SharePoint Server is a practical platform for project teams. Managers can easily apply a standard approach to project management, allowing teams to collaborate on projects easily with improved visibility.

Quite often, project managers rely on familiar and available tools such as Word or Excel for project tracking. As a result, they miss the collaborative features of a platform like SharePoint.

SharePoint Server’s strengths lie in the fact it is highly secure, highly configurable, and seamlessly connects to the Microsoft suite of products. Here are four tools that will help you to manage a project using SharePoint Server.

Native SharePoint

Vanilla SharePoint is great if you want to introduce the idea of team collaboration to your organization but may not be too sure how people will react to a new process.

You’ll need to configure your SharePoint site with the right lists and web parts for your project. This takes time and requires both SharePoint and project management experience.

SharePoint, a versatile collaboration tool, is used for:

• Document management and sharing
• Intranet portals
• Building websites
• Managing workflows
• Controlling permissions and access to documentation
• Collaboration and problem-solving via wikis and forums
• Web parts
• Knowledge management
• Centralizing business intelligence from Excel, Power BI, and other Microsoft apps.

SharePoint doesn’t look like a project management software out of the box. Customization requires planning before adding project-specific elements.

Building a SharePoint Project Site

Gregory Zelfond has a brilliant guide to creating a SharePoint project site where he outlines 10 steps, including:

• Deciding the site architecture, i.e., where the site will be in your SharePoint environment.
• Figuring out what lists and web parts you need to add to the site.
• Creating the site.
• Adding and configuring the web parts.

Once you have determined your Site Architecture and Site collection structure, you are presented with the SharePoint equivalent of a blank page.

Adding Web Parts

Next, you need to consider adding SharePoint Web Parts. A SharePoint web part is a type of list used to store content on your site. Like an app or tool like a widget on a smartphone, web parts such as contacts and announcements enhance the functionality of your site.

A web part functions like a widget, displaying key information on a page. For example, adding the ‘project tasks’ web part to the project homepages provides a snapshot of the underlying tasks list. Simply click on the information to get more details.

Before you start adding web parts, you need to create your first subsite from your Site Contents.

1. Choose Team Site from the Template Selection
2. Assign a name and corresponding URL slug.

1. Complete the form and hit Okay.

Setting Up Tasks and Issues Tracking

Project management in SharePoint includes a Document Library by default, but additional lists improve task management.

To add a Tasks List and Issues List:

1. First, open Site Contents from the Quick Launch on the left of your screen.
2. From here, you can add an app.

1. Choose to add them.

Now the Tasks List and Calendar will be added to the Quick Launch.

The Tasks List is where you can build out your project plan in SharePoint.

1. Click on the third tile.

Your Apps gives us a sense of SharePoint’s potential with 17 web parts to choose from.

1. Select Issues Tracker, choose an appropriate name, and navigate back to the home screen of your subsite.

1. Return to the home screen to find them in Quick Launch. Select it to add an issue.

The Time Investment of Native SharePoint

The more time you spend configuring your team site, the clearer it becomes that you’re only scratching the surface of SharePoint.

It can take many valuable hours to plan out the structure of your site, add web parts, and configure your site to make it simple and easy to use. All of this before you have even started managing your project!

Creating a SharePoint project site is not just adding lists or web parts. It also needs a structured approach based on a proven project management process. While the work can be saved as a template for future use, what if all of this work was done for you?

Free SharePoint Project Management Template

The problem with SharePoint for Project Management is that despite it being highly configurable, it does not look like a project management tool out of the box.

Using pre-built project management templates for SharePoint saves you from planning and building out a SharePoint site.

Fast and Easy Setup

The BrightWork Free Template provides a structured way to manage projects in SharePoint. It removes the need for manual setup, saving time and effort.

Team members can install the template and launch a project site in under five minutes. All you need to do is download and install the template and deploy a pre-planned project site—no coding required. The free template is based on Project Lite, making the move to BrightWork easier!

The template includes the following essential features to help you plan, track, and re-plan the project:

• Getting started Tiles
• Project Homepage with ‘at-a-glance’ information
• Quick Launch
• Wiki (Collaborative Project Management Process)
• Tasks list (mapped to the Wiki)
• Project Reports and Metric Tiles
• Document repository.

Best Use Cases

The Free Template is ideal for managing individual and simple project sites. Users can create as many sites as needed, but it is not possible to report across projects or manage portfolios.

The pre-planned web parts are connected to homepage dashboard reports, which are updated automatically as each report is updated.

If you need to implement project portfolio management (PPM) processes, the full BrightWork Solution has everything you need.

BrightWork Project Lite for Managing Multiple Projects

The full BrightWork solution comes with pre-configured PPM templates, including the Project Lite Template.

Many project managers start with the Project Lite template as it closely resembles the Free Template, which they might already be familiar with.

​Key Differences Between the Free Template and Project Lite

The main difference is that with the free template, you can manage one project per site. With Project Lite, you can manage and report across multiple sites.

The following features are available in both the Free Template and Project Lite: 

(* indicates features available in native SharePoint)

Another distinction is reporting flexibility. The Free Template allows you to report on 3 set metrics on your dashboard, which cannot be changed nor configured.

Project Lite allows you to use as many tiles as you need for whatever metrics you like.

Once we start digging a little deeper, we see other advanced features available in Project Lite that are not available in the Free Template.

Why Project Lite is a Scalable Solution

Project Lite is completely configurable and adaptable to different project management approaches across multiple projects.

While not all advanced features come pre-configured, BrightWork customers can customize and activate the full range of functionality to match their needs.

These capabilities give Project Lite significant flexibility, but four key features stand out in transforming project and portfolio management.

Manage Projects and Portfolios with BrightWork

If you want to report across portfolios and programs, track progress, or implement project request management, you should consider the BrightWork solution for SharePoint On-Premises (server editions of SharePoint 2019, 2016, 2013).

