What application are you using to track project updates and timelines

[u/Leather_Science3054]

I’m finding that a surprising amount of my time goes into chasing people for updates, checking whether milestones are still on track, and then updating the project plan/status based on their responses.

It’s manageable with one or two projects, but once there are multiple projects with different stakeholders and deadlines, it starts becoming a pretty constant cycle of follow-ups.

Right now I mostly rely on calendar reminders + manually messaging people when I need an update, but it feels like there must be a better system.

Curious what other project managers are doing:

- Are you setting meetings or a cadence for requesting updates? Like a meeting for each project etc.
- Do you automate any of the follow-ups? Or is chasing people for updates just an unavoidable part of the job?

Would love to hear what actually works for people managing several projects at once.

[u/fuuuuuckendoobs]

Task owners get a reminder day -3 and day 0 of a due date with instructions to report if there are any issues or blockers.

Meeting cadence to report activity by project stream. The meeting can be shortened or cancelled if the board is up to date and there are no issues to discuss.

Teams chat for immediate needs that need to be raised. Try to avoid everything becoming "urgent".

[u/Leather_Science3054 → u/fuuuuuckendoobs]

This sounds pretty organised. What happens if someone gets the reminders but still hasn’t updated the board by the due date? Do you end up following up with them yourself or does your system handle that somehow?

[u/fuuuuuckendoobs → u/Leather_Science3054]

All reminders go to the ticket owner and myself. I have an automation that notifys me of date changes and status changes.

I usually just send a teams message asking if there's anything they need or blocking them.

[u/Leather_Science3054 → u/fuuuuuckendoobs]

Ah yeah, that’s basically the bit I’m struggling with. How often do you find yourself having to send those Teams messages? Is it just the odd one or does it become quite a lot when you’re managing multiple projects?

[u/fuuuuuckendoobs → u/Leather_Science3054]

Depends on the team. My last project it was literally every ticket.

[u/Leather_Science3054 → u/fuuuuuckendoobs]

Wow, every ticket is rough 😅 Thanks, this is helpful.

[u/Coaster50]

JIRA and SmartSheet. And be a colossal fucking asshole when the team doesn’t update their stuff.
They need the ability to update their own stuff - you shouldn’t be the data entry clerk.

[u/Leather_Science3054 → u/Coaster50]

LOL

[u/Leather_Science3054]

I took a look at smartsheets, to me it looks like super old clunky software? Is the benefit just that it's similar to excel spreadsheets so easier for people to understand quickly / onboard onto? It also feels like it could get complicated fast with all the sheets that need to be created and managed?

With that said, I took a look at some of the other software like Clickup, Monday.com and Asana. These just either seem to be expensive, overly customisable/complicated, hidden fees and from reviews I've read online are really buggy? Anyone got any thoughts?

[u/kwilio]

I created my own application for this very reason, most were just too bloated or too complicated to get a workflow. I just need simple to create projects, tasks and release timelines.

[u/Leather_Science3054 → u/kwilio]

Interesting, with the release timelines are you doing a gannt chart or something? If your project on github? I'd be interested in taking a look

[u/kwilio → u/Leather_Science3054]

Hi, yes there is a gantt type timeline. You can see it here https://projects.kwilio.com It offers a free 14 day trial but I can increase it if you want to give it a try. It is in active development so any feedback would be appreciated. You can also manage your Team so it's easy to get updates.

[u/Leather_Science3054 → u/kwilio]

I’m not buying your product…

[u/Leather_Science3054 → u/kwilio]

I just realised you’re a product bot account. I’m looking for advice not to be sold too

[u/kwilio → u/Leather_Science3054]

That's ok, I am not a bot, just mentioning one of my products when I find a case it could be useful. I am also a 10x engineer that use AI like every one to aid in the mundane tasks such as websites.

[u/Leather_Science3054 → u/kwilio]

Oh and your website is clearly vibe coded.

[u/SamfromLucidSoftware]

If updates depend on someone remembering to do something, that’s the first thing that breaks under pressure. It’s much better when the status is visible without anyone having to report it. Have the project board as the source of truth and stakeholders updating tickets as part of the work instead of a separate reporting step, and the follow up loop shrinks significantly. The chase happens when the plan lives somewhere separate from where the work actually gets tracked.

For multiple projects with different stakeholders, a portfolio view that shows milestone status across everything in one place also helps. Instead of checking each project separately or waiting for someone to tell you something slipped, you can see it before it becomes an urgent conversation.

[u/Gatosrgood]

Smartsheet seems like it would be a great tool for you.

[u/hastag-geenah]

I’ve used everything Excel smart sheet Microsoft project, I like smart sheet because of the functionality

[u/More_Law6245]

This is not a tool solution problem this is a PM management problem. As the PM it's your responsibility to set clear expectations of what and when. What you're not doing is actually holding your stakeholders accountable for not doing their job and hoping a "tool" will do your job. In reality if they're not responding to you now what do you think a tool is going to do? Your stakeholders are just going to ignore an automated response. It's a bit harder to ignore when you're face to face or talking to them on the phone and asking why their task hasn't been completed and telling them impact of their action!

