Welcome to BSBPEF402 – Developing Personal Work Priorities!
This module is designed to help you develop essential skills for managing your work, whether in a project management setting or everyday tasks. You’ll learn how to create detailed work plans, balancing resources, stakeholder needs, and team goals. You'll also explore how to use business tools for scheduling and prioritising tasks, as well as methods for reviewing your performance and using feedback to improve. By the end, you will have the confidence to organise your workload effectively.
In this first topic, you will cover:
- Creating work plans that consider resource requirements, stakeholder needs, and workgroup targets.
- Using business technology applications to schedule tasks and plan work.
- Reviewing personal work performance through self-assessment and feedback from others.
- Preparing personal plans and establishing priorities.
- Gathering, analysing, and interpreting feedback to improve work performance.
A work plan is a structured outline that helps organise tasks and activities to achieve specific objectives.
In project management, a work plan is crucial because it provides a clear framework for completing tasks efficiently and meeting project objectives. It helps in:
- Defining tasks and priorities: Ensures that all essential activities are clearly identified and organised.
- Allocating resources: Identifies what tools, personnel, and materials are needed.
- Managing timelines: Establishes deadlines for different phases of the project.
- Aligning with stakeholder expectations: Ensures the project meets the needs of those involved.
- Tracking progress: Helps monitor and adjust tasks as needed for successful project delivery.
A work plan typically includes key details such as:
- Objective
- Tasks
- Resource requirements
- Stakeholder needs
- Workgroup targets
- Timeline
- Progress review
Let’s break down each key detail of a work plan:
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Objective: The objective is the clear and specific goal that the work plan aims to achieve. It outlines the purpose of the tasks and gives direction to the entire project. Having a well-defined objective ensures that everyone involved understands the desired outcome and works towards it.
The objective of a marketing campaign could be to increase brand awareness by 20% in the next quarter.
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Tasks: Tasks are the individual actions or steps that need to be completed to achieve the objective. Tasks should be broken down into manageable actions and assigned to relevant team members to ensure progress is made toward the overall goal.
Tasks for a website redesign project could include creating wireframes, designing the user interface, and testing the functionality.
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Resource Requirements: This refers to the materials, equipment, or personnel needed to complete tasks. Properly identifying these ensures that you have everything in place to avoid delays and resource shortages during the project.
For a marketing project, resources might include a graphic designer, design software, and social media accounts.
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Stakeholder Needs: Stakeholders can include clients, team members, or anyone affected by the project. Understanding their expectations helps align project outcomes with their needs, improving satisfaction and success rates.
A stakeholder might want regular updates and a final report showing how the project benefits their business.
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Workgroup Targets: These are specific goals or performance metrics set for the team. Clear targets guide the team’s efforts, ensuring everyone works towards the same objectives within set timelines.
A target could be completing the project’s first phase within two weeks, with 80% task completion.
- Timeline: The timeline is the schedule that outlines the start and end dates for tasks and milestones. It helps ensure that the project progresses in an organised manner and that deadlines are met. Timelines can be adjusted as needed, but a clear timeline helps keep the team focused and on track.
A product development project may have a 6-month timeline, with key tasks like prototyping and testing mapped out at specific intervals.
- Progress review: Progress reviews involve regularly assessing the status of the project to ensure that tasks are completed on time and objectives are being met. These reviews help identify any delays or issues and allow for necessary adjustments to the work plan. They also provide opportunities for feedback and continuous improvement.
In a construction project, a weekly progress review might track the completion of different phases, such as foundation work, framing, and inspections.
A work plan serves as a roadmap, guiding individuals or teams in managing tasks efficiently while aligning with broader project or organisational goals.
Here is a template of a work plan: Work Plan Template
Case Study
Sarah is leading a small team responsible for organising a company-wide event. She needs to create a work plan to ensure everything runs smoothly. The event requires booking a venue, coordinating catering, sending invitations, and setting up audiovisual equipment. Sarah also needs to allocate resources like team members, a budget, and equipment. Stakeholders are expecting weekly updates, and the event must be ready three weeks from now.