Key Features for Project Management

Key BrightWork capabilities include:

• Pre-configured, flexible templates for managing projects and portfolios
• Real-time portfolio dashboards and reporting
• Project Request Management
• SharePoint Kanban Boards
• Enhanced Gantt Web Part
• Project metric tiles and scorecards
• Resource Management
• Resource Allocation
• Report Automation
• Template Design Sync

BrightWork guarantees greater simplicity for project managers, better visibility for senior executives, and the ability to deliver better and more consistent organizational project management.

SharePoint vs. Free Project Management Template vs. BrightWork

Many people ask about the difference between native SharePoint, the Free Project Management Template, and the full BrightWork solution for SharePoint On-Premises. Which one is the right fit for me?

To make things a bit easier, we’ve prepared a simple table to compare SharePoint, our Free Project Management Template, and BrightWork to help decide which direction you should take when managing projects on SharePoint.

Comparison Chart

Feature	SharePoint	Free Template	BrightWork
Document Management
SharePoint Workflows
SharePoint configuration options
Mobile Access
Microsoft Office Integration
SharePoint Custom Style Sheets
SharePoint Designer
Project Reporting
Access to all Standard BrightWork Templates
Portfolio Reporting
Kanban Boards
Boards Swimlanes
Task Scheduling
Basic Gantt Lists
Interactive Gantt Charts
Gantt Scheduling
My Work Reports
Personal Reports
Report Sharing
Report Configuration
Automated Project Metrics
Automated KPIs
Manual Metrics
Project Request Management
Resource Management
Resource Allocation
Manual KPIs
Manual Status Reports
Automated Status Reports
Basic Microsoft Project to SharePoint Syncing
Enhanced Microsoft Project to SharePoint Syncing
Enhanced SharePoint Lists
Site Collection Hierarchy Support
Better SharePoint Navigation
Template Management Area
Template Configurations
Template Design Sync
Charting
Nintex forms support
Nintex workflow support
Copying and Synching Workflows
Work Cache
Project Cache
Status Report Cache

In summary:

• Native SharePoint can be used for project management, but extensive configuration is required to set up a functional site.
• The Free Project Management Template from BrightWork is a pre-configured, no-code template. It helps manage individual project sites and does not support cross-project reporting.
• The full BrightWork PPM Solution for SharePoint On-Premises includes configurable templates, project request management, portfolio dashboards, Power BI reports, and more.

How SharePoint Online Enhances Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 brings familiar tools together in one cloud-based subscription. SharePoint Online, a key part of the platform, helps organizations share and manage project information.

It serves as the perfect tool for project document management, providing a secure place to store files for your team to work together and access at any time from any device.

BrightWork 365 is a complete project portfolio Management solution that expands on SharePoint Online by integrating Microsoft Teams, Power Automate, Power BI, and Power Apps within the Microsoft environment. Watch our demo today for more information.

What is Project Tracking?

If you are working on or managing a project, you’ll need to know how the project is progressing at all times.

Project tracking is a process used to track the status of a project to identify what has been done, what is still left to do, and if any issues are affecting the health, budget, or schedule.

SharePoint for Project Management

The best way to track projects is by using collaborative project management software with your project team. Both SharePoint Server and SharePoint Online (part of Microsoft 365) offer valuable features for project tracking.

We’ll touch on how to use SharePoint on-premises (SharePoint Server 2013, 2016, and 2019) and highlight the tools available in Microsoft 365 to streamline tracking across the platform.

What are the Basics of Project Tracking?

Mark Twain once said, “The secret to getting ahead is getting started.” We believe this to be true when it comes to project tracking!

Many project teams are not quite ready for fully structured project management processes, so that would not be a good place to start. For smaller projects, a high level of the process may not even be necessary.

Starting with High-Level Details

At BrightWork, we like to think of project management as being a spectrum. Some projects can range from highly structured to ultra-light approaches.

So why not start out tracking just the high-level details of a project? At least then, you’ll have a record to refer to and show senior management.

If you’re just starting with collaborative project management using a software tool, you can start by tracking the essentials. These might include:

• Project name
• Project manager
• Project type
• Customer or department involved
• Required finish date from the customer
• The likely finish date based on the current progress
• Overall project health
• Current project status (e.g., on track or facing challenges)

Benefits of Tracking Essentials

Tracking even the most basic details helps you manage projects more effectively. If you track and report these items to the project stakeholders— such as the team members, senior management, and the customer— it encourages valuable feedback to improve project outcomes.

Project Tracker Template for SharePoint Server

Looking at the list of project tracking essentials above, you can see how a simple spreadsheet could be used to keep track of the data. Keeping the project info in a spreadsheet has many disadvantages. So why not move your project tracker to SharePoint?

Benefits of Using SharePoint for Project Tracking

A project tracker in SharePoint mimics the ease of Microsoft Excel but adds valuable features. It allows you to track project essentials in a grid similar to Excel, with added benefits:

• A single source of project truth
• It also has a version history and an audit trail to see who made what changes to the project status and when.
• The ability to transform data into a project dashboard

This SharePoint tracker eliminates common challenges found in Excel, such as version confusion and data integrity issues. Plus, the dashboard view is visually appealing and intuitive.

You can see multiple projects in one place, click for more details and access version history. Using SharePoint provides a simple, organized approach with no unnecessary complexity.

Collaborative Project Tracking in Microsoft 365

SharePoint Server offers benefits for project tracking, but many organizations now prefer the cloud-based Microsoft 365 platform. Microsoft 365 and SharePoint Online provide several tools for project management, including:

• Microsoft Lists
• Microsoft Planner
• Microsoft Teams integration.

While these apps differ significantly from the Projects Tracker in BrightWork for SharePoint Server, these management tools provide all the essential project tracking information noted above.

Microsoft Lists

Microsoft Lists evolved out of SharePoint Lists a few years ago. It is an app within Microsoft 365 that simplifies information tracking and work organization.

You can use Microsoft Lists to create a project tracker and issues tracker list to help manage and track project details with your team.

Your Microsoft Lists are easily added to your project management site in SharePoint Online and can be built from scratch or based on pre-built templates.

Microsoft Planner

Microsoft Planner simplifies task management with an intuitive, visual approach using a Kanban board.

Users can organize project tasks into customizable buckets or columns to help teams see the work status at a glance.

