Teams | Collaboration | Customer Service | Project Management

Multitasking is actually task switching in disguise. When you try to do two things simultaneously, you're really just shifting your attention back and forth, paying for it in time, accuracy, and focus. Even if you’ve heard that multitasking is a myth, it can feel productive. But the science behind multitasking is clear: the brain isn’t built to do two things simultaneously. You're just task switching, which decreases focus and leads to more mistakes.

Waterfall project management is a sequential project management methodology that's divided into distinct phases. Each phase begins only after the previous phase is completed. This article explains the stages of the waterfall methodology and how it can help your team achieve their goals. Project managers have many different types of project management methodologies to choose from. There's Agile project management, Kanban project management, Scrum, and many more iterative processes that you can use.

Every project has an objective. Whether you’re making some updates to your website or building the next Eiffel Tower, you and your team are working towards something. Ultimately, running a successful project means having something to show for it at the end of the project’s timeline, whether that’s a tangible thing—like a new product or an ebook—or an intangible thing—like a decrease in customer churn or increase in NPS score.

Think of your project as an Oscar-nominated movie. You won, and you have to go up and give your big speech. Who do you thank? In project management, those people would be your project stakeholders—people who have a stake in your project and have helped you get there in some way. Project stakeholders can vary from the people doing the work to the people approving the work to the people you’re doing the work for, but they’re all important.

The data doesn’t lie—a good onboarding process leads to happier, more productive employees. But while onboarding can increase retention rates by 82%, only 12% of employees strongly agree that their organization does a great job of onboarding new hires. Creating a smooth onboarding process is challenging, so it’s not surprising that some organizations fall short. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

A project dependency is a task that relies on the completion of a different task. This article breaks down key terms associated with dependencies and the different kinds of dependencies you may see in project management. Much like a relay race, projects are often completed by passing tasks from one team member to the next. Unlike a relay race, some project tasks require other tasks to move forward before they can be started. This relationship between tasks is known as a dependency.

Initiatives can’t succeed without the right resources. Nobody knows this better than Rita Khayat, Asana’s Head of PMO for Strategy and Operations. Khayat is responsible for keeping business-critical goals on track—which she does by allocating the right resources, at the right time, to the most important work. Khayat’s team is responsible for four main business areas within the CIO org: Resource management is essential for each of these areas.

Rita Khayat is an expert at managing complex, company-wide programs. As Asana’s Head of PMO for Strategy and Operations, Khayat is responsible for keeping business-critical goals on track. She does this with clear processes, 20+ years of experience, and a knack for using Asana to its full potential. Khayat’s team is responsible for four main business areas within the CIO org: Together, these responsibilities span many different teams and require a high level of cross-functional coordination.

A cross-functional team is a permanent or temporary group of people with different types of experience working together to achieve a common goal. Cross-functional teams benefit companies because when team members with multiple skill sets work together, they can pursue company goals more efficiently. In this piece, we’ll explain what a cross-functional team is and provide tips for how to build one.

You may know what project management is, but have you ever heard the term program management? While the two sound similar, you might be surprised to learn there’s a lot that sets them apart. Whether you’re searching for the right role for your team or want to improve your work management processes and methodologies, we’ll help you understand the differences between a program manager vs. project manager.