The purpose of this is to have you and your team begin to discuss your project management software’s task due date field. We know this must seem very odd for us to bring your attention. However, most firms never decide if the task due date represents Option 1 or 2. This lack of clarity leads to missed deadlines, inaccurate reports, and overall frustration among the staff and management. Finally, we all know that some tasks need to be started today and might not be 100% complete for a month or two. So you will want to be very careful about what date goes into the Due Date field, what that date represents, and communicate this protocol to all staff.
First, you must understand that for most project management software, the task due date field represents one of these two options:
Option #1: The date represents the FINAL day that the task must be completed
Option #2: The date represents the next day that the staff person should review the task and make progress on moving it toward completion.
Second, your firm should review the items listed below before choosing option 1 or 2:
- 1. the task reports that each staff person views daily
- 2. the task reports that a manager uses to review all open tasks
- 3. staff’s ability to prioritize their tasks without any guidance on the final date that the task must be completed
- 4. staff’s ability to quickly re-prioritize their tasks on a daily and weekly basis so nothing is forgotten or delinquent
Third, please notice the project management software traits such as:
- 1. the color of the due date font for past due items
- 2. where the due date is shown in each view
- 3. can the due date column be filtered to show past due first
In the end, you don’t want to assume that all staff can set their own due dates nor assume that staff are looking at tasks with due dates 1 month out. Starting this review and discussion now will help when you decide which COO-recommended activities you want to implement and organize projects as tasks in the project management software.
We look forward to working with you!