Team members can comment on project task lists, attach files, and discuss details directly within Planner, enhancing communication. Plans can also be added to SharePoint pages.

​

Integration with Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a great way to enhance collaboration.

Create a dedicated Teams channel for each project and link it to the corresponding project site in Microsoft 365.

This keeps all collaboration and communication within the Teams app if that’s where your team likes to work.

​

How Does BrightWork 365 Improve Project Tracking?

BrightWork 365 is a project and portfolio management solution for Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Power Platform, including SharePoint Online.

It provides templates for various project types, including project management, portfolio management, and day-to-day work management. These templates cater to different levels of project complexity, ranging from light to structured, based on their Start-Evolve Approach.

Start Quick with BrightWork 365 or BrightWork for SharePoint Server

BrightWork 365 combines apps, reports, and collaborative features in Microsoft 365 to help project managers increase project success while providing senior executives with high-level visibility in one complete solution.

Our free Project Management Template for SharePoint Server 2013, 2016, or 2019 allows you to start quickly. This pre-configured template includes lists, web parts, and reports, integrating seamlessly with your existing SharePoint On-Premises infrastructure – no coding required.

The steps and screenshots of the template in this article apply to SharePoint 2016, SharePoint 2019, and SharePoint Server Subscription Edition. The template used in this guide requires SharePoint classic mode.

Manage Projects Efficiently with SharePoint Online on Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 allows users to use cloud technology by combining familiar project management tools in one subscription. SharePoint Online is a cloud-based collaborative platform that organizations use to share and manage information.

It provides a secure place to store files for your project team to work together and access at any time from any device.

BrightWork 365 enhances SharePoint Online by integrating it with Microsoft Teams, Power Automate, Power BI, and Power Apps to create a complete project portfolio management solution.

What is a Project Status Report?

A project status report summarizes the current status of the project, including health, schedule, and risks against expected performance. The report is often displayed in a SharePoint project dashboard to provide a visual overview.

The frequency of the status report is often based on the duration of a task, typically one week.

Importance of Regular Status Reports in Project Management

The report is a useful communication tool, especially for team members or stakeholders who are not working on the project regularly.

The report also provides more context about completed and upcoming work.

A typical Project Status Report includes red-amber-green indicators (RAG) for health, cost, and time, along with information and comments you feel are important.

The metrics included in the report are often decided during the project planning phase.

Key Components of a Status Report

A status report typically covers:

• Complete and upcoming work
• Overall progress, including budget updates if required
• SharePoint status indicators (RAG) for project health, time, and costs
• Action items, risks, and issues affecting the project

SharePoint Project Status Dashboard Template

In the free SharePoint project management template, there is a section in the Quick Launch called Status Reports where all of the status report records are housed. This area can be customized to display key metrics, RAG report template formats, and status indicators.

Here is a brief video explaining the SharePoint project status dashboard:

Step-by-Step Video: How to Create a SharePoint Project Status Report

Reviewing the SharePoint team sites and updating the project status report dashboard ensures accurate tracking of project tasks, providing real-time visibility for stakeholders and team members.

1. Review and Update the SharePoint Dashboard for Project Management

Before adding a new report, review the SharePoint site to check the status of work. This ensures that your SharePoint reporting dashboard is up to date.

With the free SharePoint Project Management template, the various dashboards on the project homepage are updated as your team works on their project tasks.

Use this information as the basis of the status report. Ask team members for more details as needed.

2. Find the Status Reports Section

When you’re ready, navigate to the ‘Status reports’ area in the Quick Launch menu (under ‘Execute and Control’). Here, you’ll find a list of previous status reports with RAG reporting, completion date, and comments.

3. Add or Edit a Project Status Report

Simply add a new item or click “Edit this list” to add a new status report. You can also use a dashboard project status report template to streamline this process.

4. Update Key Project Metrics in the Datasheet View

Now you have a datasheet view to quickly update the status of the project and add some comments for the team. Work through each column:

• Overall health, time, cost – color status
• Date of report
• Current project phase
• Expected finish date
• % complete
• Status comment
  • How are you feeling about the project?
  • Why are things going wrong?
  • What do you have planned next?
• Activities planned.

Save that information and you have a status report.

The homepage of the project site is also updated with the latest indicators for the entire team to see.

5. Save the Report and Update the Status Report Dashboard

Save that information and you have a status report. The homepage of the project site is also updated with the latest indicators for the entire project team to see.

Using the dashboard in SharePoint, stakeholders can view real-time project status updates.

In BrightWork, project status reports logged in individual SharePoint project sites automatically roll up to portfolio-level dashboards.

This creates instant visibility for project stakeholders and senior management at a high level.

What you will learn: In this comprehensive guide, we will take you on a journey through the world of SharePoint project tracking, showing you step-by-step how to plan, track, and manage your projects with ease. Whether you’re using SharePoint 2019, SharePoint 2016, or SharePoint Online, we’ve got you covered. 

Get the Free Project Management Template for SharePoint

Gone are the days of juggling endless spreadsheets and emails to stay on top of your project’s progress. SharePoint offers a powerful and flexible platform that can streamline your project management processes and foster collaboration among team members. We’ll walk you through the essential features and tools that will make your project management experience a breeze.

But that’s not all! As a bonus, we’ve prepared a free, downloadable SharePoint project tracking template that you can start using right away. This template is designed to save you time and effort by providing a ready-to-use framework for your project management endeavors.

So, whether you’re a seasoned SharePoint user or just getting started, this guide has something for everyone. Let’s dive in and unlock the true potential of SharePoint for your project tracking needs. Are you ready to take control of your projects and propel them to success? Let’s get started!

Please note: the guide based on the BrightWork Free Template in SharePoint 2019 environment using the SharePoint classic experience.

Plan the Project

So in terms of planning the project with the free template, why not follow the Getting Started links?

Set up the project

Click the first tile Setup Project. That brings you to the Project Statement, or maybe you might want to call it like a Project Charter.

Here you can fill in the information like Project Name, Purpose, Customer Organization, Status, Due Date, and Assumptions. Now with SharePoint, you can add or subtract fields to this as needed.

