automate tasks such as data collection and entry, approvals, email notifications, and data synchronization.

Workflows can be triggered by events, such as receiving an email or updating a record in a database. You can set different actions based on specific conditions.

Ready-to-Use Templates and Connectors

Power Automate has a simple, drag-and-drop interface to build workflows. It allows users to connect different applications and services easily.

The platform also provides templates and pre-built connectors for common tasks, making it easy to get started with automation.

Microsoft Power Automate Project Management Automation Examples

There are many ways to use Microsoft Power Automate for project management. Here are a few examples:

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Approval Workflows

Use Power Automate to manage approvals for documents, forms, travel, vacation requests, and more. Projects often require approvals from stakeholders or other departments, such as finance, to keep work moving.

A manual approach is slow and inefficient. Automation combines human input with background workflows to speed up approvals and reduce delays.

Types of Approval Flows Available

Power Automate supports five types of approvals and custom approvals:

• Single – The approver can respond via email, Power Automate, or the mobile app.
• Sequential – A pre-approval is required before the final approver can agree. For instance, a finance team may need to pre-approve a high-value purchase order.
• Parallel – Multiple people must approve independently.
• Everyone – All assigned approvers have to agree, but any approver can reject the request.
• Add attachments to approval requests.

 

To deploy an approval flow, simply search for an approval template or create a custom flow.

Track everything through the ‘Action Items’ area, where you can view approvals you created or received, and the history of your approval flows.

Document Management

Power Automate helps you centralize project documentation and track the creation of new documents. A single location for files is essential for team collaboration, especially for remote teams. However, it’s easy for people to forget to use the document library!

Automate File Storage and Updates

Using Power Automate templates, you can easily:

• Move files shared via email attachment to OneDrive or SharePoint.
• Move files between SharePoint libraries or OneDrive folders.
• Copy new files from your computer to SharePoint.
• Sync files from Google Drive or Dropbox.

This way, you’ll always know where to find the files. On large projects, it’s easy to lose track of new files or changes to existing files. Use templates to track the creation of new files automatically or to trigger an approval workflow for new items.

Power BI

Power BI and Power Automate are part of the Microsoft Power Platform. Power BI is a business intelligence tool used to transform data from various sources into interactive reports and dashboards.

As covered previously, project managers can use Power BI to report on the timeline, ongoing tasks, project milestones, and late items.

It also generates powerful portfolio reports, giving senior executives real-time visibility into risks, resources, and timelines.

Automate Reporting Processes

Power Automate is often used to refresh the datasets behind Power BI reports and to send alerts if a data threshold is exceeded.

In terms of projects, you can combine Power Automate and Power BI to:

• Update reports if a SharePoint file is updated.
• Create and share reports via OneDrive or email.
• Create a task from a Power BI report.

 

For more ideas and uses, see the Microsoft Power BI Community.

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Power Automate is available directly within Microsoft Teams. From here, you can create and manage your flows without needing to switch between multiple apps.

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Microsoft Power Automate also includes templates for Microsoft Teams, including:

• Post a welcome message when a new team member joins the Team.
• Schedule a meeting with a message sender.
• Send a meeting reminder to Microsoft Teams during weekdays.

 

 

Notifications

Power Automate helps you manage project notifications, such as email reminders for upcoming deadlines or alerts when a new project is created.

For example, you could create a workflow that automatically:

• Sends an email to team members when a task is overdue.
• Assigns and alerts team members when they are added to a project plan.
• Alerts the appropriate team member that a document is awaiting approval or has been approved.
• Send a new project request for review and approval.

 

Productivity

There are numerous ways to use Power Automate to reduce your daily ‘busywork’ and create more time to spend with your team.

You’ll find templates under ‘Productivity’, ‘Notifications’, and ‘Events and Calendar’, including options to:

• Keep track of project tasks in Microsoft Planner with daily emails and notifications.
• Get a daily email of upcoming meetings.
• Manage your calendar with automated time-blocking.
• Create a OneNote page for the meeting to record notes and minutes.
• Get a push notification when you receive an email from a manager.
• Copy important emails to OneNote.

 

BrightWork 365 with Power Automate

Automating repetitive project tasks with BrightWork 365 and Microsoft Power Automate saves time, boosts productivity, and improves project outcomes.

BrightWork 365 integrates directly with Power Automate, letting you automate workflows with little to no coding. You can quickly set up, customize, or build workflows to stay on top of your needs.

You can also set up automated dashboards that give you immediate visibility across your projects, helping you make faster, better decisions.

With BrightWork 365 Power Automate, you can bid goodbye to manual filing, reporting, and other repetitive processes. It will enable your team to spend less time on admin work and more time delivering results.

The healthcare sector is one of the biggest industries in the world. In the United States, national health care spending grew 5.8 percent in 2015 to $3.2 trillion and is expected to grow 5.6 percent annually through 2025.

Healthcare projects are increasingly focused on leveraging new technology to improve patient care in a cost-effective way.

