5 Symptoms You’ve Outgrown Excel as Your Project Management Tool

The end of this year is fast approaching. There’s a nip in the air, football on TV, and vibrant colors on the trees. If you’re smart, it also means that you’re looking at your financial statements and starting to do some tax planning. Or, you’re reviewing your department’s budget and seeing how much is left for the next couple of months. 

What can you do if your accountant comes back and says to spend more to reduce your tax liability, or your budget is in a “use it or lose it” situation? What are some smart ways to spend these funds? Let’s face it, you can only buy so many koozies with your logo on them. 

Well, one area funds are wisely spent is technology. This is especially true if you are still using the most common project management tool of all… Excel. 

Symptoms of Needing a Technology Upgrade 

Excel has its place, especially for small project teams or project sizes. But it can only go so far. The following are 5 symptoms you’ve outgrown Excel or a similar tool you may be using. 

1. Difficulty in Managing Multiple Projects - If all you need is a task list with due dates, responsibilities, and status for a handful of projects, Excel is perfect. Go beyond five projects and you are quickly going to find yourself in trouble. If you actively manage 6-10 projects, it’s time for an upgrade. 
2. There are Multiple Sources of Truth - Is this the latest budget? Is this the latest schedule? Does this include the updates from our last meeting? Standalone spreadsheets can quickly get out of sync, no matter how good your team is at version control. If you need one source of unarguable truth, it’s time for an upgrade. 
3. Not Knowing What People Are Working On - Working on spreadsheets or standalone tools may be good if there are only a few resources or your team is in one place. All you need to do is look over your shoulder or step around a corner to see what someone is working on. This nicety disappears when you have lots of people in multiple locations working on various projects. If you find yourself overscheduling or under-scheduling your people, it’s time for an upgrade. 
4. No Historical Data - “Those that fail to learn from history are bound to repeat it”, or so said Winston Churchill. If you make the same mistakes repeatedly when it comes to scheduling, budgeting, pricing, or any other project work, it’s time for an upgrade. 
5. Poor Collaboration - “It sure would have been nice to know that the team over there invented the wheel, because we just spent months over here coming up with the same thing!” If this has ever happened to you, then it’s time for an upgrade. 

Upgrade to What? 

We are unabashedly going to recommend Asana. The PMO Squad is an official partner of Asana and can help you level up your Technology game. Schedule a free Discovery session with us today and eliminate all your technology upgrade symptoms!  If Asana isn’t a fit for your team, not a problem.  We support PMOs and Organizations using a variety of the other solutions on the market.  Connect with us today to see which technology solution is best for you.