Once you have filled in this information, press Save. Now you have added a Project Statement or Charter.

Add Tasks

Second thing we might want to do is add some tasks, so we click on the Add Tasks icon.

Here is a look at the Tasks List, which comes pre-populated with a set of tasks in the Free Template as a starting point.

Click Edit mode to enable this very simple grid.

And here you can do all your planning, like adding tasks, assign work, setting due dates, and updating the status if necessary at this stage. (Note, you can use drag and drop to quickly populate fields for speedy planning!).

And then just press Stop Editting to save all your changes.

Manage Deliverables

Back on the home page, you click on the third tile which is Add Documents or deliverables in terms of your planning the project.

To add a document, you simply click on Upload, browse, select the file, and do okay.

So now you’ve added more deliverables, more documents for us to work on this project.

There are lots of other things you can do to plan the project in SharePoint, but there are three simple ones, well outlined on the tiles that come by way of guidance.

Work the Project

Now it’s time to work on the project. So let’s see what this free template give us for this stage of a project – especially for Team Members.

Find and track work

Click My Work on the Quick Launch. My Work will show you all the tasks that you have to do on this project. You will see tasks, as well as any other items assigned to you like project issues. This is the total collection of your work for this one project.

Documents

Click into the Documents area on the Quick Launch where you could collaboratively work on some of the deliverables.

You have all the standard document management capabilities of SharePoint, such as check in and check out. Here you can work with your team on the deliverables in one place, one version of the truth for this particular project.

Issues

Open the Project Issues and to check if there are any issues on the project, and then work on the issue that’s assigned to you.

Open that issue, go into edit mode, think about it, work it through, make some updates, and so on.

Project Wiki

As a new person on the project to the group, to the company or a person who is maybe new to project management, you could go to the Project Wiki. I could start working through this very simple and pragmatic approach to collaborative project management or anything else you add in to the template for your project teams.

Track and Re-Plan the Project

Next you want to track what’s happening with your project. So what does the free template give to track what’s happening and re-plan the project?

Track the Status of the Project

Project Homepage

Look at the Project Home page to begin with.

You can see key information, like:

• There number of tasks that are late.
• The current finish date
• The last time it was changed.

This is a very colorful project. They’re not all green, so it’s not all good.

I can see the visual summary, open issues, overdue items. And, of course, you can configure this dashboard as well. That’s a pretty good start.

Project Schedule

Click here on the homepage to Project Schedule, and you can actually see the schedule of the project at a glance.

Project Status

Click into Project Status to see a very good status report. All of this information is automatically being fed from the site from the first entry.

Configuration

You can also do Configuration. For example, maybe you want to change the site now that it’s up and running. Maybe a very simple change might be to share this site with more people so I can get more people involved in collaborating and working on the project.

So in summary, when you’re tracking the project as a manager, click on the Project Home page and follow this bread crumb trail all along, to get a very good sense of what’s happening.

Work Reports

Under Execute and Control, click into the Work report. You can see, for example, the overdue project tasks and there are four, as well as who has them and when were they due.

You can keep clicking along the menu to check upcoming work, here to open work, closed work, and very importantly, to work that’s not assigned.

Re-Plan the Project

Having done the tracking, you’ll have a good sense of what you need to do. So now you want to re-plan.

Update the Project Schedule

So next you will want to click back into Project Tasks on the Quick Launch to get to the project schedule. Click on Edit and make the necessary changes to the tasks (for example, mark work complete, update the status, change dates, etc.)

You can change very easily here, as you can imagine, the task, names, details, dates, statuses, and assignments in in one quick and easy go.

Add a Status Report

Now let’s say you’ve done all of that. Based on what you’ve tracked, you can then do the re-planning in this one place.

Next you want to add a status report. As one of our customers says “status reports should be able to add in less than three minutes or people won’t do it.”

So the last thing you’re going to do is click Status Reports. And since we’re working with SharePoint click Edit this list. That will open up the datasheet view for you to add your status report to the stack.

The standard project status report in the template has entries for:

• Overall Health indicator
• Time indicator
• Cost indicator
• Score indicator
• Week ending
• Current phase
• Current finish date
• Percent complete
• Project status comments
• Major accomplishments
• Major activities planned

Then click Stop editing this list, you will see all the status reports here coming up on screen, including the different ones that have been logged over time.

Finally, if you navigate back to Project Home, you will see all the reports are updated based upon the latest changes you made while tracking and re-planning the project.

Microsoft 365 and Power Platform – Using More than Just SharePoint for Project Management

It’s worth noting that SharePoint has evolved, and there are newer versions available beyond SharePoint 2019 and SharePoint 2016, such as SharePoint Online in Microsoft 365.

Some of you may know that BrightWork has been building a product for the Microsoft SharePoint platform for over 25 years at this point, which is the BrightWork solution we have today. BrightWork for SharePoint also happens to be the basis for the Free Template discussed in this blog post.

With the evolution of the Microsoft 365 platform, of course, there is still SharePoint, but there’s also Teams and other extensible features including Power Platform. In addition to SharePoint Online, Microsoft 365 includes additional features, apps, and improvements that can all be leveraged for their project management capabilities.

With that in mind, you may wish to move beyond strictly using SharePoint to manage projects. Instead of building something in Microsoft 365 just on SharePoint Online, we looked at all of what’s in Microsoft 365 and used the best pieces to build a brand new project and portfolio management system called BrightWork 365.

If your organization is moving away SharePoint as a standalone project management tool, but would still like to manage your projects within the Microsoft ecosystem, then Microsoft 365 is a good place to start.

Summary

By leveraging SharePoint’s robust features and tools, you can say goodbye to the hassles of traditional project management methods. Embrace the efficiency of SharePoint and experience the benefits of streamlined collaboration, real-time updates, and centralized project data.

Remember, successful project tracking isn’t just about the technology; it’s also about fostering a culture of communication, transparency, and accountability within your team. Encourage your team members to actively participate, update their progress, and utilize SharePoint’s collaborative features.

