EB Ingenieur – Visualizing and Tracking Complex Processes

Learning by example is one of the best ways to do so. This is why I am excited to share a brand new Teamhood customer story with you.

This time, we have talked to Marco Kollster, a project manager from EB Ingenieur GmbH to learn about their experiences with Teamhood over the past year. Here is what he had to share.

About the company

EB Ingenieur GmbH is a German company specializing in engineering and construction. They offer structural investigations, appraisals, and the planning of repair measures. In most cases, this includes going to construction sites of existing buildings and checking the concrete as well as the steel in the concrete. Then the team runs an analysis of the samples and writes reports to their customers on what needs to be done, changed, or repaired.

As such, their processes include a mixture of off-site and on-site work. The team has to prepare for each on-site visit and ensure the machinery is in good condition. At the same time, they have to run tests on the samples, write reports, and manage all in-house activities. Since the company is relatively new, established in 2019, there are still quite a few changes happening in how things are run. All of which require additional attention.

Why Teamhood?

Before starting to work with Teamhood, the company used another project management solution. There, they were able to visualize tasks on a Kanban board, but the solution was limited in how the view could be adapted to the specific needs of the company.

According to Marco, the biggest issues that prompted them to look for another solution were the lack of dependencies and workload management. Both of which resulted in a reduced understanding of the process and interfered with effective process management.

Marco Kollster, project leader from EB Ingenieur

We could not show the dependencies between tasks or how much time each task is taking. As a result, I could not tell if one task was affected by the completion of another. Also, we had no understanding of the actual workload. We only saw that there were for example 16 tasks, but no time estimations on how long they might take to complete.

The Process Since

Teamhood allowed Marco and his company to solve the issues they were facing. In the Kanban view, they were able to lay out the whole process of tasks and easily track their progress horizontally. The team was also able to set dependencies between tasks and track the workload of each team member in the workload view.

‘It was so good to see the process each task has to go through laid out horizontally. It became easier to track the progress and movement of tasks. Now it is also easy to see and understand the workload of each person. It is especially helpful when new work comes along and I can say with confidence if there is time in my day to complete it.‘ – Marco Kollster

With time Teamhood has become a vital part of the operation in EB Ingenieur. It is now used to manage the majority of work both on-site and off-site. As such, all of the processes are visualized and tracked with the help of Kanban and Gantt views. Kanban is the primary for daily operations, while Gantt is used to show the timeline and manage dependencies between tasks. Project managers also use the Gantt view to show customers how the team is progressing and where they are according to schedule.

The company aims to hold all of the information in Teamhood. To make sure, this does not become confusing, they use workspaces to divide the information of projects, internal work, and laboratory. Which are then further divided into specific efforts with the use of folders.

All of this allows them to find everything in one place and easily onboard new people to the process.

‘One of the most important things we have to do for new people in our company is being onboarded to Teamhood. It has been the core of our whole management process. We can see what has to be done, when can it be done, and at what place.‘ – Marco Kollster

Process Changes

According to Marco, since starting to use Teamhood, the company has seen some changes in its process as well. The biggest one is the number of subtask levels used.

Before, the team created multiple levels of child items. The issue was, that they were difficult to track, especially on a limited Kanban board. With Teamhood, the team was able to see and track all the levels in the Gantt view, but in time switched their thinking to divide tasks differently.

‘We have also started implementing fewer levels of child items and started splitting tasks in a smarter way. It was a culture change somewhat driven by Teamhood as we started to realize having that many levels of child items was not efficient. Instead of dividing a child item into more child items, we started working with smaller checklists of what had to be done.‘ – Marco Kollster

Another smaller change was the use of guest users. Since starting with Teamhood, the company has been able to invite third parties to work in their workspaces. Allowing to track progress and assign tasks the same way they would for all internal team members.

‘We are using a guest feature for our IT manager. He has a separate board for his tasks and we can see what is being done if the issues are being resolved already. We can also see what are the estimations for the work he is doing. ‘ – Marco Kollster

Favorite Features and Tips

When asked about his favorite Teamhood feature, Marco had no doubts – the custom field with links. Since the team is working with a lot of documents, the ease of switching between the task and the document it is regarding, could not be beaten.

‘Custom field with links. I can just insert the link of the document we are working on, click it, and I am there. It saves a lot of time and is very convenient.‘ – Marco Kollster

Besides that, he says dependencies, workload management, Kanban and Gantt views, multiple assignees, and the item details changelog section are the standouts that make working and collaborating in Teamhood great.

Final Thoughts

As a whole Marco feels that Teamhood was able to adapt to their processes and allow them to become more efficient in what has to be done. Since the company is relatively new, he also felt that he could easily talk to us and relay anything he felt was missing from the product. Submitting canny requests and suggesting how it could be improved.

For anyone who is still considering trying Teamhood or other project management solutions, Marco says just do it.

‘Too many companies don’t know how much project management software can help them. I worked in many companies that do not have them. Ever since I started using such software I realized how much easier it is to manage work. People are afraid to go through changes, but at the end of the day you save money by using such tools.‘ – Marco Kollster

Share your experiences

We would love to hear about your experiences with Teamhood. Share your stories with us and inspire other project management teams with your practices.

Looking to become more effective with Teamhood? Check out our other customer stories or knowledge base for more examples.