Odds are you’re working from home if you’re reading this right now. While I don’t miss my commute, I certainly do miss popping into my coworkers’ offices. It’s especially useful to take care of last-minute changes. I’m putting an emphasis there on last minute. The harsh truth is, we were already in trouble if we weren’t aligned on project statuses and expectations to begin with.
And while it is great I don’t have to plan my schedule around two 45-minute train rides, I’m honestly not eager to spend more time checking on what’s on track and what’s running late when the average workday is already getting three hours longer! I’m thankful we can rely on project management software to alert us to when a due date is fast approaching or, in worst case scenarios further and further in the past.
If you use Minitab Engage, timely email alerts triggered by workflow will definitely help you prioritize and naturally move projects forward. The system works for you so you can assess risks and allocate resources effectively through all the stages of a project.
When a user submits an idea for a project, steering committee members will receive a notification. When steering committee members approve or reject the idea, the user will get a notification back. My personal favorites are notifications for when the committee has not reviewed your idea yet or a project phase is due in a certain amount of time. You don’t need to worry about nudging anyone – Engage will do it for you, and it’s customizable. Your organization can choose when to send a notification.
There are several other notifications available that you or your data architects might be interested in looking into (you can even see the dreaded overdue one below — better there than in your own inbox!). When you set them up and tailor them to the needs of your project teams, you can see how they become vital to keep an operational excellence program afloat (and save everyone time from manually checking on each other!).
With the COVID-19 outbreak forcing many of us to telecommute and learn how to collaborate from afar, now more than ever automated email notifications can help us complete our projects on time. We might have fewer hallway or kitchen conversations, but at least when I’m on a video conference I can spend a little less time nagging for updates and a little more time catching up on how everyone is doing!