Don’t forget to make use of the free SharePoint project tracking template we provided. It will save you time and ensure you start off on the right foot with a well-structured project management framework.

What you will learn: This blog post will walk you through the elements and structure of a best-practice SharePoint Project Management Site and explain how to leverage free SharePoint template from BrightWork to manage a project.

Get Free SharePoint Template

A collection of flexible tools, SharePoint helps organizations build intranets, manage documents, and collaborate in a secure environment.

At its core, SharePoint is all about collaboration with document libraries, a newsfeed, wikis, and discussion boards. These features – and more! – make SharePoint an ideal tool for project management teams.

Using a SharePoint project site, it’s easy to centralize all project information and tasks in one place for the team to use together.

A SharePoint project site has a number of elements to help you manage a project effectively.

Let’s take a look at the structure of a typical SharePoint site – lists, web parts, sites, and site collections.

We’ll also see how these elements are part of the pre-planned project site in the Free SharePoint Project Management Template from BrightWork.

The screenshots below are based on the Free Template in an on-premises environment using the classic experience.

The Structure of a SharePoint Project Site

1. SharePoint Lists

A SharePoint site is populated by lists, which are used to organize information. Made up of headings, rows, and columns, a SharePoint list looks similar to an Excel spreadsheet. However, SharePoint lists are more flexible and are easier to control than a spreadsheet.

Likewise, lists are key to organizing project information such as tasks and issues. Using a SharePoint list, it’s easy to track and manage project data in one place. The lists are available to all team members, improving collaboration and removing data silos.

SharePoint lists are a useful way to manage project processes and information in a structured, transparent manner.

To reduce administration work and streamline tasks, you can also add workflows to lists, for example, collecting digital signatures to documents.

You’ll need the following lists – which ship with the Free Template – in your SharePoint project site:

Document Library: Use to create a single repository for all project documents. Users can upload, download, delete, and rename the documents – depending on the permissions you have set for each team member.

Issues: Use this list to track and manage issues raised by the team.

Tasks: Add tasks and subtasks to create the project timeline. You can also assign tasks to individual team members and track their progress.

You can also create custom lists in SharePoint so if your team is using Excel to track certain elements of project work, you can recreate the list on the site.

2. SharePoint Web Parts

A SharePoint web part is a type of list used to store content in your site.

Web parts can function as a project dashboard or report, surfacing key project information in a usable way. For example, adding the ‘project tasks’ web part to the project homepages provides a snapshot of the underlying tasks list. Simply click on the information to get more details.

In the Free Template, high-level data on project metrics, tasks, project health, and issues are available on the project homepage using pre-configured web parts.

3. SharePoint Site

A SharePoint site is used to organize different types of content in one place.  A SharePoint site is a home for your project, bringing together lists and web parts in one central location for your team.

Powerful search functionality is a key feature of SharePoint, especially SharePoint On-Premises. This is facilitated by adding all project information to one place. No need to waste any more time searching across numerous folders, tools, and network drives to find a document!

In addition to improving team collaboration, a SharePoint site will also make it easier for you to manage the project.

Having a centralized location to track tasks, find documents, and view reports means you don’t have to send regular ‘check-in’ emails to the team – just go to the site.

A site inherits key elements such as navigation, templates, and permissions from the umbrella site collection. However, you can configure each site can with its own content and security settings.

4. SharePoint Site Collections

A SharePoint site collection is a collection of SharePoint sites. When applied to project management, a site collection acts as your project portfolio, rolling up information from various projects in one place.

Organizations with multiple business units with different project requirements will typically use a site collection per unit.

As mentioned above, a SharePoint project site inherits properties from the site collection, so it makes sense to have a separate collection for your Marketing, Finance, and IT teams. The various areas of the business can create a site collection and project sites tailored to their processes.

A SharePoint site collection is also useful if you need to share documents or information with external users without granting access to your larger systems. You can simply create and share a site collection with restricted permissions.

Configuring a Project Site in SharePoint

As you can see, SharePoint is a powerful project management tool. However, SharePoint doesn’t look like a project management tool out of the box.

If you decide to use out-of-the-box SharePoint for project management, you will need to build your site to meet your requirements – or ask your IT team to do so.

Creating a SharePoint project site involves a number of steps including:

• Deciding the site architecture, i.e., where the site will site in your SharePoint environment.
• Figuring out what lists and web parts you need to add to the site to support your project team.
• Creating the site.
• Adding lists and web parts.
• Configuring each element.

Depending on your SharePoint development skills, configuring a basic SharePoint site for your project is a lengthy process.

Think you can manage the SharePoint side? To make sure the site is optimized, you’ll need to go back a few steps and also think about your project management process.

• What lists and web parts do you actually need to add to the site?
• How many fields does each list need?
• What metadata should you add to the documents library?
• Do you need issues and risks?
• How will you one or two columns to present information?

If the project site is not designed correctly, your project is at risk before the work even begins.

That’s where the Free SharePoint Project Management Template from BrightWork will give you a head start.

The Free template has everything you need to initiate, plan, track, and report on a project using SharePoint – straight out-of-the-box.

The project site template includes key lists and web parts –tasks, issues, and a document library – and metric tiles, project status reports, Work reports, and a ‘tasks by status’ chart for quick tracking.

The site is based on a practical, five-step approach to project management with guidance included in the project wiki.

The Free Template works on SharePoint 2019/2016/2013 and SharePoint Online.

Don’t waste any more time planning your SharePoint – use the Free Template instead!

Project Management Templates for Microsoft 365

It’s worth noting that SharePoint has evolved, and there are newer versions available beyond SharePoint 2019 and SharePoint 2016, such as SharePoint Online in Microsoft 365.

In addition to SharePoint Online, Microsoft 365 includes additional features, apps, and improvements that can all be leveraged for their project management capabilities.

If your organization is moving away from on-premise SharePoint but would still like to manage your projects within the Microsoft ecosystem, then Microsoft 365 is a good place to start.

You can use:

• Power Apps for project sites
• Power BI for portfolio reporting
• Power Automate to manage workflows
• SharePoint Online for document management
• Microsoft Teams for collaboration
• Azure Active Directory for security and permissions.