 

Get Free Template for SharePoint to plan, manage, and track your projects

 

In this article, we’ll cover one aspect of digital health – managing project documents with workflows – with a focus on SharePoint.*

Project Management in Healthcare Organizations

Managing a healthcare organization as it existed a few years ago is no longer an option, and at times, it is overwhelming. (Source)

 

Healthcare projects are delivered in complex, highly-regulated environments with multiple stakeholders and limited resources.

The healthcare industry is facing numerous challenges, with consequences for project teams and patients alike.

These challenges include:

• A constant cycle of new patients.
• Staff shortages.
• Paper-based processes.
• Operational inefficiencies due to legacy IT systems.
• Limited access to medical records within and between organizations.
• Internal communication issues.
• Poor collaboration with external partners, caregivers, and payers.

 

At the same time, healthcare is experiencing significant investment in digital health projects.  Projects including going paperless with electronic healthcare records, cloud computing, AI, and big data.

The Triple Aim – improving patient care, reducing costs, and improving the health of populations overall – is the driving force behind many healthcare projects.

Healthcare organizations are becoming more customer-focused, with projects increasingly measured by patient satisfaction.  As patients become more accustomed to using digital services on a daily basis, they expect the same experiences from healthcare providers.

Healthcare project teams also operate within strict data and security protocols, requiring a proactive approach to risk management.

Standardizing project management processes with templates and workflows is an essential step towards staying ahead of risks and litigation.

Digitizing paper-based processes, combined with automation, helps project teams to easily collaborate and deliver better results for patients.

For the remainder of this article, we’ll review SharePoint document management and workflows for projects.

SharePoint and Secure Document Management

Search, permissions, version control, templates. These are just some reasons why healthcare organizations use SharePoint for document and project management.

Using SharePoint, healthcare teams can manage sensitive paperwork such as admission forms and electronic medical records in one central location.

To ensure compliance with various regulations, it’s easy to pre-populate your document library with templates, for example, procurement and onboarding processes.

Storing documents in a SharePoint library offers additional security benefits such as:

• Varying levels of permissions to control, track, and revoke access to documents.
• Using alerts to track unauthorized modifications to sensitive data.
• Reverting to previous versions of a file with version control.
• Adding retention policies to automatically delete patient data after 6 years as required by HIPAA.

 

 

By combining a document library with the out-of-the-box workflows discussed below, your project teams can work faster and collaborate safely.

SharePoint Workflows: Approval, Feedback, and Signatures

SharePoint workflows run on lists and libraries. There are three types of SharePoint workflows:

• A list workflow is used on a list or library. This type of workflow cannot be copied to another list. These workflows are often triggered by an event, for example, the creation of a new list item.
• A reusable workflow is created at site level and is available in other sites.
• A site workflow is not connected to a list or content type, and can be used anywhere in a site. Examples include archiving completed tasks in a project site at the end of each day. This workflow must be triggered manually.

 

SharePoint ships with five types of workflows, available with every version of SharePoint.

1. Approval, used for gathering approval on a document.
2. Collect Feedback, used to collect feedback on a document.
3. Collect Signatures, used with Word documents, Excel workbooks, and InfoPath forms.
4. The Three-state Workflow tracks the status of a list item, like a task, through three states or phases.
5. Approval, used when publishing new SharePoint sites.

 

If you are using SharePoint 2010, you will build workflows on the SharePoint 2010 workflow engine only. SharePoint 2019/2016/2013/Online can use the SharePoint 2010 or 2013 workflow engine.

Before we dive into three key SharePoint workflows, let’s review two key security capabilities.

Firstly,  access to workflows depends on SharePoint permissions.

• To add a workflow, you will need the Manage Lists permission. This is added by default to the Owners group (full site control).
• To start a workflow, you will need the Edit Lists permission, available to the Members and Owners group.

 

The three workflows outlined below must be added to a site collection by a site administrator, offering an additional level of control.

Secondly, the Workflow Status page is a useful way to record the history of a workflow for auditing purposes.

The history of a workflow is retained for 60 days after the job is complete. Use this page to view key information such as:

• Name of the person who started with workflow.
• Start date and time.
• Date and time of the last run.
• Name and link to the document or item used in the workflow.
• Current status.
• List of tasks assigned to the workflow participants.
• List of all events in the history of the workflow, for example, task creation.

 

Next up – SharePoint workflows for Approval, Feedback, and Signatures.

 

1. SharePoint ‘Approval’ Workflow

Project teams who are still chasing approvals using email and phone-calls are spending too much time on administration instead of the project itself.

The SharePoint Approval workflow for documents automates this process from start to finish, including reminders for overdue responses.

When adding the workflow to your site, you can:

• Specify how many people to include.
• Decide if the tasks will run one after another (serial) or all at once (parallel).
• Set a due date.

 

Once triggered, the approval workflow assigns a task to each specified individual. They can approve or reject the item, request a change, or cancel the task.

 

2. SharePoint ‘Collect Feedback’ Workflow

The Collect Feedback Workflow is used to collect feedback on a document from one or more individuals.

Uses include getting feedback on the project plan or changes to contracts.

