Meet 5 ideal management tools to improve your organizational routine

Management methodologies, software and tools are options companies use as a strategy to monitor and optimize processes, and they have become increasingly popular with the adoption of home officeopens in a new tab (in Portuguese).

In addition, with many companies also adopting the hybrid work modelopens in a new tab (in Portuguese), having these options is very important to make it easier for employees to access tasks and to optimize the controls and management processes on the managers’ side.

In this article, Tangerino, digital time trackingopens in a new tab (in Portuguese), presents some management methodologies, software and tools that, with the important participation of technology, make teamwork faster and more productive.

Meet some of the main management tools

Effective management values control of processes, quality of tasks, deliveries always on time and integration between teams so that everyone knows their role in the organization and its importance in the process.

Today, with the help of technology, there are several management tools that make companies’ day-to-day much easier to run. They are techniques and methodologies that help run projects effectively and deliver results. See the management tools most used by companies:

1. 5W2H

5W2Hopens in a new tab is a management tool with a checklist-style methodology that helps leaders and teams gain more clarity and certainty about tasks and projects. With it, you can build an action plan for more assertive decision-making.

It presents a list of 7 questions that, once answered, show the path to solving the demand and make it much easier to focus on quality without missing the deadline:

5W:

• What?: what action is to be carried out;
• Why?: why the project needs to be done;
• When?: when the action will be carried out and how much time will be needed to execute the project;
• Where?: where each step will be conducted and where the project will take place;
• Who?: who will be involved in the project.

2H:

• How?: how the project will be carried out;
• How much?: how much the project will cost, assessing cost versus benefit and, if needed, guiding adjustments before carrying out the project.

2. PDCA

PDCA, or the PDCA Cycle, seeks continuous improvement of processes in companies. The methodology aims to reduce costs and increase profits, while keeping the focus on customer satisfaction. The acronym stands for:

• Plan: evaluate and identify the problems in a process, pointing out the causes in order to eliminate the error while still in the process;
• Do: what was planned is put into action;
• Check: evaluate whether what was executed worked or is working, and the company can evaluate during the process, after it is complete or both;
• Act: based on what was found in the process, it is time to identify what worked and implement that action, and to evaluate what can be improved and, in this way, start a new PDCA cycle.

3. SWOT analysis

A tool that helps the company identify internal aspects of the organization, such as weaknesses and strengths, and also external ones, which are opportunities and threats.

As for internal aspects, the organization should be able to identify and correct mistakes and highlight its qualities; as for external aspects, which it does not control, it should stay alert to explore the contexts and become more competitive. The acronym SWOT stands for:

• Strengths: the company’s strong points that can be leveraged to increase goal achievement;
• Weaknesses: weak points the company needs to work on internally;
• Opportunities: assesses the whole external scenario, the market as a whole, to follow trends and innovations;
• Threats: possible changes that can affect the company negatively and, from there, the organization should develop its strategy to overcome them.

4. PM Canvas

A methodology that aims to organize demands, especially visually, so that all team members can take part in organizing them and understand what each person is doing in that context.

The idea is to gather all the information on one page, in an objective and easy-to-understand way. It suggests that this organization should be done from the following questions:

• Why?
• What?
• Who?
• How?
• When?
• How much?

With this, the organization of demands and the completion of tasks are believed to happen with a focus on the steps and on meeting deadlines.

5. PMBOK Guide

The PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) is a guide that has existed since 1996, with a new edition every four years, created to standardize project managementopens in a new tab practices while always respecting each company’s particularities.

The general goals of the guide are:

• to formulate professional standards for project management;
• to produce knowledge through research;
• to make project management a profession through its certification programs.

With project management becoming more and more present in the market, the guide emerged as a way to gather in a single document all the fundamental information for project managers, who mainly have to deal with priorities, deadlines, processes and costs.

Management apps and software that support remote work

To put management tools into practice in companies, the use of technology is, without a doubt, indispensable. Several programs, software and apps have been used in every work format and no longer only in telework and home officeopens in a new tab (in Portuguese).

Adopting these technologies makes processes inside companies even easier and, as a result, boosts the results of the management tools the teams use. See some examples:

Zoom

Without a doubt, this is one of the software products that became best known and most used during home office and, even with the return to in-person work, it is still widely used.

Zoom is a platform for video calls, enabling online meetings with up to 1,000 participants at the same time, offering options such as screen sharing for slide and document presentations, and making it possible to record meetings and share them later.

Trello

To make team task management easier, Trello is a system that uses boards, lists and cards to help organize the delivery of demands while always keeping an eye on deadlines.

The idea is that everyone can understand how tasks are organized quickly and simply, and can visually identify tasks that are already complete, in progress or pending review, for example.

Google Drive

Cloud storageopens in a new tab (in Portuguese) is one of the main technologies that emerged to make life easier for companies.

Google Drive is one of the best-known examples and, because it offers a free storage package, it is widely used.

In it, you can include files in all formats, from text, spreadsheets, videos, images and audio, which can be shared with everyone who has access to the folder created.

It also lets everyone with authorization make changes in real time, as in text documents.

Online time tracking

An important part of remote management of teams and projects, the online time trackingopens in a new tab (in Portuguese) system, which is HR software, lets the manager follow the team more closely and also analyze the ratio between tasks and working time, to understand whether a department is overloaded or needs support.

Working hoursopens in a new tab (in Portuguese) control is very important because, besides showing the productivity factor, it also provides very important data for HR, such as overtimeopens in a new tab (in Portuguese), time banks, absences and delays.

This control is possible thanks to technology, which allows installing an appopens in a new tab (in Portuguese) on the employee’s phone or laptop. Even from home, they can clock in when starting and ending their workday.

The record is made securely and quickly, and the information is immediately sent to the company, which can access reports and carry out truly effective time tracking.

Team Viewer

A solution widely used by Information Technology and support departments, Team Viewer lets a person remotely access computers and laptops.

The user must install the program, open it and access a number, such as a code that shows the computer’s IP, for example, which must be given to the person who will access the machine.

As soon as the support person types the code on their computer, inside the program, they can enter the computer’s screen and make the necessary fixes, changes and installations.

This program is widely used when companies do not have an IT department in-house and outsource the service. That way, support does not need to perform maintenance in person.

With technology, companies are able to offer quality and comfort in the workplace, which results in more quality and productivity among teams. Management tools, as well as software and apps, are fundamental to making employees’ day-to-day faster and delivering more results, which helps the company grow and increases competitiveness in the market.