BrightWork 365 is a project and portfolio management solution built on top of Microsoft 365 and the Power Platform. It is designed to enhance and extend the project management capabilities of Microsoft 365, providing additional features and templates for managing projects, tasks, resources, and portfolios.

BrightWork 365 offers preconfigured project management templates that align with popular project management methodologies and provides a user-friendly interface, customizable dashboards, and reporting capabilities to help teams effectively plan, track, and collaborate on projects within the Microsoft 365 environment.

Microsoft SharePoint is a popular and practical option for project management teams. Using SharePoint, project teams can centralize all project data in one location and work collaboratively together from any location.

How to improve project and portfolio management with BrightWork for SharePoint On-Premises [Free video demo]

SharePoint is available as a server-based on-premises solution, a cloud-hosted solution, or a hybrid solution, which combines the two offerings.

If you decide to use SharePoint for project management, you may encounter some questions about the right version to work with.

In this article, we’ll first take a look at the benefits of SharePoint for project management before exploring common reasons why organizations remain with SharePoint On-Premises. And why you should use it for project and portfolio management!

• What is Microsoft SharePoint?
• Why use SharePoint for Project and Portfolio Management?
• 5 Benefits of Remaining on SharePoint On-Premises
  • Data management
  • Customizations
  • Controlled Updates
  • Internet Reliability
  • Budgets
• 5 Reasons to Leverage Your SharePoint Environment for PPM
  • Quick deployment on your existing infrastructure
  • SharePoint Templates provide a practical starting point
  • Grow organizational project management at scale
  • One tool
  • Integrations

What is Microsoft SharePoint?

Launched in 2001 as a web-based collaborative tool, Microsoft SharePoint is used by over 400,000 customers in 250,000 organizations worldwide, including 85% of Fortune 500 companies.

Unlike Word or Excel, SharePoint is not a single tool. Instead, SharePoint is a collection of tools designed to help organizations build intranets, manage documents, and collaborate in a secure environment.

SharePoint is highly configurable, allowing organizations to develop workflows and systems to support their internal processes.

• Uses of SharePoint include:
• Document management and sharing
• Centralizing documents and data
• Intranet portals
• Wikis and forums
• Knowledge management.

Prior to the launch of Office 365, SharePoint was available on-premises as a locally-hosted application. The organization was responsible for the installation and maintenance of the system, along with upgrades.

In June 2011, Microsoft launched Office 365, a cloud-based subscription plan with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, and services such as email, social, file storage, and web conferencing.

Office 365 is hosted by Microsoft and accessed by end-users as a service. This removes the need to maintain servers and resources. Microsoft has also taken a ‘cloud-first’ development approach, with new features delivered to the cloud before on-premises – if they are introduced to on-premises versions at all.

SharePoint Online, a cloud-based solution, followed in 2013.  It is worth noting that SharePoint On-Premises and SharePoint Online differ significantly in terms of development and functionality.  We’ll cover some key differences later on.

On October 22, 2018, SharePoint Server 2019 was released to the general public. Key to this latest release was an alignment of SharePoint On-Premises with SharePoint Online, including the application of the modern experience to SharePoint 2019.

Why use SharePoint for Project and Portfolio Management?

Although SharePoint was not designed primarily for project and portfolio management (PPM), it’s easy to see the benefits of using SharePoint for this purpose.

The structure of a SharePoint site, especially lists and web parts, makes it easy to organize and manage a project.

Useful SharePoint (and project) Lists include:

• Document Library: Use to create a single repository for all project documents.
• Issues: Use this list to track and manage issues raised by the team.
• Tasks: Add tasks and subtasks to create the project timeline. You can also assign tasks to individual team members and track their progress.

Web Parts act as a project dashboard, displaying key project information in a usable way. For example, adding the ‘project tasks’ web part to the project homepages provides a snapshot of the underlying tasks list.

When extended with project portfolio management software such as BrightWork, project managers can use SharePoint to:

• Easily configure and deploy project sites aligned with internal project management processes.
• Create consistency in how projects are delivered with reusable templates and project sites.
• Use lists to manage tasks, issues, and risks.
• Report across projects and portfolios.
• Manage the project request pipeline.
• Implement workflows to automate key tasks.
• Ensure the integrity of project information with document management, version control, and permissions.
• Create real-time dashboards, scorecards, and metric tiles to track project progress.
• Assign and manage project tasks.
• Track work, including overdue or unassigned work.
• Increase engagement with stakeholders using reliable data and clear reports.
• Manage changes to project sites using templates, reducing IT overheads. 

Organizations can now choose to remain On-Premises, migrate to SharePoint Online, or opt for a hybrid solution.

Below are five common reasons organizations remain On-Premises (but if you have already migrated or are planning to move to SharePoint Online, then check out BrightWork 365 for your PPM needs).

5 Benefits of Remaining on SharePoint On-Premises

1. Data management

If your organization operates in a highly regulated industry or works with very sensitive data, the security features, permissions, and search functionalities within SharePoint On-Premises are critical.

For these reasons, On-Premises remains popular with government agencies, and within the healthcare, manufacturing, and finance sectors.

Here are a few key differences between SharePoint On-Premises and SharePoint Online for data management:

• With SharePoint On-Premises, it’s easy for organizations to maintain internal governance processesand control external access to data. The same controls are typically not available online as Microsoft is responsible for data security.
• Storing data in SharePoint On-Premises simplifies project reportingwith aggregate dashboards and drill-down reports. If your data cannot be migrated to the cloud, such options are not feasible with SharePoint Online.
• There is no guarantee as to where your data will or will not be storedin SharePoint Online, making compliance very tricky. Your data is subject to the laws of the country of the relevant data center. In some instances, this means your data could be accessed by government agencies without your knowledge.
• User data is deleted after 90 daysif the subscription to Office 365 expires or is canceled. This may be problematic for organizations that require extensive historical records for auditing purposes. 

2. Customizations

As mentioned above, SharePoint On-Premises is very configurable. Many organizations have invested considerable resources and time in developing complex workflows and in-house apps. In many cases, SharePoint On-Premises is the driving engine of business processes and is core to document management.

