Project Management Tool

We have a full time PM and a full time assistant for our HOA> Our PM is great in many ways, but not so great at keeping track of all the outstanding projects and communicating their status to the board. We get a weekly manager's report but it's missing a few things and some items that should be in a her tickler file don't show up. It's not that she's doing a bad job because she does follow up on things, she just doesn't communicate all that is going on in a logical way. At least one of the other board members is complaining also.

I'm wondering if anyone has a good project tracker that they use for their community. I started a spreadsheet with all the outstanding projects but I'd like something a little more detailed. I looked online but couldn't find anything that exactly fit.

This is a shot in the dark but wondering if there's already something out there. Thanks.

If you can provide private e-mail address that you don't mind posting here, I can e-mail you a copy of the project management Excel spreadsheet that we use. You can give this to your property manager for her to fill out and then request copies of it for your board meetings.

If you do not wish to provide a private e-mail address, I can describe it here but that will be more complicated.

Thanks for the offer. You can send it to lorimflorida @ gmail.com

I know there are lots of project tools out there. I use several in my work now. However, I'm not trying to create more work for the PM since many of the tools have a learning curve. I just want something simple and thought another association might have one that's a little more functional than a list made in excel.

Another board member and I are going to sit with her this week and put together a list of all the outstanding projects, big and small, and also all the upcoming contracts for renewal. As I said before, she's a really good PM and I have very few complaints, but she really needs to work on communicating all she's working on to the board. I don't want to sit in the office every day just to find things out and her weekly managers report is not complete.

Thanks for the help and opinions.

This may or may not help: for many, many years I’ve used an extremely minimal system that is highly portable and very effective:

1. Create a plain text file called work.txt.
2. work.txt will always be open or ‘highly available’ on your desktop.
3. Use the world’s simplest ToDo list:

“-“ is a to-do item.
“x-“ is a to-do item in progress (ie, I left a message, awaiting callback).
“x” is a completed item.
Insert dates and times as necessary.

That’s pretty much it. It’s free-form. Don’t delete completed items - just continue making small lists down the page. If work.txt gets too large, start a new one (and save the old one). Note that this system

- is free
- has an extremely tiny learning curve
- requires only a text editor (thus it works everywhere)
- works well with “cloud” apps like iOS Notes

It may seem *too* simple. I’d counter that if a person can’t handle this simple system, they’re unlikely to handle anything fancier or more complicated. Tracking tasks and work items is more a matter of habits and practices than of ‘software’.

Over time, a person who uses this system will accumulate a nice list of accomplishments. Which is extremely handy if they’re ever called upon to write a progress report. Or for those occasions when the boss asks you “So what have you been doing with your time lately?” Etc.

I hope this is helpful. It may not be useful in all situations. I won’t try to argue it. I *will* say that I used this system during my career at a Fortune 500 and worked my way up to into mgmt, wealth, and early retirement. When I taught it to my son, he began getting straight A’s in college. There’s no actual magic involved - it’s all a matter of building proper habits.

BillD

Try "Microsoft To-Do".
You may already have it installed on your computer by default.

It is so simple,
but you can add an attachment to a task, due date, notes, without it getting cluttered.