Feedback is gathered in:

• Single or multiple stages.
• Parallel (at the same time) or serially (in order, one at a time). With this option, you can end the workflow after the first rejection.

 

There are two options for feedback collection:

• Leave comments on the task form only.
• Insert track changes and add comments to the item itself.

 

If individuals can edit the document directly, you will need to set how this process will work. There are two options:

• Collaborative environment, allowing multiple individuals to work on the document at the same time.
• Sole-access environment, requiring each individual to check out the document for review.

 

See this workflow in action in our short training video:

 

3. SharePoint ‘Collect Signatures’ Workflow

The Collect Signatures Workflow is used with Word documents, Excel workbooks, and InfoPath forms.

A digital certificate is required to verify the identity of the recipient before a signature is inserted into the document.

When using this workflow, you’ll need to add signature lines for each required individual before starting the workflow.

Once a signature is added to the signature line, the document is locked from all changes aside from adding more signatures.

Inserting or deleting a signature line after the first signature is added counts as a change. If a line is inserted or removed, previously added signatures are removed from the document.

BrightWork, HIPAA, and HITRUST

US-based healthcare providers are required to meet HIPAA and HITRUST standards.

HIPAA is a self-certification standard for healthcare organizations. HIPAA certification requires an ISO 27001 or FedRAMP audit of your policies and procedures.

Founded in 2007, HITRUST is an emerging standard for healthcare organizations. It has an official certification, awarded by certified HITRUST auditors. It is continually updated and has a very prescriptive standard.

It’s possible for organizations to achieve and maintain HIPAA/HITRUST compliance without external help. However, this requires significant resources and constant vigilance.

It’s best to deploy HIPAA/HITRUST compliant software and focus your energies on ensuring your teams are using the right processes.

Together with Project Hosts, BrightWork offers a cloud-based project portfolio management solution on SharePoint within Project Hosts’ HIPAA/HITRUST Security Envelope on Microsoft Azure.

By working with BrightWork Online, healthcare projects are covered by the necessary compliance standards for Protected Health Information (PHI).

You can learn more about project management in a HIPAA/HITRUST cloud in our free, on-demand recording.

 

*This article is a high-level review of SharePoint workflows. The details may or may not apply to your local SharePoint and governance strategy.

If you have any questions about your SharePoint project site or workflows, please consult your SharePoint administrator.

 

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What you will learn: Learn how embracing a methodical template-driven approach to project management with the Microsoft 365 platform can deliver continuous, repeatable success.

Watch a Demo of BrightWork 365

 

Advanced project management software, apps, and templates are the best friends of any business leader or PMO juggling between managing remote teams and achieving crucial project milestones.  

The Project Management Institute defines project management as – the use of specific knowledge, tools and techniques to deliver something of value to people. While the right knowledge helps project managers define the vision for their projects, the right tools help them achieve it.  

What are project management templates?  

It is difficult to align teams on a unified vision if the project workflow is not pre-determined. Ace PMOs and team leaders translate their vision into practical goals and define a process to achieve them. A project manager’s job often entails streamlining those processes for all the resources on board for a project.  

Project and portfolio management templates are the online systems where processes and their information exist and play out. A well-designed PPM template can help PMOs accomplish the following: 

• Visualize and create a PPM process 
• Organize and manage the project workflow
• Give access of the workflow to project teams
• Record and track all the project information in one place
• Evolve the PPM process 

 

 

 

​Here are 5 ways you can use project management templates to avoid risks and achieve project success.

To streamline your workflow

Giving structure to your project workflow is one of the most crucial tasks as a project manager. A project contains several aspects from tasks, to timelines, to resources, to dependencies, to costs, and more. Without a clear structure, these different aspects tend to move in silos, creating disalignment between the different departments working on the project. Project templates are the tool that give a visible structure to your projects. They help streamline several processes and align all the aspects of your projects across portfolios.

To standardize processes

Why waste time in creating a new framework each time you begin a project? Several resources are used in defining project workflows. This great deal of time and effort can be saved if there is a standard workflow in place for your project teams to follow. Project management templates allow business leaders to standardize processes and workflows that can be followed for most projects. If a project needs an additional process, you only make small tweaks to the existing templates rather than starting to define the project flow from scratch. Having a standard process will also enforce its practice in your project teams. In addition, adoption of a project management tool gets easier if your teams have a structure to follow.

To stay on track

Without a clearly defined path, micro level tasks can sometimes fog the macro vision of your projects. It is easy for project managers to lose sight of the strategic goals when managing the smaller project tasks. Change in project objectives (37%) is one of the topmost reasons of cited for project failures. This happens when project risks and issues are not addressed in time and resources are wasted until it’s too late. Identifying risks and allocating the right resources in the right places keep projects on track without having to change priorities midway. Implementing advanced template designs to project workflows help senior executives to keep track of the health of projects across portfolios. They can easily see the project flow, its requirements, and its performance in a single glance.

