In medium and large enterprises, there will usually be multiple projects in parallel, and each project manager is responsible for managing several projects at the same time, planning and managing the project schedule. As the manager of the R&D department, it is also a great challenge to have overall control over multiple projects and timely understand the progress, resource allocation and project risks of each project. As a Chinese saying goes, “If a worker wants to do a good job, he must first improve his tools”, the introduction of appropriate RESEARCH and development management tools can not only provide an efficient collaboration environment for the research and development team, but also help managers to control the progress of multiple projects, adjust resources reasonably, and provide scientific support for project decision-making.

Let’s take a look at the classic process of enterprise-level R&D management:

Project management is an extremely complex process from the formulation of multi-project plans, to the planning and execution of a single project until the final project delivery. According to Gartner’s “Project and Portfolio Management Magic Quadrant,” the following capabilities are essential in determining what is best for an enterprise’s business:

  • Project demand Management
  • Project planning and management
  • Time management
  • Resource management
  • Resource Capacity Planning
  • Portfolio management
  • Project collaboration
  • The project management
  • Reporting services
  • Security and user management
  • integration
  • availability

ONES r&d management tools for enterprise managers through the research and development of the whole process project management skills, coordination management, products, research and development, testing, operations and so on more than one role and department goals and efficient coordination, carry on the reasonable resource dispatch, help managers to control the project schedule, control risk and ensure quality of product delivery.

I. Reasonable planning of project schedule

Choose the appropriate schedule according to the project characteristics and context. Waterfall development method can be applied to projects with a clear range of requirements, controllable changes and higher value of stability than flexibility. Detailed progress plans can be made and strictly implemented. However, when the demand is not specific and the scope is changeable, it is often necessary to maintain the flexibility of the project plan design. Gantt chart, time management, project resource methods and tools can be used to reasonably plan the project schedule.

1. Scientifically estimate and manage working hours; Reasonably disassemble requirements, make milestone plans and complete task disassembly; The estimated conclusion of working hours at all levels, the announcement of the overall scheduling plan, and the simultaneous progress of the project at any time can also be made through the weekly meeting system. Once the delay risk is found, timely response should be made to avoid the accumulation of risks.

2. Effective assessment and management of project resources: In the face of resource conflicts, excessive allocation and temporary transfer, understand the resource input situation of each project through project tasks, time reports of project members and resource saturation statistics. The impact of higher priority needs, leader’s temporary arrangement inserts can be traced and the overall resources balanced.

Standardize and control requirements change

There are various reasons for the change of project requirements, whether it is initiated by customers or caused by internal reasons of the company/team, we should correctly understand the change, manage the expectations of relevant parties, standardize the change process, control the change scope, and follow up the change status and schedule influence scope. All help to reduce the risk of project delay and control the impact of delay.

  1. Unified cognition of project objectives: On the premise of reaching a consensus on the overall objectives and priorities of important tasks, analyze the background and internal and external causes of demand changes, and communicate rationally according to the established priorities and resources.

  2. Standardize requirements change process: determine strict and formal requirements change workflow based on specific business scenarios to prevent schedule delays caused by arbitrary and unnecessary requirements changes.

  3. Evaluate the impact after change and update progress: evaluate and record the impact of the amount of rework tasks and waste of resources caused by the change of requirements, and plan the update progress plan according to the latest requirements.

Third, develop more efficient communication methods

Project communication runs through the whole process of information collection, management, circulation, implementation and final feedback. With the increase of project complexity and the expansion of team size, efficient communication can also rely on more tools and methods in addition to the traditional centralized office, meeting, weekly report and other systems.

  1. Visual tools: such as kanban, burnout chart, etc., help all team members intuitively understand the progress of the project, and make clear the task background, responsible person, completed items and remaining working hours.
  2. Online team knowledge base: shared project plans and files, timely sharing of document resources, to help different roles and functions quickly find answers and usable experience.
  3. Project communication process specification and meeting system: especially for cross-team communication process and specification, all team members should follow uniform standards and specifications to reduce communication costs.
  4. Create a good atmosphere for teamwork: Promote daily communication among members and bring them closer, thus making it easier to cooperate in work.