Quiz
Short Answer Question
Business technology applications play a crucial role in modern work environments, making it easier for individuals and teams to manage tasks efficiently and stay on track with their goals. These tools provide numerous benefits, such as automating repetitive tasks, enabling real-time collaboration, and offering data storage and access from any location. By streamlining processes, they free up valuable time for more strategic work and enhance overall productivity.
Specifically, when it comes to scheduling tasks and planning work, these applications are incredibly powerful. They allow users to schedule tasks with defined start and end dates, set priorities, and even automate recurring tasks, ensuring that important deadlines are met without requiring manual intervention every time.
In addition to scheduling, these applications facilitate resource allocation by assigning tasks to the right team members and tracking time spent on each task through time-tracking features. Milestones can be set to track progress, while built-in collaboration tools keep everyone aligned and accountable. With real-time updates, reporting, and the ability to integrate with communication platforms, business technology applications ensure that work is efficiently planned, monitored, and executed.
Here are four (4) of the best business technology applications currently used in project management to schedule tasks and plan work, along with their key features:
| Application | Overview | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Asana | Asana is a powerful project management tool designed to help teams track their work and stay organised. |
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| Trello | Trello is a flexible, card-based tool that uses a simple and visual interface for project management. |
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| Monday.com | Monday.com is a highly customisable platform that helps teams schedule tasks and manage projects across industries. |
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| Microsoft Project | Microsoft Project is a well-established project management tool designed for more complex projects. |
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Here is the bar graph comparing the four business technology applications (Asana, Trello, Monday.com, and Microsoft Project) based on key features such as task scheduling, collaboration, resource management, and reporting.
Asana
Asana is a web-based project management tool designed to help teams organise, track, and manage their work. It allows users to create projects, assign tasks, set deadlines, and monitor progress, all in a collaborative environment. Asana's main goal is to improve productivity by streamlining communication and task management so teams can focus on completing tasks rather than spending time organising them.
For the purpose of this module, we will use the free version of Asana to complete the tasks in Assessments 2.
Set up Asana
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Sign Up for Asana:
- Go to Asana's website and sign up for a free account.
- You can use your Swinburne email to sign up.
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Create a New Project:
- Once signed in, click the “+ New Project” button on the main dashboard.
- Choose “Blank Project” to start from scratch or use the “Weekly Priorities” template if available.
- Name the project something like “Personal Work Schedule”.
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Choose a Layout:
- Asana offers different views. For a personal work schedule, List View is typically best for task organisation, but Calendar View works well if you prefer to see their tasks on a visual timeline.
- Select List View to start and switch to Calendar View later.
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Add Sections (Optional):
- To break down tasks, you can create sections such as “Daily Tasks”, “Weekly Tasks”, or “Upcoming Tasks”.
- Click “Add Section” at the top to create these divisions.
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Add Tasks:
- Click “+ Add Task” to add tasks or activities to their schedule. You can add specific tasks like “Complete Research Report”, “Attend Team Meeting”, or “Prepare Presentation”.
- For each task, you can:
- Set a due date by clicking on the calendar icon.
- Assign priorities to ensure they focus on the most important tasks first.
- Add a description or subtasks for more complex tasks (like breaking down a project into smaller steps).
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Assign Deadlines and Timeframes:
- After creating tasks, you can assign specific start and due dates for each task by clicking on the calendar next to the task name.
- This will allow you to see their tasks on the Calendar View and track your personal work schedule.
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Use the Calendar View:
- Once tasks and deadlines are added, you can switch to the Calendar View to visualise the schedule. This shows all tasks laid out over a monthly or weekly calendar, making it easy to see upcoming deadlines.
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Track Progress:
- As you complete tasks, you can mark tasks as complete by checking the box next to each task. This helps keep your schedule up to date and track progress.
Watch
The video below will help you set up Asana step by step:
Practice
Practice the following example of a simple personal work schedule in Asana:
Project Name: Personal Work Schedule
Sections:
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Daily Tasks
- Task 1: Respond to emails (Due: Today)
- Task 2: Complete research (Due: Tomorrow)
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Weekly Tasks
- Task 1: Team meeting (Due: Friday, repeat weekly)
- Task 2: Project report (Due: Monday)
Switching to Calendar View would give you a clear visual layout of tasks, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.