To improve communication

Every project manager knows that team collaboration is critical to project success. Without clear communication among your team members, there is a high risk that tasks will be misunderstood and not carried out in the most efficient manner. This challenge grows manifold when teams work in hybrid or remote forms. Keeping the entire team in loop of the progress of each project while also defining tasks and dependencies in a clear manner is of utmost important, and project templates help achieve that. With well-designed PPM templates, from project sponsors to managers, everyone can see how the project is performing and where their tasks come in.

To centralize project information

Collecting all information and document on a project is something all project managers are thankful for. There is constant churning of new data, exchange of documents, and updates on a project. With several projects going on at the same time, it can become extremely challenging to track and recover information when needed. Project templates give you centralized place where you can store all your project information and documents. Building these templates in a secure cloud environment ensures that you make information accessible in a safe way.

 

Here’s the anatomy of a project using BrightWork 365 project management templates. 

 

Advanced PPM solutions, such as BrightWork 365 offer you a whole range of project templates to choose from. If you are managing projects in a Microsoft 365 environment, then BrightWork 365 can help you leverage the different parts of the Microsoft Power Platform to the fullest. Here’s how:

 

Project Management Templates using Power Apps 

In a pre-built project standard template, you can see the business process flow. This flow divides a project into four different stages.   

• Initiate  
• Plan
• Execute
• Close out  

 

This business process flow further breaks down into elements that help you move along your project with all information and tasks in one place. These elements are: 

Charter  

A project charter consists of all the high-level fields of information on a project. You can view information like the program and portfolio details, the project manager, the date of creation, etc. here. If the project was created through the ‘Request’ tab, then you can also bring in any information from that tab to the charter. You can also customize this segment and add or hide some fields if you like.  

Team  

The team tab will automatically pick information such as the name of the project manager and the project sponsor that was filled at the time of creating the new project. You can of course change the information any time you like. It gives an overview of all the team members that are on a project. It also shows the start and finish date assigned to it. This tab will also pick details of the team members who are assigned actions at any stage of the project.  

The team members’ names will appear as a link and anyone on the project team can click on it to see the action items they are responsible for in the order of earliest to latest start dates. 

Stages 

This tab is the overview of the four stages – Initiate, Plan, Execute, and Close Out mentioned in the business process flow. If you wanted to take a closer look at where your project stands in terms of these stages, you can go straight to this tab. You can also update the stages to keep your team informed about the progress of your project.  

Gantt  

Gantt is integrated with the ‘Stages’ tab mentioned above. It shows the summary of tasks assigned at each stage of the business process flow. Any task assigned in this tab would be automatically updated in stages as well. You can easily view tasks here through a chart presenting details such as the task owner and the percentage of completion of the task. 

My Work 

Every project has its own My Work tab and it helps you keep a track of all the work you are assigned to for that project. This tab shows all the action items you are responsible for in a project and presents a trackable report of your work. You can view the work assignment by name, type, and, assigned date here. You can also check if the assignment is not started or is already in progress. 

Status 

This page gives you a projection of the success of your project completion. By looking at this, you can answer what percentage of the project is completed and how long you have before you can complete it. It shows the current start and finish date for the project along with the target start and finish date so you can draw a comparison and make changes where necessary. It displays Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as health, cost, time, and scope to determine the status of your project. You can also generate project status reports in real-time for records. There is an option to email these reports with your project sponsors.  

Documents 

All the status reports created at different stages of the project get saved in this tab. Anyone added in this project team can go here and refer to both old and current reports to see where your project stands. These reports can be downloaded and shared in MS Word format.  

Actions 

This tab gives you an option to save and assign action items. These actions can be segregated based on types selected from a drop down that include these options: Action, Assumption, Decision, Dependency, Change, and Other. You can choose an action from these and assign them to yourself or a project team member. You can also add a date and priority status to each action created. It also gives you an option to attach related documents and view an audit history through sub tabs.  

Issues 

You can document any issues related to the project with the help of a form in this section. You can categorize the issue as a particular type, assign it to a project team member, and request some specific actions. Once the issue is created, you can go back in and add even more information to it. You can also generate a report on the issues created. If an issue is assigned to any team member here, it will also appear in their ‘My Work’ tab. 

Risks 

Similar to ‘Issues’, the ‘Risks’ tab comes with a form. You can alert your team by creating a new risk in this section and assign related actions. If you wish to go back in and make changes to the Risk Status or Escalation of any risk created earlier, you easily can. 

Costs  

This section gives you a quick glance on information such as the budget assigned to the project, budget approved, budget remaining (in real-time), and other expense-related items. You can check the current forecast based on the remaining budget and the variance. You can also characterize cost items and create a single page for each of them to check information like who was it assigned to and who was the associated vendor. There is an option to relate it to a task in the Gantt section of the same project.  

Communications  

This section gives you an option to easily collaborate with your team on a specific project. Let’s say you wanted to have a discussion related to any of the aspects of a project and to see your emails in one place, then you can choose to communicate through this tab of your project template. You can also create an appointment for a meeting which will be integrated with your calendar. There will be a reminder sent to the person added to the appointment invite. You have a note sub tab to add any notes you wish to add regarding any project related communication. The other way to collaborate with your team on a specific project in once place is to leverage Microsoft Teams integrated with the PPM tool these templates are built on. You can choose to create a project team channel with a few clicks in your project settings which is our next tab.  

