Differences between Work Management and Project Management 

Juliet D'cruz

Updated on:

Differences between Work Management and Project Management 

Why Should You Implement a Work Management Software?

Project management and work management are terms that are often confused and used interchangeably. At times project managers may use several terms to mention achieving particular goals. However, it is imperative that you understand the main differences between these two terms as that could enable you to decide the type of tool or solution you require to solve a challenge or accomplish a certain goal. So, read on to understand the definitions of work and project management, their key differences, and how work management solutions can help you. 

Difference between work management and project management

While both project management and work management can be categorized as collaboration tools, there are differences between both. Understanding these differences helps you opt for the right solution for your team. Similar to other collaboration tools, project and work management assist teams and various people to collaborate seamlessly and work together. Be it email management to the chat software, video conferencing, or time-tracking, various teams are implementing collaboration tools to communicate, share files, etc.—especially in times of remote working. The key difference between work management and project management lies in the methods used in both.

Defining project management

Project management is an approach or way to manage projects of all sizes. As a first step, you define deliverables and the project’s key phases or milestones within the established timeframe. The right project resource management tool can help you to attain a specific target. Resource and project management solutions aim to that you can complete a specific project in the established timeframe. This provides an outline or plan of tasks that should be completed so that all the deliverables can be sent on time as per specific milestones. Project management is a technique of achieving a project’s key objectives by applying different processes, subject matter knowledge, and skills. Project managers usually possess specific skills that help their team to complete the projects within the timeline and budget.  

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Defining work management

Work management, on the other hand, is a combination of some software products and services used to apply structure to your workflows, movement of information, and business processes. Work management reorganizes and transforms key business processes and leads to better results and performance. Work management is basically a tool to manage your operations to ensure that all tasks in a project are completed on time and within the pre-determined cost. It helps you to efficiently plan, monitor, and organize all the activities that need to be done with the objective of enhancing performance. A work management tool helps to align the routine tasks, job responsibilities, and all the deliverables for your projects. This way, you can clearly see the work at hand, and your team members will be able to perform with efficiency and attain their goals faster. Work management is a step ahead of project management as with it, you can also manage the procedures or processes that do not have a specific end date. This even includes managing new hire onboarding with the software to save time and effort. 

Importance of work management

Work management is imperative because it helps your team to manage their tasks without definite timelines or with recurring cycles. Using work management software helps you to plan the projects in your pipeline and your team’s activities effectively. Such a tool allows you to clearly visualize all the tasks and sub-tasks and create a proper workflow. You can implement work management approaches for:

  • Handling the employee onboarding checklists
  • Monitoring all marketing campaigns and other project activities in real-time
  • Supervising several related projects
  • Maintaining all the editorial calendars
  • Organizing portfolio management workflows
  • Automating and delegating tasks
  • Handling program and project management

How is a work management tool more useful than project management software?

Project management software helps to focus on your projects through proper planning, execution, resource allocation, management, and finally reaching your goals. Whereas to work as an effective team in any business, just completing individual tasks doesn’t help. A work management tool not only helps to complete and deliver individual projects successfully but also ensures that none of the tasks or projects gets derailed. It also helps to create repetitive processes and automated systems that your team members can utilize to accomplish all the projects. In addition, work management software also helps in connecting an employee’s task to the larger organizational goals. Therefore, when people know how their work is impacting the business or organization’s goals, they tend to become more serious and more motivated.

Features of work management software

So, now you know that using a work management tool offers a lot of benefits. Let’s dig deeper to understand the features of a work management solution.

  • Task management: Such a tool helps in creating and assigning tasks to employees, setting a priority from those tasks, and monitoring the progress of the work to manage the deadlines and costs.
  • Balanced workload: A work management tool offers clearer visibility into all the projects and resources in an organization, the status of all the projects, how all resources are scheduled, etc. This enables project managers to assign new tasks to their team members in a balanced way and avoid over or under allocation.
  • File storage and sharing: Such a tool acts as a single repository or a centralized location to save all data, important information, and documents in an online platform, which can be accessed by anyone at any time, with ease.
  • Effective resource management: A work management tool helps in creating a schedule that your team can use. They can log in and easily find who is assigned which task. This avoids duplication of work, tracks if any member is overworked, and monitors if all activities are completed on time.
  • Efficient reporting: This tool also helps to create comprehensive reports and visual dashboards about your resources. This enables them to track their progress, the status of work, time, and budget tracking updates all the stakeholders, and identify any loopholes.
  • Communication platform: Such a collaboration tool also acts as a message board where people can leave comments, get alerts about upcoming schedules, and receive notifications about the status and progress, or any amendments to the workload.
  • Streamline projects and tasks: A work management tool also helps to set your priorities within multiple projects. It allows you to prepare detailed plans, break down your projects into tasks and smaller sub-tasks, and then monitor the status of each task.
  • Time tracking: The right work management tool also helps to track the hours spent on a project, does time management with timesheets, and also generates time reports, which further helps in identifying any red flags or blockages in the workflow.
  • Visibility about utilization and productivity: A work management solution also makes it possible to monitor your team’s productivity, performance, and utilization in just a few clicks. It’s easy to check the status of the projects, see what is completed, in progress, or pending, and forecast any impending challenges. Moreover, many companies implement a work management tool, which utilizes agile methodologies to enhance their efficiency. 

In addition, there are options available to customize work management tools to incorporate certain modules that may be useful or specific to your industry or business. You may include any third-party software integrations, invoicing, CRM, proofreading, and prototyping.

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Enbraun’s flagship product and an award-winning resource and work management software,  eResource Scheduler enables the consolidation of all the key data in one central, online location, which becomes easy to access. It offers clear visibility to the employees and highlights any challenges or if there are conflicting priorities. It also provides deep insights on resource allocation, scheduling, resource management, utilization, timeline management, and more. Investing in this leading cloud-based work management and resource management tool helps in keeping a tab on the capacity, team’s workload, utilization, performance, and profitability. If you wish to optimize your team’s capacity and performance, create a perfect project plan and resource schedule, and sign up for a free trial of this work management tool today.

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