Regularly reviewing personal work performance is crucial for continuous improvement and professional growth. It helps individuals understand their strengths and identify areas for development. By reflecting on their performance, individuals can make adjustments to enhance efficiency, productivity, and job satisfaction. Reviewing work performance also encourages accountability, helps in setting realistic goals, and contributes to meeting broader team or organisational objectives. It fosters a growth mindset, where feedback and reflection are seen as opportunities for learning and improving skills.
Methods of Personal Work Performance Review
Self-Assessment
Self-assessment involves personally reflecting on your own performance, evaluating how well you’ve completed tasks, met deadlines, and achieved your goals. It allows individuals to take ownership of their development by identifying strengths and weaknesses.
- Encourages self-awareness, helping individuals understand what they do well and where they can improve.
- Promotes independence in professional growth, as individuals set goals and track progress on their own.
- Helps in identifying personal barriers that may affect performance, such as time management or work-life balance issues.
A person might reflect on their time management over the past week and realise they spent too much time on non-priority tasks. This could lead them to adjust their daily schedule to focus more on high-priority work.
Feedback from others
Feedback from others involves gathering input from colleagues, managers, or clients to gain an external perspective on your work performance. This can be formal (performance reviews) or informal (conversations, suggestions).
- Provides an objective view of performance, offering insights into areas that may not be apparent during self-assessment.
- Encourages collaboration and open communication within teams, fostering an environment of mutual support and growth.
- Helps in identifying blind spots and areas of improvement that the individual might not be aware of.
A team member could provide feedback indicating that while the individual’s work quality is excellent, they tend to miss deadlines. This external perspective could lead to improvements in time management and communication.
Both self-assessment and feedback from others are essential methods for a comprehensive review of personal work performance. Together, they provide a balanced view, helping individuals grow both independently and through collaboration with others.
Watch
Watch the video "An Expert Perspective on How to Think About Feedback" and answer the following questions based on what you learned.
Reflection
Think of a time when you received constructive feedback. How could adopting the mindset discussed in the video have helped you handle that feedback more effectively?How to use Asana to review your performance
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Task Completion Tracking: Asana shows a clear indicator of tasks that are completed versus those that are still pending. You can track the percentage of tasks completed for a particular project or over a specific time period.
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Progress Reports: You can use Asana's reporting features to generate summaries of your task completion, timelines, and deadlines. These reports help visualise how you are performing against your goals and whether you are meeting deadlines.
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Project Dashboard: Asana’s dashboard view provides a visual representation of your progress across all tasks and projects, allowing you to quickly assess areas where you might be falling behind or excelling.
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Milestones and Goals: Asana allows you to set milestones within a project. You can review how well you’ve performed in reaching these key milestones, helping you track your progress over time.
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Workload Management: With Asana’s workload feature (premium), you can view how balanced your assigned tasks are. This helps in managing your performance by ensuring you’re not overloaded and can adjust as needed.
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Feedback from Team Members: Asana integrates collaboration and communication. You can receive direct feedback from colleagues on tasks via comments, which you can review to assess your performance from an external perspective.
These features can be used to conduct both self-assessment and collect feedback from others, fulfilling key methods of personal work performance review.