Project Settings  

The settings give you an idea about the backend details of a project. You can check what type of template was used to create this project, and was it created directly or was it created via a request approval. To collaborate better with your remote and hybrid teams, the settings allow you to create a team channel on Microsoft Teams. There is also an interesting option to ‘Copy to New Content Template’, which gives you a chance to duplicate this template for another project. You can save a great amount of time and effort on creating a new project template from scratch. You will of course have the option to edit information filled in different sections of the template.  

This project standard template layout described above shows you the insides of a project workflow. It depicts how you can create one to manage and control your projects. With BrightWork 365 PPM solution for the Microsoft 365 platform, you can either choose from the pre-built best practice project management templates or ask for a customized solution for your organization. Choose the right templates to design project management success inside out.  

 

Project Request Management Templates using Power Automate 

Automation is one of the key pillars of agile work. It reduces the time and effort in doing tasks that come up during a project flow time and again. Microsoft Power Automate can help reduce these efforts and increase productivity by creating easy workflow templates for any project. Microsoft describes Power Automate as a low code/no code drag and drop solution that enables users to automate repetitive tasks and processes.

BrightWork 365 with Power Automate can help you create templates for tedious processes such as project request management. The ‘Request’ dashboard gives ample visibility and a unique control for managing new project requests with a simple 4-stage process – Draft, Accept, Approve, and Create Project.

 

 

Program and Portfolio Reporting Templates using Power BI  

Business Intelligence is another pillar on which agile methods of working stand on. If you’re not collecting relevant data, processing it, and using it to make your business decisions, then you’re not using today’s technology to your advantage.

BrightWork 365 PPM tool leverages Power BI to process high-level data and present it visually through interactive reports. Managers can easily create and share these reports with the stakeholders who can further review, update, or customizable them.

 

In their 2020 Manufacturing Outlook Report, Deloitte notes manufacturers are streamlining operations, strengthening their core capabilities, and become increasingly focused on key markets to stay competitive.

 

Get projects under control with your free SharePoint Project Management Template

 

Manufacturing organizations can use automation to work at the speed, scale, and convenience required to deliver these objectives in a lean way.

Keep reading to learn more about using no-code SharePoint workflows to improve manufacturing projects with automated feedback collection, project status reporting, and exception reporting.*

5 Principles of Lean Manufacturing

Responding to customer expectations and competitors while reducing costs requires manufacturers to improve operational efficiencies with the right processes and tools.

Lean manufacturing focuses on removing waste from a product or service. Waste refers to any activity or resource that does not create value for the customer, for example, using too much material during production.

Typically, lean manufacturing is characterized by five principles.

 

1. Continuous Improvement

Continuous improvement, also known as ‘Kaizen’ focuses on constant, necessary change to reach the desired end-state.

Removing bottlenecks is key to continuous improvement and effective automation. Bottlenecks occur when demand exceeds production capacity.

People and systems contribute to bottlenecks, which are typically either short-term or long-term.

The underlying cause of a bottleneck must be identified and resolved before introducing automated workflows. Otherwise, you’ll just replicate the problem!

Continuous improvement should be part of your organizational culture.

 

2. Respect for People

Continuing from the above point, people are essential to lean manufacturing. Individuals need to feel engaged in their work and comfortable when sharing ideas for improvements.

 

3. Levelized Production

Also known as ‘Heijunka’, levelized production aims to keep workloads the same every day.

Manufacturers need to strike a balance between having enough inventory to fulfill customer demands without producing excess product.

Using data to understand historical patterns and forecast future demand is key.

 

 

4.   Just In Time Production (JIT)

Inventory is a major source of potential waste in lean manufacturing.

Just In Time Production (JIT) looks to build what is needed, when it is needed, and in the required quantity.

This principle is associated with Kanbans, a pull system, which is concerned with the production of parts only as needed.

Organizations are increasingly leveraging technology such as AI and 3D printing to reduce the time from product creation to shipping.

 

 

5.  Quality Built-In

Connected to JIT production is the concept of Quality Built-In, or Jidoka. The goal is to complete work right the first time by focusing on quality in every step of production.

 

The five principles of lean manufacturing apply to every part of an organization, from back-office processes to the production line and your supply chain.

Lean requires a cultural change, supported by the right digital toolbox and skillset.

However, outdated IT systems, over-reliance on spreadsheets to manage projects, and poor visibility hamper efforts to implement lean.

Implementing automated workflows is a quick way to save time, reduce errors, and ensure consistency in every process.

In the next sections, we’ll take a look at common manufacturing workflows and how to get started with SharePoint workflows.

Manufacturing Workflow Examples

A workflow refers to step-by-step instructions for completing a process, for example, submitting a vacation request using an internal portal.

Workflows are based on tasks, which can be automated using software.

Common examples of manufacturing workflows include:

• Gathering approvals for a new product.
• Inventory management.
• Project task management.
• Standardizing product quality control and governance.
• New vendor selection.
• Improving safety reporting.

