6 Steps To Create a Project Management Workflow (With Examples)

Are you wondering how you can create a project management workflow for your team?

I have to be honest with you – if you don’t have a well-defined project management workflow, your project(s) will become prone to missing the final deadlines, scope creep, and failure to meet the objectives.

In this guide, I’ll go over our 6-step project management workflow and also provide you with bonus recommendations and templates to get you started.

But first, let’s start with the basics: 👇

What is a project management workflow?

The project management workflow is the process of how your team’s work moves through projects and processes – from start to finish.

Projects are bound to hit roadblocks, issues, twists, and difficulties along the way, which is why it’s important to plan how each project’s work will get done so you can improve your chances of success.

It’s about building a repeatable process that aims to standardize the series of steps of achieving your project’s goal.

Our team here at SmartSuite also have a pre-defined project management workflow that takes us through the steps of who does what, when, and tracking the progress.

Why is a project management process important?

A well-developed workflow process provides clarity to your team, reduces confusion, and guarantees systematic work completion.

In essence, it offers a visual overview of the entire process, enabling your team to pinpoint potential challenges and outline task dependencies.

When it comes to enterprise project management, the process of managing a large number of tasks and team members can be daunting without a project management process.

This is why, from my experience, a workflow management solution will help you streamline the project management process and provide your organization with the tools and guidance to manage the operation and reduce errors in the long term.

What is the difference between workflow management and project management?

The main difference between workflow management and project management is their focus:

The main objective of project management, as we know it, is to make sure that the project delivers on time, on budget, and within scope.

Project management is designed to plan, execute, and monitor unique, time-bound initiatives aimed at achieving specific goals or deliverables.

The main objective of having a project management workflow is to improve the operational efficiency of project management, such as automating tasks, improving collaboration, and improving overall productivity.

Workflow management focuses on optimizing and automating recurring, sequential tasks to ensure efficiency and consistency in ongoing operations.

➡️ The way I see it is that workflow management deals with repetitive processes, while project management handles complex tasks that require flexibility and strategic oversight.

6-step process to creating a project management workflow

Now that we've got the basics out of the window, I wanted to take you through our 6-step process to creating a project management workflow for your team: ⤵️

Step #1: Identify all tasks required for project completion per scope

The first step to creating a project management workflow is to identify all tasks that are required for the project's completion based on the original scope.

Let’s take a project management example with identifying all of the tasks required for a successful website migration project:

Conducting a website audit of the SEO team to determine which pages need to be transferred over to the new website.
URL Remapping of the URLs that will be transferred over to the new website.
Conducting a large-scale technical audit to identify the current technical problems so that the same mistakes are not repeated in the new website.
Benchmarking the performance of the current website to evaluate the post-migration changes in keyword rankings.
Creating a backup of the previous website in case of an emergency.
Creating the new page templates that will be used across the website.
Etc.

➡️ I’d advise you to then break down the tasks into different categories depending on the project scope, such as:

Stage #1: Pre-Migration.
Stage #2: During Migration.
Stage #3: Post-Migration.

💡 If the tasks still look daunting after you broke them down, you can further break them down into smaller tasks until they seem more manageable.

Step #2: Gather the necessary resources

The next step of creating your project management workflow is to gather the necessary resources, including the software, people, and materials needed to get the job done.

In the case of our website migration project, that might include:

Setting up the new CMS on the new website will be hosted.
Contacting the SEO team to assist you during the website migration.
Contacting the marketing team to help you with copywriting for the new website.

You should consider all the different types of resources that you’d need and then prepare an overview of how much they will cost, and/or a plan for getting the missing resources.

Step #3: Create a project roadmap

Now that you’ve got the tools and people in place, the next step is to create the project roadmap, outlining the specific tasks to be done.

You need to plot the goals and milestones of the project against the project deadline so your leadership team and freelancers you might work with can see where the project is going.

You want to assign responsibilities based on the team’s expertise, with clear deadlines and expectations for each task to ensure that everyone understands their role in the project.

Each task needs to have:

A description that clearly outlines what needs to be done.
Task owner and completion criteria.
A pre-defined starting point and due date.

➡️ Pro Tip: You can use SmartSuite’s Gantt chart view to you can highlight dependencies or Kanban view to create the project roadmap and enable your stakeholders to visualize it.

Learn more about SmartSuite’s Gantt chart view:

The goal of doing all of this is to monitor and manage your project's progress, tasks, and dependencies, which helps in tracking deadlines and identifying weak areas or problems throughout the process.

You can play around with our Kanban template for agile teams here.

Or you can learn more about the Kanban boards at SmartSuite and how you can set them up:

Step #4: Sequence tasks logically and define dependencies

Next up, you want to sequence the tasks logically and define the different dependencies to both manage expectations and ensure timely delivery of the project.

➡️ I’ve seen projects being late because no one planned for the fact that a certain task would need approval from someone external or, worse, did not know that something else had to be finished before they could start the task.

Sequencing tasks involve:

Arranging tasks in a chronological order based on their relationships, such as URL remapping being done by the SEO team, so the development team can set up the 301 redirects in the website migration.
Including dependencies that define how tasks interact and impact each other, such as creating an SEO-optimized article template before the SEO team can start publishing the articles from the previous website to the new template.

