Skip to main content
Contact us
Collaborative work management: much more than project management?
Share on socials

Collaborative work management: much more than project management?

Danny Coleman
Danny Coleman
30 March 2023
4 min read
Work management vs project management
Danny Coleman
Danny Coleman
30 March 2023
4 min read
Busier working days, reduced resources and smaller teams mean you're inevitably looking for new ways to manage and do more with less. Work management solutions could be the answer.
Your working day is becoming more varied, and the need for better organisation and oversight comes with that.
Typically, you manage your tasks in multiple places and keep track of a mixture of reminders in your email and tasks scheduled in your calendar. Often, they'll shift in favour of something urgent. You're using different plans on spreadsheets, documents, or presentation files, maybe even some handwritten notes on a pad. Does this sound familiar to you? If so, you're likely feeling frustrated, slightly out of control and inefficient. Managing a team means keeping track of team members' workloads alongside yours and ensuring that delegated tasks are completed effectively and on time.
You've decided it's a project management tool you need and have looked at some software solutions. However, you have become overwhelmed by choice, need help comparing options, and need more time to properly investigate how to get started with a tool that suits your team's processes and best practices. So, it's dropped to the bottom of that list to return to later. You need collaborative work management.

Just a new name for project management?

It's easy to conflate the two, but project management is simply one aspect of work management. The two practices share common principles, but they differ in their application. So, what are the key differences, and why do you need to think about work management?
Work management is for you if you're: 
  1. Managing multiple projects and taking a wholesale approach to organising, planning and executing various projects and ad hoc tasks.
  2. Focused on long-term goals, business efficiency and success rather than short-term goals related to one project.
  3. Working with an evolving, flexible structure rather than set timescales and budgets
  4. Collaborating with multiple stakeholders across teams and the business rather than project team members on a specific project.
  5. Supporting business goals rather than meeting specific project objectives.
Take the case of a marketing manager. You will have multiple and potentially interlinking projects– from content creation and creative requests to web projects and events–combined into plans to track and report all campaign activity, budget, and ROI. 
Your tasks will involve multiple stakeholders and include workflow, with some dependent on the completion of others. They might involve requests that need to be captured and planned. In addition, budgets, timelines, and critical tasks across projects will require oversight. 
You might also have a marketing team and its resources to manage and collaborate directly. With so many options, how do you know which solution will fit you best, and how do you get started?
Work management software is a flexible tool that allows you to plan, run and track processes, multiple projects, and workload. You can set it up to suit any team: marketing, finance, sales, or HR. 

Choosing a collaborative work management platform

If you're thinking about work management, you can link up with an expert partner to help choose the right system for you, support you with its implementation, and build success from the beginning. Expert consultants guide you through set-up and take the uncertainty out of a project. With help, you can assess your processes, set up and define new workflows, redefine existing workflows, integrate your work management platform with your broader technology stack, and build customisations to fit your team. 
Are you inspired to start your work management journey? Please contact Adaptavist's expert team for a free introductory chat.
Learn morearrow icon
Written by
Danny Coleman
Danny Coleman
Business Information Services Manager
As Business Information Services Manager, Danny focuses on expanding monday.com services. Committed to enhancing business processes and team dynamics, his leadership emphasises operational excellence, authenticity, and transparency, aiming to positively impact his team's work experience.
Work management