 

 

If your teams spend too much time manually collecting approvals, tracking costs, and managing documents, automation will create more time to work on high-value tasks.

Using SharePoint for project management and workflow automation can reduce the barriers to lean manufacturing even further.

With SharePoint, you can:

• Standardize processes with templates and project sites.
• Use one location to store documents, tasks, and other project information.
• Create a collaborative workspace, accessible in real-time from any location or time zone.
• Co-edit documents in real-time.
• Collect data for continuous improvement.
• Leverage permissions and version control to maintain the integrity of data.
• Increase visibility into every stage of a project.

 

It’s worth noting that SharePoint can be used as a quality management system for ISO 9001:2015 accreditation.

Below, we’ll take a look at three types of SharePoint workflows for manufacturing projects.

Based on the principle of continuous improvement, we’ll start with an out-of-the-box workflow for collecting feedback. We’ll move onto more complex, custom workflows for reporting with SharePoint Designer and Nintex.

These workflows are no-code solutions, easily deployed across numerous SharePoint project sites.

3 Ways to Use SharePoint Workflows

1. Collect Feedback for Reducing Waste

As mentioned above, continuous improvement is a key principle of lean manufacturing. If you are planning a quality improvement project, you’ll need to get ideas from various teams.

The out-of-the-box workflow, Collect Feedback, is a useful way to gather input without too much admin work.

 

 

Feedback can be gathered in:

• Single or multiple stages.
• Parallel (at the same time) or serially (in order, one at a time). With this option, you can end the workflow after the first rejection.

 

When using this workflow, you’ll need to decide how the feedback is collected:

• Leave comments on the task form only.
• Insert track changes and add comments to the item itself.

 

If individuals can edit the document directly, you will need to set how this process will work. There are two options:

• Collaborative environment, allowing multiple individuals to work on the document at the same time.
• Sole-access environment, requiring each individual to check out the document for review.

 

You can add multiple instances of the workflow to a site.

By default, this workflow must be activated by the site administrator at the site collection level.

SharePoint also ships with pre-built workflows for collecting approvals and signatures on documents and task management.

 

 

2. Create a Custom Report with SharePoint Designer

SharePoint Designer is a free, no-code program used to build and customize SharePoint sites and applications, including workflows.

You can download SharePoint Designer 2010 and SharePoint Designer 2013 for free from Microsoft.

Once installed, connect SharePoint Designer with a site in your SharePoint environment.

Microsoft is no longer making this application, with support for SharePoint Designer ending in 2026. However, you can continue to use the 2010 version with SharePoint 2010, and the 2013 version with SharePoint 2019/2016/2013/2010/Online.

In this short video, you’ll learn how to use SharePoint Designer 2010 to build a custom workflow to:

• Email relevant individuals when a new project status report is posted in a project site.
• Update the project statement with comments from the project status report.

 

 

 

3. Automate Exception Reporting with Nintex

Nintex is a no-code business process automation platform.

Nintex integrates with BrightWork, a project and portfolio management solution for SharePoint.

Nintex workflows can be added to BrightWork project site templates, helping to improve project standards throughout your organization.

Nintex workflows can be used for automated status reporting, automated exception reporting, and project request management.

In the below video, you’ll see how to use Nintex for automated exception reporting. This is a useful way to track schedule slippage and let stakeholders know there is a problem with the project.

 

 

Next Steps

At BrightWork, we use the principle of ‘Start-Evolve’ on our projects and with customers. The same approach will help you to get up and running quickly with workflows.

 

Start by focusing on your immediate needs

Pick a  task or document that is critical to your team but is time-consuming to manage.

Map the current process with end-users, including outputs, key activities, and task owners.

Once the process is documented, create a flow-chart or visual diagram. This is your workflow.

Use this information to identify improvements such as:

• Automating tasks using software.
• Removing unnecessary steps.
• Tasks that can be completed simultaneously.
• Potential bottlenecks.

 

When you’re ready to start building workflow with SharePoint, try our on-demand webinar, Using SharePoint Workflows for Project Team Collaboration.

 

Evolve with lessons learned and data

As workflows become more embedded into your projects and process, optimize existing workflows with feedback from end-users and performance history.

At any point, you can review the history and performance of the workflow using the Workflow Status Page. Check key information such as:

• Name of the person who started with workflow.
• Start date and time.
• Date and time of the last run.
• Name and link to the document or item used in the workflow.
• Current status.
• List of tasks assigned to the workflow participants.
• List of all events in the history of the workflow, for example, task creation.

 

The history of a workflow is maintained for 60 days after the workflow is complete.

 

*This article is a high-level review of SharePoint workflows. The details may or may not apply to your local SharePoint and governance strategy.

If you have any questions about your SharePoint project site or workflows, please consult your SharePoint administrator.

 

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Government agencies are tasked with delivering a wide range of services to citizens as efficiently and securely as possible.

It’s no easy feat, especially with limited resources, legacy processes, and strict security requirements.

 

Start managing projects on SharePoint with a free template

 

A move towards digital government – using technology to provide services – is putting pressure on agencies to modernize their ways of working.

