Wouldn’t it be great if you had your finger on the pulse of your project portfolio? Then, you could give project updates on an impromptu basis without breaking into a sweat, like this:

Department VP: “I just got off the phone with the customer. Where do we stand on that database merge project?”

Project lead: “Um, let me check a few things and I’ll get back to you . . . .” [Followed by panic.]

In an ideal world, you would know where all aspects of your project stand at all times: which tasks need attention, how your budget and resources are being allocated if there are any incoming risks and whether the current deadline is still realistic. You don’t want to be the one who gets blindsided by a simple status question without an intelligent answer on hand.

What’s worse is when you have to spend hours or days collecting a bunch of different updates and data from team members, then put them into a project summary for your boss—who wanted the answer yesterday.

Here are some common problems that result when you don’t have visibility into projects:

• You don’t know what’s going on with the work you’re responsible for overseeing.
• Your manager, stakeholders, and the team lose confidence in your leadership.
• You waste precious time corralling project updates from various team members.
• There’s no way to know if your team is over- or under-assigned and how resources are being managed.
• You aren’t able to see incoming risks and adjust the plan well ahead of time.
• It’s hard to make smart, savvy decisions without project data at your fingertips.

If this is the way you’re used to working, there’s probably a constant tremor of stress running through your workdays (and your team’s), whether you realize it or not. On a well-run project, everyone needs to have clear visibility into project status—from the executive team to project managers and team members.

This happens when you have a central location that provides instant and total visibility into all project activity. Then, you have access to key details needed to do your job well, such as who is assigned what, how much time a project item has until completion, how resources are being allocated, and how all this data affects your schedule.

Here are some key benefits of having visibility into your projects:

• You have the confidence of knowing, at all times, where your project stands.
• Your boss, stakeholders, and teams trust and respect your project leadership.
• You can use your time and project insight to craft strategy and make meaningful business decisions.
• You can manage and forecast resources accurately, and make sure your team is assigned to the right work.
• You can be a step ahead of incoming risks and plan accordingly.
• You have a better chance of delivering the project on time!

Here’s how LiquidPlanner gives you the project visibility you need

LiquidPlanner is a transparent project management software that provides a central space for comprehensive project insight. Here are some of the ways we provide visibility into project work:

Visibility across portfolios of work

The LiquidPlanner workspace gives you access to hundreds of projects and tasks in a single view. You can choose to see everything from a high-level, long-range planning view to focus in on current task activity. You can also customize how you see various project data using Dashboards, Card View, Baseline views and various reports.

Automatically updated schedule
Whenever there’s a change to a project item, the schedule automatically updates itself, in real time. And since everyone is responsible for keeping their project activities updated, you can rely on the fact that the project view and all its details give an accurate picture of where the project stands.

Resource insight

We’re one of the only resource-driven scheduling engines in the business. In the words of LiquidPlanner customer Jason Grovert, CTO at Ryland Homes, “LiquidPlanner provides visibility at all levels . . . helping us estimate schedules with confidence and manage and forecast resource availability.”

You don’t want to be caught off guard, or blindsided by unexpected surprises when you’re leading a project. With the right kind of visibility into all details of your project, you not only build trust with your stakeholders and team members, but you help forge a successful path by delivering excellent projects and on time. Why not use the PM solution of your dreams?

Project management is hard work! That’s why using the right tool can make the difference in how your organization successfully delivers projects and gives you visibility into project status. This blog represents Part Five of our nine-part eBook about common PM pain points. To learn more about how to solve PM challenges, and turn them into opportunities, download our eBook, How to Solve the Top 9 Project Management Challenges.

Tatyana Sussex coaches entrepreneurs and professionals who are launching a business or reinventing their careers–in short, she guides people through the process of creating something new. She specializes in messaging coaching for entrepreneurs who want to develop their brand, voice and professional presence, get their story into the world and connect with the right people.