Resources for Evaluation Project Management
Teal puzzle pieces scattered on a table
Welcome back to our Insights! In our last feature, we turned things over to Improved Insight’s Evaluation Assistant, Emily Neill, to discuss how a detail-oriented mindset and thoughtful infrastructure are key to program success. In this post, Emily will continue her discussion by highlighting a few tools that she uses to manage evaluation projects.
Even the most savvy, organized project manager can’t simultaneously hold everything in their head. Early in my career, I relied heavily on a series of color-coded notebooks to keep track of the ins and outs of everyday tasks. But now that I’m managing my workload and tracking the progress of projects that often have multiple team members assigned to them and high levels of complexity, I’ve upgraded my systems. The following are a few of the tools and processes that I use to help me plot the course of projects from start to finish.
1. Asana - for detailed project breakdowns, task tracking & reporting
There are a multitude of project management tools on the market. I’ve used a few of them, and there are benefits and drawbacks to all of them. The one that works best for me is Asana.
Pros:
User-Friendly: The workspace is easy to navigate at a glance, and there is not a lot of “fluff” in the margins to distract from key functions.
Customizable Views: Like all project management tools, you can customize views of project boards to a format that works best for you. My favorite is the “list” view, but I often use the Gantt chart function when focusing on developing timelines.
Simplicity: I’m always an advocate for keeping things simple - and Asana’s layout is geared toward exactly that. Asana maintains a balance of customizable features while not overwhelming their system with too many bells and whistles. This forces me to simplify tasks, which ultimately leads to a more manageable project.
Cons:
Nimbleness: Changes within a system once it is set are not the most straightforward. Shifting a subtask to a normal task is not as simple as dragging and dropping between headings. However, there are workarounds (like copying and pasting headings to their appropriate location) that overcome this issue.
Assignees: Asana does not allow multiple assignees to a single task. Again, there are workarounds to this, but it takes a little bit of creativity to navigate. I typically break down a task into subtasks and assign each person to their appropriate subtask instead of the general heading.
How I use it:
Asana is my main hub for all evaluation projects. This is where I set the structure in place for all processes and tasks and set deadlines to help keep my team on track.
Project Boards
When I receive a new project, I immediately start by creating a new project board and breaking down the project into phases:
Planning & Pre-Work
Project Operations
Project Closeout
From that point, I outline associated tasks and subtasks, decide who should be assigned to complete each task, and what the timeline for each task should be.
When I’m done, the project ends up looking a little like this:
Screenshot of sample Asana project board and outlined tasks
You can see that each main task has a start and end date assigned, whereas each subtask has a specific deadline attached. This flags for the assignee when to begin work on the tasks, and clearly communicates when each stage of that task should be completed.
My Tasks
The feature within Asana that I use most often is the “My Tasks” tab. This is the consolidated view where all of the tasks assigned to me live. Instead of having to click into each project board, I can come here to see what deadlines I have due today, and what I have due in the near future, and at a glance can see exactly how full my workload is.
Screenshot of the “My Tasks” page in Asana
Inbox
I’m always looking for ways to stay out of my email, and Asana’s inbox feature helps me do exactly that. If you click into any given task within an Asana project, you have the option to add comments related to that task. Comments can be used for your own reference, or you can tag other team members for feedback. Any tags show up in their inbox and prompt them to respond. Instead of having to track back through emails, you end up with a running thread of communication directly tied to a task. It’s also a great way to rally team members, which is one way to overcome the inability to assign multiple team members to a task.
Screenshot of messaging function within Asana
There are a number of other customizable features within Asana, but these are the tools I use most frequently to keep track of evaluation projects. As you can see, it’s certainly a more sophisticated approach than my previous notebook system!
2. Slack - for internal communication
Slack has become almost as ubiquitous as email within the corporate world, and many have migrated their internal communications almost exclusively into the platform. I personally love this approach. When used well, Slack can create a degree of transparency among team members that is just not possible within an email inbox.
