The following scenario is probably all too familiar to many: The email inbox is overflowing, notes with to-dos, ideas and call notifications are lying on the table and there are tons of tasks noted in various digital tools and communication apps anyway. "What do I do next?" is therefore a question that is becoming increasingly difficult to answer.
In order to be able to better assess which task should be completed next, it is worth first collecting the tasks from various sources. A standardized evaluation system can then be introduced, taking into account established time and project management methods. Examples that can be mentioned in this context are the Eisenhower principle(urgency/importance matrix), critical path management, the G.T.D. method ("Gettings Things Done") or the Pareto principle. The individual or a project group chooses the appropriate method from all of these. You've already guessed it or have already made the painful experience yourself: if you have a choice, you're spoiled for choice. An old problem from the field of business basics for "techies".
Shouldn't it be possible to automatically apply proven methods based on the metadata of tasks and thus provide a task guide?
As a digital agency, we asked ourselves precisely this question. After reviewing thousands of completed tasks and their metadata, we came to the conclusion that large parts of task and workload management can indeed be supported automatically.
Since the beginning of 2019, arocom has been using a self-developed online tool for this purpose, which merges processes from several task and ticket systems and automatically prioritizes all these tasks centrally according to self-defined criteria.
One of the aims in developing this tool was to
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to take into account the different service levels of our customers in the processing sequence.
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to enable the highest possible capacity utilization with minimal waiting and set-up times. (See also project resource planning)
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ensure that deadlines are met, but that important issues are not pushed further and further back.
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to create transparency within the team as to who is working on which task and when, and what the current workload is.
It remains to be seen whether this new tool category is only recommended for software development companies. There are currently no plans to launch it as a product. However, we would be happy to show interested parties our solution approach, also as a suggestion for their own process optimizations!
Glossary:
Metadata: Data about data, e.g. creation date, creator
Communication apps: Slack, WhatsApp, Skype, ...
Deadlines: Submission date/ deadline
Task and ticket systems: Jira, Redmine, Gitlab, Asana, ...