The reason why we want to identify and map these dependencies is so that the project leaders can create a realistic timeline and also avoid bottlenecks.

You can use SmartSuite’s dependencies to link tasks with one another for completion:

Feel free to check out our video on how to unblock dependent tasks using SmartSuite’s automations:

Step #5: Create a visual representation of the workflow

You can create a visual representation of your workflow via a whiteboard, which is best for top-level visualization of the workflow.

Whiteboards help you get a bird’s eye view of the project management process that you can then pitch to your internal and external stakeholders.

You can check out how to create and use a whiteboard in SmartSuite:

Step #6: Monitor progress continuously and make adjustments as needed with a dashboard

Last but not least, you can monitor the progress of the project via a custom dashboard.

Custom dashboards let you aggregate any of your data into a single view to keep track of all tasks.

Your leadership team will not have to dig for information from all over the place - instead, they can understand relationships, evaluate dependencies, and track metrics that measure the state of your project.

You can use SmartSuite's dynamic widgets to embed charts, calculate and track metrics, or summarize in tables.

This will help you identify obstacles, and your project leadership team will be able to take appropriate action on tasks that are taking too long to get done or when someone is waiting on a dependency.

Real-world example of a project management workflow

The real-life example of a project management workflow I wanted to show you is from our team!

We created a workflow that follows the following steps when there is a new project:

We use a Website Management solution to create a record for every page on our website, including a page for ‘’Why SmartSuite’’, ‘’Contact Sales Form’’, and our new SmartSuite Affiliate Program that helps people earn up to 50% commission for bringing in new customers for us.

Each record there contains research notes from our team, detailed business requirements, and goals of the page.

The page content is being drafted directly in a SmartDoc field.

The Website Management records are connected to a custom Image Requests application, where we outline the requirements for high-quality images to feature on the page.

➡️ Once the process begins, our design team handles each image from start to finish, using the conversation feature to ask questions whenever clarification is required.

When both the content and images are finalized, we update the record status to “Ready for Development,” signaling our development team to construct the page using the provided content and images.

After the development team finishes their work, they update the record status to “Ready for Review,” prompting a final review by the page owner. Any necessary updates are noted and applied until the record is marked as “Complete.”

How to create workflows (solutions) inside SmartSuite

SmartSuite helps project managers create custom workflows, referred to as "Solutions," to manage projects, automate processes, and organize data effectively.

Solutions act as containers for organizing workflows.

You can start with a pre-built template (over 200 available), create from scratch, or import existing data.

➡️ Each Solution can contain up to 25 tables to group data logically.

Here's how you can create workflows inside SmartSuite:

Step #1: Start adding fields.

Fields are the building blocks of workflows, with over 40 types available (e.g., text, rich documents, linked records).

Step #2: Add tables

Tables help organize data into categories like tasks, customers, or projects.

You can define the table's purpose and link tables to establish relationships.

Step #3: Build reports.

Reports provide insights into assignments, statuses, priorities, and workflow stages.

You and your team will be able to choose from grid, timeline, chart, or card views to visualize data.

Step #4: Set permissions.

Assign roles and permissions to control access to sensitive data and restrict updates to critical information.

Step #5: Automate processes.

SmartSuite offers a no-code platform that adapts to diverse business needs, making it intuitive and accessible for users of all skill levels.

Use SmartSuite’s automation features to create triggers and actions for repetitive tasks (e.g., notifications when statuses change).

You can also integrate with tools like Zapier for enhanced functionality.

Check out this video on how to use SmartSuite’s Solutions:

4 pro tips for managing workflows in your team

Last but not least, I wanted to walk you through our team’s expert tips for managing workflows in your organization:

Do not sleep on proper document management: Managing many documents and files can quickly become overwhelming, especially during more complex projects. We recommend that you invest in either a document management system like Google Drive or keep everything organized in a client portal software.

You can also use SmartSuite’s powerful data upload to populate project fields from Excel sheets or a CSV file.

Figure out communication: When you are dealing with many stakeholders and workers on the project, it’s easy to get lost in translation. Instead of waiting for the next meeting to discuss matters, SmartSuite users can use our Communication Centre, where they can communicate with their team right where their work is being performed.
Save time with automations so you can stop using valuable time on routine actions. With SmartSuite's no-code builder, you can create recipes to automate repetitive tasks based on triggers, like changing dates, sending notification emails, or updating statuses.

Make sure to schedule regular check-ins and updates alongside the stakeholders, especially where dependencies exist.

Get Started with SmartSuite & Our Workflow Management Templates For Free

Well, that was it – our 6-step process of creating and maintaining our project management workflow to ensure that everyone is on the same page.

SmartSuite’s platform offers just the right customization, native collaboration capabilities and a library of 200+ project management templates to help you create and maintain a project management workflow.

Here’s what's in it for your team when you try SmartSuite:

Access to a generous free plan with features including multi-board views (Kanban, Chart, Map, Timeline, Card, and Calendar), 100 automations/month, and 40+ field types, including formula and linked record fields.
No-code automation builder to set up to 500,000 trigger/action workflows.
Built-in productivity tools, including time tracking, status tracking, and checklists.
Team collaboration and planning tools such as whiteboards and SmartSuite docs.
Resource management across projects and teams.
40+ field types, including the option to add your custom fields.

Or, if you’d like to talk to our team of experts, schedule a demo.

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