Pros:
Transparency: Gets you out of your email and keeps everyone on the same page
Tracking: Organizes communication by channels; project-specific; searchable
Efficiency: Great way to get immediate feedback/answers without creating a long email chain
Cons:
Buy-In: Only as useful as your team makes it (participation); getting folks on board to use another platform can be challenging when they are used to working a certain way
How I use it:
Slack is my go-to for internal team communication. There are a few key functions that I find are more useful for me than a traditional email inbox.
Instant Messenger
When I need an immediate response from a team member, I use this instead of an email. This is especially helpful for one-on-one communications because team members generally see these communications more quickly than an email, and it avoids cluttering inboxes with multiple threads.
Brainstorming
If I am looking for multiple team members’ feedback or insight into a project, I often use the channel feature within Slack. This sets up a message board related to a certain topic and keeps responses organized under that heading. Again, one of the benefits of this function over email is that it promotes real-time communication and keeps your inbox from becoming overwhelmed. When used optimally, this function can also free up your calendar by allowing the team to brainstorm asynchronously instead of relying on scheduled meetings.
Get-to-Know-Yous
Another way that I use the channels function is to help promote team engagement through fun activities. This is especially helpful for my team as we all work remotely. This function becomes the proverbial “water cooler” and allows team members to interact with each other on a more personal level. Instead of relying on meeting icebreakers, which can be awkward and make people feel like they’re put on the spot to share, throwing out a topic on a message board allows the team to respond in their own time. This also eliminates the pressure for those who are more private or would prefer not to share personal details with their workmates.
3. Dedoose - for qualitative data analysis
The analysis phase of an evaluation requires a high level of organization, particularly when qualitative data is involved. Dedoose is a platform specifically designed to help manage the analysis of qualitative and mixed-methods research. Though its interface can be challenging for some (I know it was for me when I first started!), the functionality and customizability provide a great framework for in-depth analyses.
Pros:
Great support page, and many tutorials available to help understand functionality
Customizable, multiple views and breakdowns of data for different purposes
Cons:
Not user-friendly off the bat - takes some trial and error to get the hang of the system; layout can be confusing/clunky
There is no internal archive within Dedoose. When a project is complete, it either continues to live within the main work board, which can create a cluttered landing page, or it must be exported from the system entirely.
How I use it:
Once I have done an initial data analysis and have identified the method and categories I want to use to sort my qualitative data set, Dedoose provides the framework to help me keep track of the analysis process.
Organizing Data
For each qualitative data set that I analyze (e.g. open-ended questions from a specific program survey), I create a project within Dedoose. This is particularly useful if a program has used multiple methods to collect quantitative data because I can identify the method of data collection within the project title. For example, if I have a written survey and interview transcript data from a single program, I would create two projects - one to organize the survey data, and the other to organize the transcript data. The result would look like this:
Screenshot of Dedoose project board
Keeping each set separated allows me to customize my approach and ensures that the coding structure I assign to each set does not get confused.
Coding Responses
Dedoose allows me to set up a code book (i.e. categories of response types) for each data set that I analyze. Though I do have to conduct some preliminary analysis to determine my coding structure, once I have established what is appropriate for the data this makes processing through the data much more efficient and manageable. I simply upload the responses to Dedoose, and review responses one at a time, identifying when each code occurs. I can even identify if a response contains multiple codes.
Tracking Responses
Once my data set has been coded, several charts are automatically created within Dedoose that allow me to see things like code presence (how many times a specific code occurred within the data set) and code co-occurrence. The co-occurrence chart is particularly useful because it creates a “heatmap” that identifies when certain codes appeared within the same response. This can help me identify correlations and overlaps between responses that may be difficult to track if I were looking at each response individually.
Thanks for following along with me! I hope this series has shed some light on the value of a detail-oriented mindset, and how important a thoughtful infrastructure is to the success of a project. If you haven’t already incorporated some of these tools and processes into your own workflow, I’d encourage you to try a few of these out and explore other tools out there.
Until next time - thanks!
If you enjoyed this post, follow along with Improved Insights by signing up for our monthly newsletter. Subscribers get first access to our blog posts, as well as Improved Insights updates and our 60-Second Suggestions. Join us!