The New Project Update Stack: Real-Time Tracking Meets Visual Reporting

Author Bio: Makedonka Micajkova is a freelance content writer and translator, always bringing creativity and originality to the table. Being multilingual with professional proficiency in English, German, and Spanish, it’s needless to say that languages are her biggest passion in life. She’s also a skilled communicator as a result of her three years of experience as a sales representative. You can find her on LinkedIn.

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When a team of different people with all kinds of experience gets assigned to a project, you’d think that it would make things easier. But this is when the biggest challenge arises – alignment. The thing is, everyone works differently. If there’s no dedicated platform for sharing updates, information can get lost. One team member could update another on Slack that they’ve finished a task. Then they pass the update on to someone else via email. Before you know it, the message goes down the rabbit hole.

By the time everyone is aligned, valuable time has been lost, causing potential project delays. In fact, over half of IT projects fail because teams don’t communicate well. As a project manager, you’re looking to avoid this in every way possible. So, hang with us as we show you how.

Why Regular Project Updates Are Important

The communication doesn’t stop when you set the deadline and assign the tasks. If everyone would just do their tasks without sharing updates, you’d have no idea what’s happening and if the project is even progressing. That said, regular project updates can help:

Keep everyone informed about what’s been completed and what’s pending.
Pinpoint problems on time, which allows you to solve them before they become bigger.
Make meetings more efficient.
Stay on top of deadlines and keep stakeholders happy.

But regular updates don’t always mean more meetings. With the right project update stack, team members can automatically share updates and track progress in real-time. You can even make things more fun by using a URL to video AI software like Synthesia to help you turn your updates and ideas into short videos, as well as by using visual reporting features such as graphs and charts.

That said, let’s talk about how providing project updates and tracking progress can become everyone’s favorite thing to do by combining real-time tracking and visual reporting.

Real-Time Tracking Meets Visual Reporting

When you’re responsible for overseeing the execution of projects, you always need to know how far along everything is. Otherwise, the project can be delayed, and you may encounter mistakes such as duplicated work. However, this doesn’t depend solely on you.

The thing is, no one enjoys the traditional way of providing updates, that is, formal emails and endless meetings that take you nowhere. However, with the help of real-time tracking and visual reporting, everyone can provide updates regularly with minimal effort.

Understanding Real-Time Tracking for Project Updates

Real-time tracking lives up to its name. That said, real-time tracking provides updates the moment they happen. Instead of someone having to first finish the task and then open another application in order to provide a detailed update, they could just finish the task. The idea of real-time tracking is for everyone to be timely informed about a change in the project’s progress.

And it’s not just for tech teams. You can rely on real-time tracking in many industries, including logistics, healthcare, and marketing. For example, teams that use Fleetio’s software for logistics and fleet management depend on real-time tracking to monitor vehicle locations and route changes. In hospitals, they use this kind of technology to track medical equipment and take better care of patients.

Here’s how it helps with project updates and keeping teams aligned:

Spot the Issue As It Happens: You can’t go around writing to each team member to provide an update. So, why wait for the next meeting to find out that someone is having a hard time with a task? With real-time tracking, you’ll find out as this issue arises.

Everyone Has Full Visibility: There are no secrets with real-time tracking. As a project manager, you’ll be able to see the whole progress, whereas team members can understand how their efforts benefit the bigger picture. It’s a win-win situation.

Put simply, real-time tracking clears up confusion. When everyone can access instant updates, it’s easier for the team to stay on the same page. This leads to fewer issues and fewer delays.

Understanding Visual Reporting for Project Updates

Is there anyone who enjoys going over detailed reports only to find themselves more confused rather than informed? I don’t think so. This is exactly why visual reporting is the perfect addition to your project update stack. It makes processing data not only easier but also more fun.

Why? Because it turns complex data into fun visuals such as graphs and charts. Think about how, when you were a kid, you’d avoid thick books with long pages of text only, but you’d pick the ones with pictures and colors instead. This is because we’re more likely to understand and enjoy a read when it’s visually engaging. If you were searching for statistics and stumbled upon a report of 3000+ words, you’d immediately scroll down to infographics.

Companies that rely on data visualization have reported an increase of 55% in their operational efficiency, as well as fewer human errors that have led to 40% more accurate data.

That said, when it comes to project updates, visual reporting:

Provides a clear view of the progress.
Makes it easier to spot potential roadblocks.
Keeps everyone aligned by helping them see the information in the same way.
Saves time because it makes reports a lot faster to create and easier to absorb.

All in all, visual reporting helps decision-makers make better choices by accurately representing complex data, as well as making it easier for the whole team to understand what’s going on.

Tools that Bring Real-Time Tracking and Visual Reporting Together

Naturally, it’s always better to combine both features instead of using different tools. This can cause even more confusion, as employees probably already use all kinds of software.

In this regard, let’s go over some of the tools that make this possible.

Asana

You’ve probably heard about it already. Asana is one of the most popular tools in the world of project management. And for good reason. Asana will automatically provide an update when someone finishes a task or changes a deadline. Not only that, but it also provides different visual ways in which you can see your project status –digital sticky notes, Gantt charts, and dashboards.

Asana is also great for boosting communication between your team, as it lets everyone comment directly on tasks instead of having to go to Slack or email. It’s a one place for everything.

Monday.com

Monday is another project management tool that allows you to track progress as it happens, so that everyone knows what’s happening all the time. Like Asana, Monday offers tons of ways in which reporting can be visualized, such as through Kanban boards, progress bars, Gantt charts, and workload views. Monday can also trigger actions based on rules you’ve previously set.

Jira

Now, when it comes to real-time tracking with Jira, it’s especially beneficial for teams that tend to handle lots of tasks and bugs, such as software development teams. It allows you to pack this information into visual dashboards, burndown charts, cumulative flow diagrams, etc.

ClickUp

ClickUp is another powerful tool that combines both real-time tracking and visual reporting. It lets your team update tasks instantly and show progress through customizable dashboards, charts, and timelines. Its best feature is its flexibility. That is, ClickUp allows you to set it up based on how your team works best. It also has a built-in chat, so no one has trouble reaching out.

Wrike

What makes Wrike stand out is its focus on collaboration. This project management tool allows team members to leave comments directly on tasks, as well as easily share files while doing so.

Wrike also gives you a detailed view of how many hours have been spent on projects, so you can understand if time is being used well or if any tasks are taking longer than expected.

Stay on Top of Project Updates With Visuals and Real-Time Tracking

Project updates might not sound like a huge challenge. However, they’re the reason why teams often fail to align and fix issues on time, which leads to delays and unsatisfied stakeholders.

But you don’t have to accept this reality. Project management tools that combine real-time tracking and visual reporting are the perfect way to beat miscommunication. With real-time tracking, everyone can see updates as soon as they happen, whereas visual reporting is a more fun and efficient way to represent progress so that everyone can better understand information.