Welcome to the 2nd Edition of Microsoft 365 for Construction *Task Management*

Welcome to the 2nd Edition of our LinkedIn newsletter. Our first edition was very well received, and a significant number of LinkedIn connections have subscribed, which is fantastic!

If you haven't subscribed already, what are you waiting for :). Also, if you know of others who could benefit from this newsletter, please share as we are trying to grow our subscriber base.

For each edition, we will discuss Microsoft 365 functionality and how it can benefit the construction industry. Last edition we covered AI (Copilot). In this edition, I'll cover Microsoft 365 applications that can be used for task management.

If you find this newsletter useful and are looking to learn more or share your insights, sign up for our Microsoft 365 for Construction group and follow our company page.

Thanks!

Jeff

Opinions on new tech and the overall theme of the newsletter

Task management is the foundation of construction management or any type of management for that matter. From tracking issues to capturing punch list items, every aspect of a project can be broken down into manageable tasks.

A task is a definitive piece of work assigned to or expected from a person. It usually includes a detailed action/deliverable, assignee, due date, status, and actual completion date. Tasks can further take the form of Gantt schedules on construction projects where each task is part of a larger network that drives the completion of the overall project.

In this newsletter, we will touch on the task management applications of Microsoft 365, and which ones could work best for your construction projects. We include links to a couple of articles on task management that we have written, including an overview of our own Task Management application for Construction Viz.

I hope this newsletter can provide options and use cases for implementing one or more Microsoft 365 task management applications to help save time and money on your projects.

Microsoft 365 features and technologies that may benefit your construction projects.

Comparing Microsoft 365 Task Management applications

There are numerous Microsoft 365 applications that you could use to manage tasks on your construction projects. This assessment will focus primarily on applications where you could hit the ground running with minimal customization. Be aware that any Microsoft 365 application can be modified using the Power Platform (Power Apps, Power BI, Power Automate, etc.) to deliver a task management solution for your organization.

Here's my take on Microsoft 365 task management applications (in ascending order by complexity):

Outlook. Yep, I went here first??. This is because many construction organizations just send emails to assign tasks. It’s simple and gets the job done.

• Pros: Easy to use. Email is an everyday business staple and includes automated notifications so you can review and respond on any device wherever you are.
• Cons: No centralized shared issue tracking. Users must scour emails for tasks assigned to them or set up rules to group emails by the sender.

Excel. Excel is the GOAT of construction applications. Excel has been the go-to for tracking everything in construction since the end of life of Lotus 1-2-3. For those who aren’t old enough to remember Lotus 1-2-3, here’s an interesting video on the spreadsheet wars history and how Excel beat out Lotus 1-2-3 to dominate the industry:

To Do. To Do is more of a personal task manager, but tasks can be shared with team members.

• Pros: Easy to use. The mobile app is excellent for capturing tasks on the fly.
• Cons: Tasks can be shared with team members, but the master task list resides with a single user. Also, there is no built-in project-specific tracking.

Lists. Lists is a modern application that saves data to SharePoint lists. Lists is easy to use and can track any project deliverables in a configurable list/grid with the ability to create custom views.

• Pros: Easy to use. Flexible as to what can be tracked. Leverages SharePoint Lists so the functionality can be easily extended within SharePoint or with the Power Platform. Lists could be created as separate projects, and you can create list templates for reusability. The Lists app can be added to Teams and SharePoint. Also, there is a mobile version of Lists as well.
• Cons: There is no out-of-the-box project field, so it would need to be added ideally as a SharePoint site column in order for it to be reused across multiple project lists. There is no ability to roll up lists across multiple lists/projects.

Planner. Planner is a modern application that is truly focused on task management. Multiple views help you manage tasks, including Grid view of all tasks, Board for a Kanban-style view, Charts for a graphical view of task status and ownership, and a Schedule view for a calendar view of upcoming tasks.

• Pros: Easy to use. You can create Plans from within Teams. There are multiple views of tasks so you can stay on top of progress.
• Cons: You can’t add column fields to customize Planner for your specific task management needs. Planner doesn’t have a project field, and you cannot roll up plans into a single plan to manage all of your projects/tasks.

Project Online. Project Online goes well beyond just task management, as it is a full-blown scheduling tool. Project Online is actually two different but connected applications: Project Web App (PWA) and Project for the Web (PFTW). Project Web App (PWA) is an older application and is designed for schedule and resource management with the ability to leverage Project Desktop. PFTW is a modern application that will, in the future, replace PWA, but for now, it is more focused on task management. For this assessment, we will focus on PFTW.