Introducing workflows to automate day-to-day work and project tasks is a practical starting point, especially for organizations using SharePoint.

Keep reading to learn more about the benefits of automation for government agencies and how to get started with SharePoint workflows.*

Digital Government

Digital government refers to “service delivery within government — as well as between government and the public — using information and communication technologies.”

The overarching aims of digital government are to:

• Deliver efficient services by taking a ‘citizen-centric’ approach.
• Increase public engagement with government.
• Transform policies and procedures with modern technology and management practices.
• Streamline cross-agency and department cooperation.
• Reduce operating costs.
• Implement feedback quickly.
• Drive innovation with an increased focus on strategic work.

 

The benefits of digital government can be considered from two vantage points – citizens and employees.

 

Citizens

Instead of filling out multiple forms with different departments, citizens expect a streamlined experience, accessible at any time.

Examples include:

• Booking healthcare appointments online.
• Using an online portal for various applications, such as permits and tax submissions.
• Providing feedback on key decisions and policies on social media. 

 

This requires agencies to map, understand, and improve the end-to-end experience of public services.

Agencies can leverage software to personalize and scale services, increasing engagement and building trust with the public.

 

Employees

Traditionally, many public services are delivered in-person, within certain working hours, and with a heavy reliance on paper forms.

In fact, research has found 58% of public-facing processes and 46% of back-office processes rely on paper.

As a result, government workers are often buried under mountains of paperwork with little time for deep-focus, valuable work.

In a survey of 300 local government officials by the Governing Exchange, 53% of respondents reported they were unable to complete their work within the 40-hour workweek.

Meetings, paperwork, email, and data collection were identified as the primary obstacles to productivity.

Without the right technology, employees have to deal with:

• Repetitive, error-prone tasks.
• Outdated, siloed legacy systems.
• Poor collaboration with other agencies and departments.
• Overly complex workflows.
• Security risks.
• Manual data collection and analysis.

 

Financial resources also cause problems. In 2018, IDC reported that 79% of annual civilian agency spending was allocated to maintaining legacy IT systems with just 21% devoted to new systems.

Agencies have to do more with less and find ways to deliver new, innovative systems.

They also need a viable route to digital transformation or risk another failed project.

The trick is to start small and deliver real benefits for citizens and employees alike. When ready, implement the change on a larger scale.

Using workflows to automate repetitive tasks and document management is a simple yet effective starting point.

 

Government Workflow Examples

A workflow is a set of steps for completing a task efficiently and repeatedly with the same results. Where possible, workflows are automated for increased efficiency with fewer errors.

Automating document management and project tasks offer significant benefits to government agencies. A survey conducted by Smartsheet found that:

• 59% of respondents reported they could save six or more hours a week if repetitive tasks were automated.
• 69% indicated they could eliminate human error with automation.
• 72% noted that the time saved through automation would allow them to perform higher-value work.

 

Automation paves the way towards digital government, creating time for citizen-centric and mission-critical services.

Let’s take a closer look at document and task management workflows for government agencies. We’ll also cover how to improve the security of workflows. Later, you’ll learn how to get started with SharePoint workflows.

 

Document Management

As mentioned above, government processes are paper-based, a cause of frustration for the public and employees alike!

Using workflows, government employees can:

• Digitize paper-based information at the source.
• Accept and use information in any format, for example, photos and speech-to-text files.
• Route the file(s) to the relevant person.
• Prompt the recipient to take action with reminders.
• Build compliance into each step of the process for increased accountability.
• Standardize files across teams and departments.
• Quickly collect feedback and electronic signatures on key documents.
• Accelerate Freedom of Information requests.

 

Less reliance on paper-trails with increased security and transparency? It’s a win-win.

 

Task Management

With automated reminders, easy handover to colleagues, and an audit trail, workflows simplify task management.

Below is an example of an automated workflow for a late project task. The task owner receives an email:

• When the task is assigned.
• 24 hours before the task is due.
• A reminder if the task is late.

 

The project manager also receives an email notification if the task is late. The workflow increases visibility without any additional administration work.

 

Workflow Security

Security and data protection is a key concern for the public and government officials alike. Automating document and task management allows government agencies to build robust security elements into every step of the process.

These precautions include:

• Creating a run-history of workflows for auditing purposes.
• Using routing rules and authentication to ensure only authorized individuals are assigned tasks or can access documents.
• Adding password protection to sensitive files.
• Scheduling regular backups of important files.
• Using alerts if the file is changed, or printed.
• Building compliance into the workflow, preventing users from finishing a task until a certain action is complete.

 

Let’s recap what we’ve covered so far.

1. Digital government is a move towards using technology to provide public services, improve efficiencies, and reduce costs.
2. Government agencies often struggle with digital transformation projects for several reasons, including funding, resourcing, and legacy processes.
3. Security and data management is a key concern for agencies and citizens.
4. Automating document and task management is an effective step towards digital government, offering several benefits to citizens and employees.

 

So far, so good!

If you’re ready to introduce workflows for documents and tasks, you’ll need to think about software.