A high percentage of companies surveyed by Sharegate and Nintex had increased their level of SharePoint customizations, with over 82% using workflows –  a strong indicator of just how popular SharePoint customization is.

Due to data and performance integrity and server control, it’s not possible to translate these customizations to a cloud installation, which is shared with other ‘tenants’. Users cannot access the back-end infrastructure of SharePoint Online, limiting the development of highly custom workflows.

It is also not possible to save and reuse templates or project sites using SharePoint Online. The template or site must be created from scratch each time.

Organizations risk losing both their investment in such customizations and a detrimental impact on any related process when moving online.

In addition, customizations in the cloud are also impacted by updates, which leads to the next point. 

3. Controlled Updates

Office 365 users have no control over the rollout of updates from Microsoft and their impact. Microsoft decides what will stay or go in a given update.

Organizations with complex configurations often opt to stay On-Premises to manage updates and patches in a sustainable, non-disruptive schedule.

Interestingly, organizations who wish to have full control over topology, for example, the naming conventions for project sites, will find such options lacking in SharePoint Online. 

4. Internet Reliability

Uninterrupted access to online documents and sites requires reliable internet. If your network does not have sufficient bandwidth, trying to work online will quickly become a frustrating experience that grinds progress to a halt.

5. Budgets

Whilst touted as a cheaper alternative, there are two major costs associated with migrating to SharePoint Online.

Firstly, migration to an online solution can be quite expensive, especially if you need to hire external consultants.  You’ll also need to allocate time and internal resources to:

• Gathering requirements to select the relevant pricing plans.
• Documenting internal business processes.
• Migrating data.
• End-user training.
• Ongoing subscription management. 

Upgrading an existing SharePoint On-Premises environment is often less costly than migrating to the cloud.

Secondly, the long-term costs of cloud subscriptions for every user can exceed the initial purchase of On-Premises licenses.

Companies can easily spend too much on the wrong plan, quickly running up costs. Another risk is selecting a lower-tier plan with reduced functionality to save money. This route can severely limit the ability of employees to get their work done.

It’s also important to consider the previous cost of complex configuration and any downtime for business processes reliant upon workflows or apps. 

5 Reasons to Leverage Your SharePoint Environment for PPM

The first reaction from a lot of IT departments to the proposed introduction of any new enterprise tool is generally “No!” – even for something as important as project management!

 But they have solid reasons for this response.

IT resources are always constrained and they know from prior experience that introducing new enterprise tools can be an expensive, time-consuming process.

IT projects typically run over budget and deliver less value than predicted.

IT teams also have to consider post-deployment management/configuration of the new system and end-user training.

For these reasons, leveraging your existing SharePoint On-Premises infrastructure is a practical, cost-effective approach to project management.

Over 250,000 organizations worldwide use SharePoint so there is a good chance you have access to this platform.

Here are 5 reasons to leverage SharePoint On-Premises as the platform for your project and portfolio management solution:

1. Quick deployment in your existing environment

One of the best reasons to deploy a project management solution on SharePoint is that it leverages the existing, approved, and secure collaboration infrastructure already in place.

If your organization uses SharePoint as an intranet or for document management, for example, you can tap into this pre-existing infrastructure – something that will make your IT team very happy!

BrightWork is a project and portfolio management solution that plugs right into your SharePoint On-Premises environment (server version of SharePoint 2019, 2016, or 2013) and can be installed within a couple of hours.

As BrightWork keeps the same consistent interface as the rest of your SharePoint environment, users don’t need to contend with another new interface.

Project teams can continue to use familiar functions such as document management, search, and workflows alongside enhancements such as better navigation, Agile Boards, and improved charting.

BrightWork builds on the SharePoint foundation of self-service, no-code configuration by end-users, and adds further options so users can see project data in the way they want.

Here is a screenshot from the homepage of the BrightWork Marketing Team site. Starting with a BrightWork template, I configured the site to support how we run marketing projects without any help from IT.

2. SharePoint Templates provide a practical starting point

In SharePoint, a project site can be created using a pre-existing template.

BrightWork comes with a range of best-practice project and portfolio management templates for different types of projects and teams.

Customers get a quick start with the pre-configured templates they need right now. In time, it’s easy to add more complexity and processes.

3. Grow organizational project management at scale

Using a template-based approach in SharePoint lets you easily create, use, reuse, and update your project management best practices on an organizational scale.

The beauty of SharePoint templates is that any changes you make to the site can be saved and reused in subsequent projects.

This approach will enable you to evolve organizational project management with configurable templates and scalable performance.

BrightWork takes this concept a step further with Template Design Sync.

When a BrightWork template is updated to reflect organization best practices, those changes can then be rolled out to projects already in flight using the BrightWork Template Design Sync.

Changes can also be pushed to project sites on a case-by-case basis.

Not only does this save significant time – it’s easy to maintain consistency and standards across multiple projects, teams, and departments.

4. One Tool

Project teams are often using too many tools to manage their work – email, spreadsheets, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Slack…

In this environment, tracking progress, dealing with risks, and managing deliverables is almost impossible.

Your team will waste too much time trying to find documents to complete tasks and there is always a chance they are using the wrong file!

Imagine this chaos multiplied throughout an organization across all teams, projects, and departments.

Trying to manage the performance of portfolios becomes extremely challenging.

It also becomes very hard for IT to stay on top of the various apps and tools in play, which can cause numerous problems.

With SharePoint, all project information – documents, tasks, reports, and so on – is stored in a single place.

Your team uses this site to find, do, and update their work.

If they want to use Microsoft Teams for chat and video meetings, just add a link to the SharePoint site to the relevant channel.

With more visibility into projects and a standardized approach to reporting, your project teams will be more successful.

What’s more, departments can reduce recurring charges for apps and online applications.

5. Integrations

SharePoint, and by extension, BrightWork, integrates with the Microsoft 365 tools you already use.

Microsoft Project for project scheduling? You don’t have to give that up.  With the bi-directional sync between SharePoint and Microsoft Project Professional, project managers can update the project schedule in BrightWork and see the results in Project and vice versa.

