Why Project Overviews Are So Important

Good managers know what their teams need in order to be successful. They understand their project lifecycle, stay on top of trends, and are ready to pivot when necessary.

“For every project, no matter the size or complexity, it is the responsibility of the project manager to ensure it stays on track the entire time. The simplest way to do so is to define the scope of the project.” – Clarizen

Here are the reasons why project overviews are essential to your team’s success.

Project Overviews Work At Any Stage

Needs change during the lifecycle of a project. Overviews help you think, rethink and pivot more quickly whenever necessary.

The project overview “can be used when we’re thinking about changing something in the planning – in testing mode… we can quickly see the most important information from all the activities as a whole.” – Sinnaps

Every time you introduce or implement something new to your project, you need to reassess your goals. Having an overview helps ensure you don’t miss anything along the way.

Project Overviews Help You Spot Emerging Trends 

Whenever you view data from a distance, patterns emerge. The more information you have the better. But even before you complete a project, you can begin to spot trends.

Trends give you important information about what you should change and where you should be focusing most of your time and attention.

Project overviews are an important part of being able to see your entire project at a glance. This makes it easier to make decisions based on the trends you identify.

Project Overviews Help With Narrower Project Summaries 

Project overviews can be extensive. So project summaries (an overview of the overview) help you to get down to what really matters in each stage.

“We’ll give you a few reasons why you should start using a project summary asap:

• Simplify the large volume of data generated by your project.
• View activity details directly and easily.
• Compare information from different activities.
• Provide the basis for effective decision-making.
• Gain time in managing your work.
• Access project activities quickly and easily.
• Control and monitor the project from an overall perspective.” – Sinnaps

You can cut a lot of unnecessary work by using your project overview to get to the point of what you’re doing more quickly.

Project Overviews Save You Time & Money 

Having defined stages, budgets, scopes and summaries for every step of your project before you begin saves you time and money. It’s simple.

“Companies who fail to see the importance of preliminary work waste time playing catch-up and running down avenues that are not viable.” – COO Alliance Blog

This wastes precious resources that could be put to better use elsewhere.

Conclusion: 

“The scope of a project is the clear identification of the work that is required to complete or deliver a project successfully.” – Simplilearn Solutions

This means that it is one of the most important ways you can ensure projects run smoothly. When you have a keen insight into the needs of your project every step of the way, you set your team and your project up to win on every level!

If you have questions or would like more information, I’d be happy to help. Please send an email, and my team will get in touch with you!