It might not feel like that when you first start using them, but once you’re out the other side of the learning curve, you can whip up and edit a project schedule in minutes (and replicate a new schedule from an old one, if you are doing similar projects over and over again). Decisions may not always be agreed upon by the team members. We tend to worry about things and then overcompensate. This is your list of activities and dates. Using a gantt chart and burndown chart? I use my action log in the same way you do: to make sure that I know who is supposed to be doing what, outside of their formal workstream activities on the project schedule. Don’t give yourself extra documents to maintain for no reason. Once a discussion begins regarding a project, decisions are being made with some decisions essential for the direction of the project. The first thing I want to say is that you probably shouldn’t be worried. The action log consolidates everything in one place. A project manager interacts with a host of people when managing projects. Nothing gets lost, everything gets done. They tend to be initiatives that only involve me, that don’t have a fixed end date and that aren’t high risk. Action Log Template 1.1 Subject: Action Log Author: Krae Stumpf Keywords: Action Log, Continuous Improvement, Project Management Last modified by. Action logs are no different from tasks on a project plan. Using action items to get tasks done is a common practice in project management. RAID is an acronym that stands for Risks, Actions, Issues and Decisions. You can use both. They do different jobs, as we have seen, and support your work in different ways. As I’ve used it for a few weeks now it’s also starting to become a source of reassurance as I look at items now closed and think, “Phew I have done stuff”. “Dear Elizabeth: I use very simple tools to manage my projects. How to Use Both Together. Collaboration Tools for Project Managers. Rather than opening a discussion for debate each time the topic arises, it is better to resort to the documented decis… They aren’t tasks you would put on your project schedule, but they are things that need to be done. An action item can be maintained on a separate "action item log", which is reviewed by the project manager and at the next meeting (if it was assigned during a regular meeting). These six documents are those I use to maintain a project and I find that it works very well and minimises the time expended on paperwork without losing any of the quality of the project management. If something on the action log turns out to be big enough to go on the project schedule, move it there. On my previous project, I used the actions log. Action Log Templates – Cons: There are not many cons of action log, but whatever is there can be handled easily. The decision log template is included in my project workbook, which is a comprehensive day-to-day set of tracking files for your project. It can be time-consuming. Enter your email address below and you will have access to the free action log template, as well as all the other resources in our template library. I currently have a very simple one that is tracking activities for a particularly busy 3 week period on my project, for a large group of people who have no experience with enterprise project management solutions. They do different jobs, as we have seen, and support your work in different ways. What this is all about, then, is whether you could be more efficient, more confident, and feel more organized if you had the tools to support you in your work. Action log templates for a project management help in identifying issues related to project execution and course of action either to mitigate them or to take corrective actions. Your action log has changed my life. The fact that you say you are worried about recording your progress and actions with sufficient accuracy means that you are most likely doing enough. A good manager is a jack-of-all-trades and a master of most tasks, if not all.. Tools and systems can definitely help you manage more effectively and stay on top of what you need to do. Download and create your own document with Project Management Action Log Template (910KB | 3 Page(s)) | Page 3 for free. Working between waterfall and agile? An issue log is a great tool to have in your project management toolbox. My projects are small scale, and I generally just verbally update my client or send a weekly progress note. Should I be using a work plan and an actions list, both together?”. For example, on my current project, I primarily use the work plan. If you want it. Privacy Policy Terms of Service Security Policy GDPR Commitment Service Level Agreement, Project Management Challenge: Teams Are Using Different Methodologies, Post-Industrial Project Management in the Era of Knowledge Work, 4 Trends That Will Transform Project Management, The level of risk, criticality or organizational politics involved, The kind of reporting you are expected to do on it, The governance structures you’ve got in place and your company’s organizational processes. 11+ Action Log Template. While managing a project you have to take care of each single step and action which you have taken for the successful completion of project. Want to receive our latest blogs to your inbox? Why do something different on what is essentially a different type of task list? You can use both. I use both. If your clients are happy, your projects are getting done on time and you’re not overspending, then you are doing a good job! I also have an actions log, which I use to note down those actions that crop up in client meetings or emails. I’m finding I use one or other, but not both. Having said that, we need to record them somewhere. Copyright 2020 LiquidPlanner, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This often happens when the activity is only tangentially related or unrelated to the project. I get a sense of the kind of things you are doing and how you are managing your work. Sign up below. A project manager’s job is all about detail and making sure nothing falls through the cracks. There is always a chance of errors in everything. If a task on the schedule becomes too bitty to really deserve a place on the plan, downgrade it to the action list. It can build up the pressure of completing work. The action log consolidates everything in one place. I think many project managers struggle with knowing what the “right” tools are for the job, especially