Many people confuse online task management with online project management. They tend to think of these two disciplines interchangeably, and that can be dangerous to the long-term success of your organization, especially when it comes to tool selection and risk management. It’s important to differentiate between the two, so that expectations can be set properly across the organization and with outside stakeholders.

Projects are always made up of tasks, but tasks are not necessarily part of projects

It goes without saying that tasks are the building blocks of projects. When we start to tackle a project, one of the first things we do is to break it down into discreet tasks. Those tasks are typically short in duration and assigned to one person. The focused team or team member will do a great job of knocking off tasks from their list, and in doing so they may collectively get entire projects done, too.

But every task on our to-do list is not necessarily part of a project. Most of us who work on projects also have some collection of additional tasks listed on Post-It notes, online trackers, and whiteboards. We’re scrambling to manage and prioritize both project tasks and non-project tasks (not to mention collaborate on them!), which begs for an online tracking solution.

But how is managing projects online different than managing tasks online? To answer that question, let’s look at the different choices available to us.

Online task management: the path of least resistance

Do a search for “online project management,” and you’ll see hundreds of products that label themselves as project management tools. But beware: if you try to find anything more sophisticated than task due dates or a list of milestones, you’ll often be disappointed.

Led by Basecamp, these task management tools have been extremely effective in two key ways: they’ve provided a common web-based interface in which teams can work together and collaborate. And they’ve given those teams a way to list tasks and due dates that is sufficient for front-line workers who are primarily concerned with their own productivity.

Simple? Yes. Powerful? Debatable. They beat the heck out of Post-It notes, but if you only go so far as managing lists of tasks, you may expose your project team to some unintended risks.

Online project management: taking task management to the next level

For teams trying to get major initiatives accomplished (or even many smaller concurrent projects), simple task lists with due dates won’t quite cut it. Task management applications don’t give the project manager who is tasked with overseeing the project (or portfolio of projects) any insight into these key areas:

• Task estimation – How long will each task take? How long will the project as a whole take?
• Project scheduling – Will the person assigned to the work actually be able to complete it by the due date? Will the project as a whole be done on time?
• Resource and capacity planning – Does the team have enough resources to complete the project to spec, or do scope-cutting or resource balancing steps need to be taken?
• Portfolio-wide management – What projects are priorities for the organization? Are they adequately staffed or funded?
• Risk management – Is the right amount of progress being made? Are there areas of risk in the plan that need attention?

Understanding these aspects of your project doesn’t require an advanced degree or formal certification. But it does require a bit more information than you can put into your task management tool. Things like availability and work estimates create another axis of information that informs critical business decisions, which directly impact the bottom line.

Can you have your cake and eat it, too?

Online task management is a great way to get teams accustomed to the basic principles of online project management (i.e., getting things done!). It helps keep team members focused on what they need to get done every day, and it provides an easy way for collaborating online.

But while task management applications serve the front line workers well, project managers require a more sophisticated set of controls on the back end. Our goal at LiquidPlanner is to provide the best of both worlds. It gives individual contributors a “task list” type view into their project work (and a way to track non-project tasks), and at the same time, give project managers the tools they need to see and manage the big picture.