Burj Khalifa, the Empire State Building, the Guggenheim — when we think about some the most well-known architectural buildings in the world we can only imagine the planning, collaboration and execution that had to come together perfectly to make those projects a success.
Architecture is an area where an efficient work process is the key factor of successful project delivery. That’s why thoughtful organization of workflow is crucial.
Whether you’re running a large team in a firm or you’re an independent Architect doing all the work by yourself, there’s a lot to do all the time. Managing all tasks can prevent you from focusing on the part of the job you actually enjoy — designing. Check out how Outplanr can help you focus on that part and plan your next big project.
Outline your tasks and major milestones: To create those functional, beautifully designed buildings there’s a bunch of tasks and milestones you need to accomplish.
In Outplanr, for every new building you’re designing you can add a new Project. After giving it a name and making it pop by selecting a colour, you can start adding the all the tasks and milestones (which we call Events).
💡Outplanr Tip: You can organize your projects in groups to keep related projects together. For example, when you’re working on several projects for the same client.
Organize your project in phases: Architecture projects are long and complex. They are usually divided into stages: sketch, study, construction, etc. Instead of just having a long list of tasks, for each stage of the process you can create a different Section. That will help you organize all tasks and events within the project.
💡Outplanr Tip: Use a simple drag and drop to order tasks and events within a Section or to move them between Sections.
Replicate past projects, for a faster setup: You’ve just signed a new contract with a client and it’s time to get to work. Now there you go creating tasks, subtasks, organize them in sections. Chances are you’re just replicating the same things you did last month when you started a different project, correct? If you and your team stick to a common workflow in similar projects, then you’ll be saving up some valuable time if you create a project template.
In Outplanr, you can do so by duplicating an existing project. All tasks, subtasks and events that were associated with it will be duplicated and your team can quickly kick off work.
Book your meetings: Client meetings, meetings with contractors, with local authorities, with your team or partners. It’s important that you can schedule everything properly to make sure you don’t forget any of them.
In Outplanr, you just have to add an Event. When you add attendees to that event it becomes a meeting and allocates time to each attendee assigned. You can set the start and end time to the event, or make it all day.
💡Outplanr Tip: Want to see all your project’s events in your desktop Calendar app or in your Google Calendar? Then all you have to do is to choose the option ‘Subscribe Calendar’ and the sync will be done.
Track your time: Is the overall project fee based on hours worked by your firm or is it a flat fee? If the first applies to you then having a time tracking tool will come in handy. And if such tool is integrated with your project management tool even better.
Good news is Outplanr features a time tracking widget. Once you start sketching the new apartment building for the city centre you just have to hit play on that task and the time recording begins. When you’re taking a break or it’s lunchtime simply pause it. When you’re done mark it as completed.
💡Outplanr Tip: If you forget to pause the task you can always edit the time recorded.
When you need the project’s timesheet with all tasks and information, you can easily export it by clicking in “Export Project Timesheet in CSV”.
Manage your project’s progress: It’s important to have a clear picture of how your project is shaping up. What’s already been accomplished, what’s being done and what still lies ahead.
In Outplanr, the Project Details Page will let you know where everything stands in real-time. You’ll be able to check:
- Each task and its details — the person to whom its assigned, start date and deadline, task status (not started, started, paused or completed), planned duration or time already spent on it, task progress in % and balance.
- Each event and its details — attendees, date, time, location.
- A progress bar with a quick balance of how many hours were already spent in the project and how many hours are still planned.
All these data will make it easier for you when you’re feeding back to the client on where things are, or when you want to make sure all parts of the project are progressing and you’re within budget.
Set your team’s schedule: This point is particularly important if you’re managing an Architecture firm with one or more teams working in multiple projects at the same time. When the project to design the new city hospital comes in, you should be able to easily check who is free to take on that new assignment.
In Outplanr, you can use the Plan view to check your team’s availability and their scheduled tasks and events over time.
💡Outplanr Tip: If someone on your team is showing a red contour it means they have work allocated for more than 7 hours (the effective maximum amount of work time in a regular day). You might want to offload some of their work and re-schedule some tasks to keep them from burning out.
Plan wherever you are: When you go out of the office to oversee a construction site or meet a contractor, for example, it’s important that you can still keep track of your tasks and events, add new ones, check any details and so on. Fortunately, Outplanr Mobile App will allow you to do all of that.
Running your own architectural business or leading a larger team in a big firm can be stressful. In such a fast-paced work, spreadsheets and Excel are not enough to manage resources and time effectively. When you’re dealing with multiple projects and clients at the same time it’s important to keep all project management details under the same roof to make sure you keep on shaping skylines around the world successfully. 🏙🤩
Don’t just take our word for it
Outplanr was selected as one of the Best Architect Project Management Software Tools by actiTIME and it was listed as one of the 140 Software tools architecture firms need in [2020] by ArchitectureQuote. 🤩 🤗
Are you an Architect already using Outplanr to manage your projects? Share your thoughts with us and let us know which other ways you use it.