The Project Structured Template also includes enhanced sync with Microsoft Project Professional, with extra auto-calculated information such as baselines and variances for work, effort, and cost.

Already using Nintex Workflows to automate business processes? Nintex workflows can be added to BrightWork project site templates, helping to improve project standards throughout the organization.

Common uses of Nintex and BrightWork include automated status reporting, automated exception reporting, and project request management.

Summary

Ultimately, the decision to use SharePoint On-Premises or move to SharePoint Online will depend on your organization’s strategic objectives; data management requirements; business process, and budget.

However, it is important to consider what your business needs now and in the future to support internal processes and maintain data integrity.

Get started managing projects with SharePoint On-Premises

If you want to get started using SharePoint On-Premises for project management, then check out the the Free Template from BrightWork. Based on a the Project Lite Template in the full solution, the free template is a pre-configured project management site with everything you need to plan, track, and report on a project with SharePoint On-Premises. 

Are you using SharePoint Online in Microsoft 365?

If you are using SharePoint Online in Microsoft 365, BrightWork 365 is a flexible project portfolio management tool, deployed on the Microsoft Power Platform in your Microsoft 365 cloud environment. BrightWork 365 brings the best of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem together in a collaborative hub for project teams whilst giving more visibility and data-driven insights to senior executives.

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.

If you have worked through the previous steps in this series, your project processes are becoming more standardized.

Webinar: 3 Simple Steps for Managing Project Risks in SharePoint

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Not only are the project statement, project documentation, and project tasks in place in your SharePoint project site – your team knows how to use these elements to get work done.

Project issues often arise unexpectedly, making a standard approach to reporting and resolving issues essential for your project.

In this article, I’ll look at managing project issues using your free SharePoint project management template.*

Project Risks v Project Issues

First things first – what’s the difference between a risk and an issue?

• A project risk is a future problem, something that hasn’t happened yet but will likely occur.
• A project issue is a current problem, a risk that has happened.

Risk management focuses on identifying and dealing with problems before they become issues. Issue management is a process for dealing with current problems.

It’s important to identify and document potential risks and how to resolve these problems, during the planning phase of the project.

Identifying risks at the outset will ensure everyone knows what to look for during execution, which can help to mitigate issues.

This document, commonly known as a risk register, can be as simple as an Excel spreadsheet stored in your project site.

During the project kick-off meeting, walk the team through this list to make sure they are comfortable with the agreed risk management strategy and their responsibilities when reporting a problem.

Types of Project Issues

The types and causes of project issues are as varied as individual projects! Below are some common issues to avoid on your next project.

Use this list as a starting point when creating a risk register during the planning phase.

• Scope Creep, or changes due to increasing complexities or requests for new features.
• Scheduling, including unexpected delays or an unrealistic timeline.
• Resources, such as underfunding, skills shortage, or changes to the team mid-project.
• Failure to follow project management processes.
• Poor visibility and reporting.
• Conflicts within the team.
• Poor sponsorship engagement, leading to problems with timely feedback.
• Changes to business requirements.
• Ineffective team communication.

Project Issue Management

In the next section, I’ll show you how to find and manage issues in SharePoint. However, your project tool can only help you deal with flagged or known issues. This makes an issue management process essential.

Some common questions to consider:

• What defines an issue?
• How should a team member flag an issue for the project manager?
• How will you, as project manager, assign responsibilities for resolving the issue?
• Who will set the resolution date?
• When should an issue be escalated to the project stakeholder?
• When the resolution affects the budget or schedule, what will the update process be, and who will be responsible?
• How will updates about the issue be shared with the team and stakeholders?

Once you defined your issue management process, share the details with the team before starting project work. Otherwise, risks will become issues very quickly!

In addition to dealing with the issue itself, make sure to capture any lessons once the project is complete.  Such insight may prove invaluable when planning your next project!

To track issues in your SharePoint project site, you’ll need to install and configure the Issue Tracking web part. The free template from BrightWork ships with issue tracking and reports – all ready to use straight out-of-the-box.

Read on to see how these features will streamline project issue management.

Project Issue Management with a SharePoint Template

To add or find existing project issues in the free template site, click ‘Project Issues’ in the Quick launch menu. This list is located on the left-hand side of your project site.

You can change the view to show:

• Active Issues
• All Issues
• By Assigned To
• My Issues.

Adding or editing an issue is very straightforward.

To create an issue, click ‘new item’ and complete the form.

To make updates to the list, select ‘edit this list’ to open the datasheet view. Work through each field, making the relevant updates. You can drag data from one field, such as ‘Assigned to’, down the relevant columns for easy bulk updates.

Issues are added to several reports in the project site, including:

•  Top Open Issues on the project homepage.

• The relevant tab in the ‘My Work’ report, for example, My Project Issues.

• The ‘Project Status’ report, accessible from the project homepage.

If your team is reporting issues correctly, these reports will help to quickly surface problems that require urgent attention. You can use the information to find out why the issue has occurred and who can resolve the problem.

This level of transparency and visibility – without the need for meetings and emails – will help you react to problems quickly.

As you work the project and various issues, you likely need to re-plan the schedule and update tasks.

Issue Management with BrightWork for SharePoint On-Premises

The Free Template is designed for managing individual projects. You can use the template to create and manage as many individual projects as you like; however, it is not possible to report across those projects in a single dashboard.

In this scenario, risks and issues could easily go unnoticed, with serious consequences for the specific project and the overall portfolio.

The BrightWork PPM solution for SharePoint On-Premises supports cross-project reporting, including risk and issue management.

This short video showcases just how easy it is to find and deal with risks and issues at the portfolio level.

Watch our free 20-minute video demo to see how the full BrightWork PPM solution in action.

*You will need to be a site collection administrator to implement the steps in this article. The Free Template is used to create and manage individual project sites.

You can create as many sites as you wish with the template; however, the template does not support cross-project reporting. Learn more about the full BrightWork PPM Solution for SharePoint On-Premises here.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in September 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness, freshness, and accuracy.

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