How important is time management to a project manager?  Turns out, it is very important. Every project manager wants to keep a project on budget and on time, and one of the ways to avoid unexpected costs is to stay on top of all project tasks and deliverables and keep the work running smoothly.

There are usually many people involved in large projects.  The project manager has to establish milestones and deliverables, and figure out what tasks need to be performed, in what order, by whom, and by when in order to hit all the milestone dates. Then, the project manager must see to it that all tasks are being performed and completed on time by the appropriate people and all deliverables meet their deadlines.  If something slips (whether it is a task not being done or the task’s completion not being communicated to the next person), the delay can translate into increased costs.

In order to stay on top of everything, especially when dealing with multiple projects, a project manager should be highly organized and detail-oriented and be able to see a project’s real-time progress at any time. Project management software, such as the Spitfire Project Management System, that takes care of the organization, details, and required communication is an incredible help. Both the most unorganized and the most detail-oriented project managers benefit from software that automatically sets due dates; automatically sends documents to the “next person”; automatically alerts him when something is coming due or is past due; automatically stores “paper” trails of communications; and tracks and presents all current project information at-a-glance.  Such savings of the project manager’s time are significant and such information allows the project manager to better stay on budget.