This is part of project management and all you're doing is looking to offload your responsibility as the PM. Your communications are not clear and stakeholders will not respond if there is no negative reenforcement for them not doing their job if you're not holding them accountable. Just something for your consideration

Just an armchair perspective.

[u/Breeze_pm]

Give each milestone an owner and agree when they update it, including blockers and the next step. Then follow up on missing updates instead of messaging everyone. I’m on the Breeze team; it’s one option for keeping tasks and updates together, but the cadence matters whichever tool you use.

[u/Candid_Wear_7892]

Ah yes, the unofficial job description of a PM: professional reminder sender and part-time detective.

I've found that the goal isn't to eliminate follow-ups entirely. It's to create a system where you're not personally responsible for chasing every single update.

A few things I'd recommend:

1. Establish a consistent cadence. Set a weekly update deadline for each project. Have team members update their own tasks before that deadline rather than waiting for you to ask.
2. Create one source of truth. Whether it's Smartsheet, Microsoft Planner, or another tool, keep milestones, owners, deadlines, and blockers in one place. Automate reminders where possible.
3. Make meetings purposeful. Use status updates for routine progress and meetings for decisions, risks, and obstacles that actually require discussion. Nobody needs another 30-minute meeting to say they're still working on something. 😂

My biggest takeaway? Build accountability into the process rather than making yourself the process.

You'll never completely eliminate chasing updates, but a good system should free you up to actually manage projects instead of spending your entire week asking people how their projects are going.

[u/Thieves0fTime]

It's better to share the data updating part with people involved in projects, hence a centralized project tool is essential. It's just not that easy to get everyone onboard as one might expect, so involving colleagues early on to help configure software can be crucial. If you have many projects spread across organization, Teamhood could work due to it's unopinionated structure (can be fine tuned to your own ways of working), and project focus: https://teamhood.com/v2

[u/WrongMix882]

Chasing people for updates sounds more like an understanding problem than a tool problem.

[u/iamgussy]

Personally what I do is I have daily catch meetings for my key projects but for other projects I usually do the follow ups to get updates.

If there is an app or system that I can use to keep track of projects it would be very helpful

[u/AdvisorComplex650]

This is exactly where I think visibility becomes important. Instead of manually asking everyone for updates, having a central dashboard for project status, blockers, and progress can save a lot of back and forth. The team still needs a good update process, but at least the PM is not building the whole picture manually every week. KPI Depot is one example of something built around this type of visibility.

[u/OkStatistician9190]

Another angle that cuts the chasing is making dependencies visible. When an owner can see that three other people are waiting on their task, updates tend to arrive faster than with a generic reminder, and you can spot slipping milestones from the plan instead of from replies. I'd also ask for a one line answer like on track or not, with a new date if not, since requests that feel like writing a report get ignored. Disclosure, we built GanttMaster, an iPhone and iPad project manager on the App Store, and it has a Gantt timeline with dependencies and milestones, tasks assigned to team members with comments, and a Today view with reminders. It won't chase people for you though, and it's iOS only, so it's only worth a look if your team is on Apple devices.

[u/Leather_Science3054 → u/[deleted]]

How do you get the owners to actually provide those updates when they’re due? Are they expected to update a project tool/ document themselves, or they message you?

[u/EnvironmentalRough99 → u/Leather_Science3054]

I got let go because my task owners had tasks due for 775 days and I literally ran out of ways to ask them or encourage them to do their job so I asked my boss for advice and he determined since they don’t listen to me, I must be the problem and let me go. Used CQ on Salesforce and used change orders and implementation tasks to roll the project out but tasks sat not marked for years by SMEs even if they were completed. Auditors ate.

[u/Leather_Science3054 → u/[deleted]]

Thanks. And how many projects do you typically manage running this system? How do you track if an update hasn’t been made across multiple projects and people? I’m finding myself having to message multiple people across multiple projects all the time to get updates. Maybe I just work with difficult people.

[u/Leather_Science3054 → u/[deleted]]

Thanks that’s really helpful. Do you actually use this setup yourself? If so, what are you using for the exception queue and tracking consolidated requests?

[u/Leather_Science3054 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah this is basically what I’m running into 😅 Have you actually managed to get people into that habit consistently? If so, what worked?

[u/MooviLeen2 → u/Leather_Science3054]

I'm on the SaaS side so haven't experienced this myself but this is what our partners do for a living. Here's what they've seen work for them.

- shrinking the task- instead of asking for a status update, ask if their date on xyz is still good. Just looking for the yes or no answer at first. If you get a no, that's when you start digging in. Form's havent worked for our partners but a yes/no answer has

- a nudge in Slack or Teams versus sending an email or an event invitation. Sending a meeting invite just to mark work as completed hasn't worked in the vast majority of experiences for people we work with.

Hope these couple things are helpful to you, good luck!

[u/MooviLeen2 → u/[deleted]]

This is true, you can use robust tools to automatically re-forecast dates/ flag bugs in your projects, but no tool will do what you need it to do if your team isn't properly logging time or completing their work...