• Pros: Easy to use. It’s flexible and you can add your own columns to track your task-specific fields. The user interface for PFTW is similar to Planner but includes more features. Project has the ability to track tasks by project, add task relationships, assign percent complete, and manage user effort. Multiple views will help you manage tasks, including Grid to see all of your tasks, Board which is a Kanban view of your tasks, Timeline which is a traditional Gantt chart, Chart is a graphical view of task statuses and level of effort, People which is a Kanban view by user, Goals which allow you to assign tasks to an overall goal and track progress against it, and Assignments where you can see every task assigned by user. Also, there is a Roadmap feature where you can roll tasks from multiple projects into a Timeline/Gantt chart view. Both Projects and Roadmaps can be added in Teams.
• Cons: Additional subscription cost. Projects might be overkill for simple task management.

If you are considering Planner or Project, the article below provides a more detailed assessment of the two products.

Microsoft Planner vs. Project: Which Should You Use for Team Tasks??

Microsoft offers two similar products in Microsoft 365 for managing team tasks. Which one will work best for your needs? Read on to discover the pros and cons of Microsoft Planner vs. Microsoft Project.?

New features and functionality of Construction Viz, our construction project management solution for Microsoft 365.

Construction Viz is Lydon Solutions enterprise construction management solution for Microsoft 365. We provide many different construction applications to help you manage your construction projects in your Microsoft 365 tenant. Check out the article below to find out how our Task Manager app can help you manage your project tasks.

If you can measure it, you can manage it with Construction Viz Task Manager

Being a construction project manager is a demanding job where all responsibility for a project's success falls on your shoulders. You spend most of your time herding cats, trying to hold your team members accountable while working in a matrixed organization.

We designed the Construction Viz Task Manager App for project managers like you. Construction Viz Task Manager has everything you need to plan, track, and report on your team's project and program tasks within one powerful app. Click here to see the functionality of this application and how it can benefit your project teams.

Future events, training, webinars, final thoughts, your take, and wrap-up

Upcoming Webinar

On October 19th we will be providing an online demo of the Project Tracker app for Construction Viz. The Project Tracker app is a web-based, full-lifecycle management solution for construction projects.

The application has been used by major utilities and construction companies to track hundreds of thousands of activities across thousands of job sites. It enhances collaboration between mobile and office-based teams by providing a single source of truth for all project information. If you are interested in attending, click here to register.

Final Thoughts

OK, so which task management application should I use?

Of course, it depends. There are many questions that need to be answered first. Typically, when Lydon Solutions engages a client, we look at a variety of factors before we recommend a path forward with any Microsoft 365 application or even our own Construction Viz product. We have found that every company, project, and project manager manages projects differently, so we need to take a few items into consideration first before we plan a course forward.

Considerations for an organization should include:

• Is cost an issue? Can you spend more money over and above your existing Microsoft 365 subscription?
• Which Microsoft 365 applications is your team already familiar with and want to use or are forced to use?
• How complex is your task management process and tracking requirements? Do you need to track tasks separately with separate project lists or can this be done in one list? Do you need Gantt chart scheduling or is a list fine? Do you need further customizations?
• What are your permissions and access requirements? Can external users create tasks?
• How simple does the solution need to be and how fast do you want to roll out a solution?
• Do you have resources to support the implementation of a task management solution?

In summary, there are many Microsoft 365 applications available for task management. Before you jump in and start tracking tasks, I recommend taking the time to do some upfront planning, not unlike what you would do for any construction project.

Also, we've found the most common challenge to rolling out any construction management solution is moving users away from using Outlook and Excel for managing projects. Unfortunately, switching to online task-specific applications may seem appealing to many organizations, but in some cases, it makes sense to meet users where they work. If Outlook and Excel are what team members want to use, you can still be creative with the Power Platform to deliver a task management solution that makes them happy while management gets the visibility they need. The key to rolling out an IT solution is ensuring that users will actually use the system and not revert back to their old ways, which is what we often see in the construction software space.

Wrap-Up

If you have come this far, thank you for checking out our second newsletter. Please subscribe and share if you find the newsletter valuable. You can follow our Lydon Solutions LinkedIn company page here and join our new Microsoft 365 for Construction group here where you can ask questions and share ideas with the larger team.

Also, check out our Lydon Solutions website for more content and request a free one-hour consultation or a demo of Construction Viz here.