Let's investigate nine (9) key techniques to prepare personal plans and establish priorities in the context of project management:
| Technique | Explanation | Example |
|---|---|---|
| SMART Goals | Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound goals are a well-known method for setting clear, actionable personal plans. | "Complete the project proposal by October 15th, ensuring all stakeholder needs are addressed and reviewed by two team members." |
| Eisenhower Matrix (Urgent-Important Matrix) | This technique helps in prioritising tasks by dividing them into four categories:
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Preparing a project proposal might fall under “important but not urgent,” so it can be scheduled after immediate project meetings. |
| Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule) | The Pareto Principle suggests that 80% of results come from 20% of efforts. Focus on the few critical tasks that deliver the most value. | In project management, prioritising tasks that directly impact client deliverables or deadlines is essential, while less critical administrative tasks can be handled later. |
| Time Blocking | Allocate specific time slots in your schedule for each task or activity. This technique helps ensure that important tasks get the focus they need without interruption. | Block off 2 hours daily for project planning, and dedicate specific time for team meetings or task updates. |
| MoSCoW Method | This technique helps categorise tasks into:
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In a project plan, completing stakeholder approval (Must have) might take precedence over creating an extra project report (Could have). |
| Rolling Wave Planning | This technique involves planning tasks in phases. You initially plan for immediate tasks in detail and leave the rest for a later stage when more information becomes available. | In project management, you may thoroughly plan the first phase (like research) and leave subsequent tasks (like implementation) flexible as the project evolves. |
| Critical Path Method (CPM) | CPM helps identify the sequence of tasks that directly affect the project completion date. Tasks on the critical path are prioritised to avoid delays. | In a construction project, certain foundation tasks might need to be prioritised because any delays would affect the entire project timeline. |
| Kanban Boards | Using a visual board (physical or digital) to track tasks from “to do” to “in progress” and “completed” allows for a clear visualisation of priorities and progress. | A project manager can use tools like Trello or physical boards to prioritise tasks in columns and adjust as the project moves forward. |
| Resource Levelling | This technique involves adjusting the schedule or task priorities to ensure that resources (such as team members or tools) are not overallocated, helping balance workloads. |
If two important tasks overlap, one might be rescheduled to ensure the same resource isn’t needed in two places simultaneously. |
These techniques are crucial in project management because they provide structure and clarity, enabling individuals to effectively manage time, resources, and tasks. By setting clear priorities and organising work systematically, project managers can focus on the most critical tasks that drive the project forward, ensuring deadlines are met and resources are used efficiently. Techniques like SMART goals and the Eisenhower Matrix help in breaking down complex projects into manageable tasks, reducing stress and improving productivity. Ultimately, these methods ensure that projects stay on track, risks are minimised, and objectives are achieved in a timely manner.
Case Study
Jane is a project manager tasked with launching a new product. She has several key tasks, including coordinating with stakeholders, preparing marketing materials, and organising a product launch event. There are tight deadlines, and she needs to ensure the team stays focused on the most important tasks while balancing her limited resources. Sarah also needs to manage her time effectively and make sure she meets her goals.
Quiz
Feedback is a key component of personal and professional development. It provides valuable insights into how work is received by others, helping individuals identify both their strengths and areas that need improvement. In project management, feedback fosters better communication and teamwork, ensuring that efforts align with the project’s goals and expectations. By receiving and acting on feedback, individuals can continuously improve their performance, refine their skills, and contribute more effectively to the success of a project. It also helps maintain accountability and ensures that the quality of work remains high throughout the project.
Elicit, analyse, and interpret feedback
Let's see five (5) effective methods to elicit, analyse, and interpret feedback in the context of project management:
| Method | Explanation | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Surveys and Questionnaires |
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After a project phase, team members fill out a survey about the clarity of task delegation. The feedback is analysed to improve future task assignments. |
| One-on-One Meetings |
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A project manager meets with a team member who reports difficulties with a particular tool. Multiple reports from similar meetings may lead to re-evaluating the tool’s effectiveness. |
| Group Debriefs or Retrospectives |
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After a product launch, the team discusses what worked in the planning process and areas where communication breakdowns occurred. |
| Project Management Software (Automated Feedback Tools) |
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Data from task completion times show that deadlines are frequently missed. The manager interprets this as a sign to review task allocation and deadlines. |
| Client Feedback Reviews |
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A client gives feedback that they felt uninformed during the project. The project manager interprets this as a need to implement more frequent progress updates. |
Case Study
Mark is a project manager overseeing a website redesign project for a client. The project is mid-way through, and he wants to gather feedback from his team, stakeholders, and clients to assess progress and improve work performance in the next phase. Mark plans to use various methods to collect, analyse, and interpret this feedback.
Quiz
Short Answer Question
