Introduction

Project management in BackOps is the system for tracking all of the work that needs to be completed to successfully deliver an event.

While many teams rely on separate task tools, BackOps project management is designed to live inside the event itself, pulling together work from across schedules, advancing, procurement, and execution into a single, centralized place.

At a high level, project management answers one question:

What needs to get done to make this event successful?

Tasks as the Foundation

Project management in BackOps is built around tasks.

Tasks represent individual units of work that need to be completed for an event. They can be:

Assigned to one or more people
Given due dates
Reviewed or approved
Broken down into subtasks

This allows teams to delegate responsibility, track progress, and ensure nothing falls through the cracks.

A Centralized View of Work

One of the core goals of project management in BackOps is centralization.

Rather than tracking work across disconnected tools, project management brings together everything that needs to be done for an event into one place. This makes it easier to:

Understand overall workload
See what is complete versus outstanding
Identify risks before they become problems

Project management becomes the single source of truth for event execution.

Customizable Workflows

Every team works differently, and event workflows vary widely.

BackOps allows you to customize your project management process by:

Defining your own task statuses
Creating custom task attributes
Adapting task structure to match how your team actually works

This flexibility ensures you don’t have to force your process to fit the tool—the tool adapts to your process.

Event Phases

In addition to tasks, BackOps introduces phases to reflect how events unfold over time.

Phases allow you to break an event into major operational periods, such as:

Pre-event planning
Load-in
On-site execution
Load-out
Post-event wrap-up

Tasks can be associated with specific phases, making it easier to:

Understand readiness before the event begins
Track what must be completed during load-in or on-site
Ensure nothing is missed during load-out
Manage post-event responsibilities like billing and reconciliation

Phases provide structure without limiting flexibility.

Constraints and Postmortem Insight

BackOps also includes the concept of constraints.

Constraints are used to log blockers, issues, or problems encountered during the lifecycle of an event. They provide a structured way to capture friction points as they happen, rather than relying on memory after the fact.

Examples of constraints include:

Late deliverables
Approval delays
Unexpected changes
External dependencies that impact schedule or budget

By tracking constraints, teams gain valuable insight during post-event reviews. This makes it easier to:

Understand why issues occurred
Identify patterns across events
Attribute delays or cost overruns accurately

Constraints turn postmortems from guesswork into data-driven analysis.

Project Management as an Execution Hub

At its core, project management in BackOps is about execution.

It connects planning to action by giving teams a clear, shared understanding of what work remains, who owns it, and when it needs to be done.

Combined with event-specific features like phases and constraints, BackOps project management goes beyond generic task tracking and becomes a true operational command center for live events.