Timeline Management and Project Oranizing Tools
Continuing on our theme of Medical Writing Superpowers (Efficiency, Compliance, Cooperation, Accuracy, Consistency, Presentation, Voice) and the tools to help you achieve them, I wanted to next highlight timeline and organizing tools.
Timeline Management Tools (Activate your powers for Efficiency, Compliance, Cooperation)
Timelines drive our work. Staying sharp and communicating changes in real time to key stakeholders is vital to project success.
Often the project management of the document development process falls to the document owner and primary author – the MW.
There are software solutions that help take some of the pain out of timeline management.
Look for solutions that allow you to distribute to others easily, that allow task completion steps to be recorded, easily adjust dates downstream when changes (inevitably) occur, and aren’t too complicated or overengineered for what you need as a user.
Project Organizing Tools (Activate your powers for Efficiency, Compliance, Cooperation)
Along a similar line to timeline tools are other, broader project organizing tools.
These tools can be a combination of specialized tools used together or a single, more inclusive software. They can be installed software or cloud-based.
Whether you have a single writing project or 10, are independent or part of a cross-functional team, your goal in using these tools should be to keep order and make everyone’s life easier.
Staying organized reduces errors and miscommunication and make projects run smoother.
Overall project trackers should be able to manage timeline, team composition, contact information, resourcing, and messaging for superior document management.
Project status dashboards can be very helpful in keeping all parties informed and on track.
Ideally this system allows you to create an audit trail for the actions of the project as it developed.
Layering projects together in such a system allows you and your teams to track project metrics and more complex submissions.
Michael Claffey
Chief Operating Officer