Asana is an organizational tool that the PM team uses to keep track of the their workload. It consists of a task list that is broken out into three sections: upcoming, overdue, and completed tasks.
- Technology: Asana
- Sphere: Reporting
- Development: Ongoing throughout the project
- Cadence: Daily
¶ Why we use Asana
In the project management role, you'll find that you're often pulled in a number of different directions throughout the course of a day or week. It's critically important that when your focus shifts to another task that other tasks don't get left behind. In order to prevent project management work items from slipping through the cracks, we use Asana to track the things that we need to get done on a daily basis.
¶ Best practices
In order to plan out your work week, Asana should be checked at the beginning and the end of each work day. This will help you to get a feel for what the next day is going to entail, as well as what you've accomplished in a day and what you still have left to do.
Additionally, quickly throwing new tasks on Asana throughout the work day is an effective way to make sure that you don't miss any action items.
¶ Creating and assigning tasks
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When creating a task, it will automatically assign the task to yourself. If you need to assign the task to someone else, you can click on your name next to "assignee" to select another project manager.
You'll also need to set a due date. The date can be set for the same day, or any day in the future. For example, if you create a task for a work item that you need to complete before the end of the work week, you can set the due date to Friday.
For grouping purposes, you can add a task to a specific project, if applicable. Note that adding a task to a project makes it visible to everyone.
Under dependencies, you can list other tasks that will need to be completed before you can complete your new task. For example, if you wanted to generate a PSR for a client, you might make that task dependent on completing a needs reallocation sweep on that project.
It is required to add a description, particularly when creating tasks that won't be completed on the same day. It's very easy to forget the details of a task if you don't have anything to reference. Additionally, it is highly recommended to leave comments on tasks that require follow up or if it impacts any other roles in the company such as the Scrum team or developers.
Additionally, you can add other project managers as collaborators on a task, which is useful for if you're going to be out of office and you need someone to keep an eye on your projects while you're gone. You can also add attachments or make your task visible to the rest of the company.
Asana is used by the management team to evaluate efficiency on the PM team and help determine level of effort and touch points needed for projects. It is incumbent on the Project manager to make sure this is kept up to date and accurately reflects the work that you are putting in toward your projects. This will help with project allocation and is reviewed in your bi-weekly with your supervisor and will play a part in your quarterly reviews.