Asana Implementation

Purpose

The University of Illinois College of Medicine (UI COM) is implementing Asana as a centralized project and work management platform to support strategic initiatives, improve project visibility, and standardize project management practices across the College.

The Asana implementation is led by the College of Medicine Project Management Office (PMO), with licenses centrally managed by the PMO. The platform provides teams with a shared workspace to plan, organize, assign, and track work while improving visibility into project timelines, responsibilities, and progress.

Asana will provide UI COM teams with a consistent approach to managing projects and workflows across the College, supporting collaboration and accountability while reducing reliance on fragmented project management processes.

Objectives

The goal of the Asana implementation is to establish a centralized project management platform that improves visibility, accountability, collaboration, and consistency across UI COM projects and initiatives.

High-Level Objectives

  • Establish Asana as a centralized project and work management platform for UI COM.
  • Standardize project management practices, including project planning, task assignment, timelines, and status tracking.
  • Improve visibility into project progress, deadlines, dependencies, and responsibilities.
  • Support collaboration across departments and teams through a shared workspace for project information and communication.
  • Reduce manual project tracking and administrative processes through templates, automations, and standardized workflows.
  • Provide leadership and project teams with improved visibility into project portfolios, milestones, and overall progress.
  • Create a scalable project management foundation that can support future strategic initiatives and operational workflows.

Key Features & Capabilities

Asana provides a variety of tools designed to support project planning, collaboration, and ongoing project management. UI COM teams may use features including:

  • Projects – Create centralized workspaces to organize tasks, timelines, deliverables, and project information.
  • Tasks & Subtasks – Assign specific responsibilities, establish due dates, document project information, and break larger initiatives into manageable activities.
  • Project Views – View projects using list, board, calendar, timeline, or Gantt-style views based on the needs of the project.
  • Custom Fields – Add standardized information such as priority, status, project phase, or other project-specific details.
  • Dashboards & Reporting – Monitor project progress and visualize project information to support reporting and decision-making.
  • Templates – Establish standardized project structures and repeatable workflows for common project types.
  • Automations – Reduce manual administrative work by automating routine project-management activities.
  • Portfolios – Provide a higher-level view of related projects and initiatives to support portfolio-level monitoring and reporting.
  • Integrations – Connect Asana with other tools used by UI COM teams to support streamlined workflows and collaboration.

Asana’s project-management capabilities allow teams to manage work from initial planning through completion while maintaining visibility into ownership, deadlines, dependencies, and progress.

Implementation & Support

The Project Management Office (PMO) oversees the UI COM Asana implementation, including license management, governance, training, and ongoing support.

Implementation Activities

  • Establish Asana governance and administration processes.
  • Configure UI COM’s Asana environment and project-management standards.
  • Develop standardized project templates and workflows.
  • Provide training and educational resources for Asana users.
  • Support departments and teams as they transition projects into Asana.
  • Monitor adoption and identify opportunities for continued improvement.
  • Evaluate additional Asana capabilities and integrations as the platform evolves.

Training & Resources

UI COM users can access Asana’s training resources to learn the fundamentals of project and task management and develop more advanced skills. Training will be supplemented by UI COM-specific videos located in BOX, and support from the Project Management Office. Please reach out to Radha Shah for more information.