when they’ve had very little training or support from their organization. The challenge then is sharing the information with your stakeholders, if they don’t use the same tools and don’t have the experience of being able to read and interpret a Gantt chart. If something on the action log turns out to be big enough to go on the project schedule, move it there. It's very useful because you can store all the relevant information and activity that is happening on your project in one place. That’s because an issue log delivers more than just a resolution of the issue, but creates trust and satisfies your stakeholders that you’re handling the project promptly and properly. Ultimately, you need to make the call about whether you need a simple schedule, a schedule created in a more robust project management tool, a list of actions or a combination of these. An action log is also a great place to identify who has completed their actions, what remains outstanding and how this creates risks to the project. Activity log template helps to see the status of the tasks or projects. But you need to find solutions that work for you, your teams and clients. Use in conjunction wit It’s a simple way of keeping on top of the plan for the project, and the dates make it easier to see what has to be done by when. Another version combines them to form a RAAIDD log. Project management action log RAID Log is a project management tool that is used to store several. The concept is a simple one. This free action log template is the one I … It’s very common for there to be multiple ways of recording actions and project tasks within a business, because each project manager has found solutions that fit their style. If you only need an action log, why bother to create a project schedule? Many project managers I know use both. Project management software was developed to make project managers and their teams work more efficiently and productively, and that same technology can be applied here to help run a RAID log more efficiently. Action/task number – this makes it possible for you to easily refer to an action on the list instead of having to describe the work, Where the task originated from (did it arise from a meeting, an email, a corridor conversation? I can carry it around with me and check off activities as I speak to people. Categorize the tasks if it helps), The action owner who is responsible for doing the task, The date the action was first raised (you can also include target completion date if you find that helpful to manage action priorities), Updates, so you can track each little step that is taken towards completing the action. I use both. It is much easier to create and edit Gantt charts in “proper” scheduling software. Keeping a track of your entire actions is very necessary if you are a project manager. This project management action item log template is useful for project managers who want a detailed, all-in-one tracking system for action items. It is based on the accurate filling which is dependent on the honest workers. Action status: open, closed, on hold, complete etc, so you can easily filter out things that you don’t need to be paying attention to right now. It can help you manage both your team and stakeholders. Download Action Log Templates. Test out new ways of working, but don’t overthink it! The biggest problem I have found with spreadsheet-based Gantt charts is that they take an age to update manually. I like to get my tools in place early so that everything is set up once the project goes live. ~ Caroline. Here is a sample to use or modify to your specific needs. The decision about whether to ditch the plan and just use an action log, for example, is going to depend on a lot of things like: For some of my personal projects, I just have a To Do list for that piece of work. Project Management Action Log: Professional Daily Planner Organizer for Your Projects and Meetings, Schedule Action Items, Priority and Due Dates 8.5”x11” with 120 pages Project Logbooks: Amazon.es: Journals, Crown: Libros en idiomas extranjeros From how you have described it, it sounds like you’ve created a visual chart of tasks and the time they take, or the key milestones, in a spreadsheet. A third method for tracking action items is to use project management software such as Microsoft Project 2007 or Central Desktop. With the right software you get help tracking risks, progress and changes in your project. They aren’t the appropriate level of detail. It also includes an action log, risk log, issue log, change log, stakeholder contacts list, basic Gantt chart and more. If you use Seavus Project Viewer to look at your plans, or another tool, you would expect to see a named resource for each activity. To know more about their varieties, one can search Google using “project management action log template”, “action log project management” or “action items template word”. By utilizing project management software to track action items, you can take advantage of features such as email notification when you assign action items to team members and checklists that mark action items as completed. A RAID log is a project management tool where the project manager logs, documents, or tracks the risks, assumptions, issues, and dependencies of a project. What you have created is a Gantt chart. A RAID log records risks, actions, issues and decisions and is one. Elizabeth Harrin is a project manager, author of several books, and a mentor. It is, though, difficult to give hard and fast rules about what sort of project needs what and where you could get away with only one way of recording the work to be done. Purpose of Activity Log: Activity log helps to track daily activities of a project or all activities which are executing by a person. A simple decision log can help a project manager keep stakeholders and team members informed, aligned and engaged on decisions made throughout the course of the project. Thanks for such a great question! Introduction to RAID Logs provide visible verification that the idea or concern has been heard and will be properly addressed I’m worried I might not be recording actions and progress sufficiently accurately. Action logs are great for noting down tasks that come from meetings, conversations and emails. A RAID log records risks, actions, issues and decisions and is one of the top tools for keeping a record of everything happening on the project. 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