SharePoint has evolved far beyond its inception as a simple document management tool. Today, it serves as a comprehensive file management platform, integrating SharePoint team sites, lists, conversations, documents, notebooks, and pages into a single ecosystem.
One of its most significant advantages for project management is its ability to centralize disparate tools into one cohesive hub. By unifying teams, groups, and calendars within a single dashboard, SharePoint eliminates the inefficiencies of juggling multiple applications.
If managing projects requires you to coordinate across departments, track multiple calendars, and communicate with various teams, SharePoint offers a structured, streamlined solution. Let’s explore how it can transform your project management approach.
SharePoint project management is a flexible approach that brings together a suite of web-based tools to help teams collaborate more effectively. The way you manage projects in SharePoint depends on your needs, but to get the most out of it, you first need a solid grasp of its core functionality.
The Project Tracker and Issues Tracker templates provide multiple views and detailed metadata for each work item, and can be easily added to a SharePoint site.
SharePoint integrates with Microsoft tools like Planner, Teams, Power Automate, Power BI, and Outlook, creating a unified platform to manage projects more efficiently. Throughout this article, we’ll refer to these integrations, so it’s helpful to understand how they work.
The first step in any successful project is securing approval, sponsorship, and resources. At CrucialLogics, we streamline this process with a custom-built application designed to simplify project creation and ensure compliance with company policies.
Our dedicated application automates project setup by:
Another option for setting up your project is to use SharePoint’s built-in project template within a SharePoint site. This ready-made structure provides an organized homepage with key project details at a glance, eliminating the need to build everything from scratch.
SharePoint keeps all project files in one place, making it easy for team members to collaborate on documents. It tracks who made changes and when, ensuring version control. You can also add extra details like project phase or status to each file.
This flexibility ensures you can stay on top of tasks in the way that works best for your team.
Teams and SharePoint integrate seamlessly, providing a unified space for communication and collaboration. You can chat about project topics on different channels, hold and record meetings, and keep all conversations and files organized by topic. It lets you access SharePoint files directly from Teams (within Microsoft Teams), share screens and work together on documents in real-time.
You can add important details to tasks and documents in SharePoint by using metadata. By selecting the "Add Column" tab, you can include extra information such as project phase, priority level, due dates, responsible team members, and status updates. This helps make it easier to find specific items, filter/sort/group data, generate reports, and track progress.
SharePoint offers robust workflow automation through Power Automate, which integrates triggers based on both documents, and list items such as tasks. Common document-based triggers include:
For tasks, triggers include:
You can automate key project management tasks to streamline your workflow, such as sending reminders for approaching deadlines, automatically updating task statuses, routing items for approval, and notifying team members of changes. Additionally, you can set up custom notifications, with alerts sent via email, Teams messages, or project channels.
The project closure process begins with a pre-closure checklist, which includes documenting completion status, reviewing outstanding tasks, gathering final approvals, verifying deliverables, and notifying the team.
Next, site closure actions are taken, such as archiving the Team and setting the SharePoint site to read-only, exporting key metrics, and saving a project summary. Finally, documentation is completed, including lessons learned, a project closure report and a final status update.
SharePoint is a powerful platform that integrates project management, communication, and collaboration into one cohesive ecosystem. What makes it even more valuable is its flexibility; it adapts to various project management methodologies, allowing you to customize how you manage projects, track progress, and view status.
At CrucialLogics, we specialize in developing and implementing scalable, secure collaboration solutions like SharePoint. If you're looking to migrate, set up, or refine SharePoint within your organization, speak with us today for a detailed consultation.