The tool should create a digital workspace for your team with document libraries, project management, workflows, and task and work management.

The aim is to create a single source of information, communication, and accountability.

As a collaborative and configurable platform, SharePoint fits the bill!

In addition, the software should be FedRAMP approved. BrightWork, a project and portfolio management solution for SharePoint, can be deployed in a secure on-premise or FedRAMP- SaaS compliant cloud environment.

Keep reading for more details on SharePoint workflows. We’ll take a look at five out-of-the-box workflows, SharePoint Designer, and Nintex workflows.

SharePoint Workflows for Project Management

SharePoint workflows are “pre-programmed mini-applications that streamline and automate a wide variety of business processes.”

SharePoint workflows run on lists and libraries. There are three types of SharePoint workflows:

1. A list workflow is used on a list or library. These workflows are often triggered by an event, for example, the creation of a new list item.
2. A reusable workflow is created at site level and is available in other sites.
3. A site workflow is not connected to a list or content type, and can be used anywhere in a site. Examples include archiving completed tasks in a project site at the end of each day. This workflow must be triggered manually.

 

SharePoint ships with five types of workflows, ready to use out-of-the-box.

1. Approval, used for gathering approval on a document.
2. Collect Feedback, used to collect feedback on a document.
3. Collect Signatures, used with Word documents, Excel workbooks, and InfoPath forms.
4. The Three-state Workflow tracks the status of a list item, like a task, through three states or phases.
5. Approval, used when publishing new SharePoint sites.

 

 

 

 

These workflows are available with every version of SharePoint. If you are using SharePoint 2010, you will build workflows on the SharePoint 2010 workflow engine only. SharePoint 2019/2016/2013/Online can use the SharePoint 2010 or 2013 workflow engine.

Monitoring SharePoint workflows is quite straightforward.

Firstly, the workflows for Approval, Feedback, and Collect Signatures must be added to the site by the site administrator.

Secondly, SharePoint workflows are connected to permissions.

• To add a workflow, you will need the Manage Lists permission. This is added by default to the Owners group (full site control).
• To start a workflow, you will need the Edit Lists permission, available to the Members and Owners group.

 

Finally, the Workflow Status Page creates a useful audit of the workflow, including:

• Name of the person who started with workflow.
• Start date and time.
• Date and time of the last run.
• Name and link to the document or item used in the workflow.
• Current status.
• List of tasks assigned to the workflow participants.
• List of all events in the history of the workflow, for example, task creation.

 

The history of a workflow is maintained for 60 days after the workflow is complete.

In the below video, BrightWork Customer Success Architect, Scott Footlik, explains how to use the Collect Feedback Workflow on a project.

 

These five out-of-the-box SharePoint workflows will help you to quickly implement workflows for daily and project tasks.

Once your team experiences the benefits of workflows, you’ll likely want to create custom or complex workflows. In the next section, we’ll review two tools for this purpose – SharePoint Designer and Nintex.

Using SharePoint Designer and Nintex for Workflows

SharePoint Designer

SharePoint Designer is a no-code tool used to build and customize SharePoint sites and applications, including workflows.

SharePoint Designer 2010 and SharePoint Designer 2013 are available for free from Microsoft.

Once installed, connect SharePoint Designer with a site in your SharePoint environment and get started!

It’s worth noting that Microsoft is no longer making this application, with support for SharePoint Designer ending in 2026.

However, you can continue to use the 2010 version with SharePoint 2010, and the 2013 version with SharePoint 2019/2016/2013/2010/Online.

For BrightWork customers, your Customer Success Architect can create custom workflows using SharePoint Designer as part of your deployment.

BrightWork also includes Workflow Sync, which allows users to apply updates to multiple SharePoint 2010 and Nintex List workflows in a single interface.

In this training video, you’ll learn how to use SharePoint Designer 2010 to build a custom workflow to:

• Email relevant individuals when a new project status report is posted in a project site.
• Update the project statement with comments from the project status report.

 

 

 

Nintex

Nintex is a no-code, point-and-click solution used to automate project management processes such as status reporting and risk management.

Nintex integrates with BrightWork,  making it easy to add workflows to project sites and templates.

Nintex workflows are often used for automated status reporting, automated exception reporting, and project request management.

 

 

 

Next Steps

As you can imagine, automation and workflows can quickly get complicated! It’s best to start small with a clearly-document process before turning to software.

1. Pick a  task or document that is critical to your team but is time-consuming to manage.
2. Map the current process with end-users, including outputs, key activities, and task owners.
3. Once the process is documented, create a flow-chart or visual diagram. This is your workflow.
4. Use this information to identify improvements such as:

• • Automating tasks using software.
  • Removing unnecessary steps.
  • Tasks that can be completed simultaneously.

 

You’re now ready to build a workflow with software! Our on-demand webinar, Using SharePoint Workflows for Project Team Collaboration, is a great starting point.

 

*This article is a high-level review of SharePoint workflows. The details may or may not apply to your local SharePoint and governance strategy.

If you have any questions about your SharePoint project site or workflows, please consult your SharePoint administrator.

 

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