Streamline Your Work and Archive Project Channels

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

Integrate Slack apps to centralize all of your project work from other platforms.
Archive project channels when they are no longer needed.
Give your team guidance when completing a project in Slack.

Streamline All Your Project Work

Slack isn’t yet another platform to juggle along with all your other project management tools—Slack helps you better facilitate your work across your other existing software.

Connect your project management tool to get instant notifications in Slack when updates are made. Use your favorite calendar tool to schedule meetings within Slack. Share documents straight from your file storage app into a channel. Use your go-to conference call app to send a meeting in channel.

Your entire team can join video calls, manage calendars, and collaborate on files without switching. Let’s dive into how.

Use Apps Already Available to You

To start adding apps that are available to your workspace:

Click the + button next to Apps in the left sidebar of Slack.
You can search for available apps by category or name. Once you find the app you want, click it.
Follow the instructions to install or connect your account, depending on the app.

By default, any workspace member can install apps, but owners and admins can choose to restrict this permission. Once an app is installed to a workspace, any member can connect their account to use it.

Customize Slack to Work for You

Every team is different, but we’ve seen a few types of apps add huge value across companies. If you haven’t already, consider the following.

Connect your project management platform to get instant project updates in Slack (such as Asana and Trello).
Add your file storage service to share files without leaving Slack (such as Dropbox, Box, and Google Drive).
Sync email and calendar services (such as Google Workspace and Office 365).
Add conference call apps so you can kick off or join virtual meetings directly from Slack (such as Zoom, Cisco, and Google HangOut).

Discover More Apps to Boost Productivity

If you want to discover and add more apps to your workspace, head over to the Slack App Directory, where you’ll find well over 2,000 apps.

Before installing an app from the App Directory, you can review its privacy policy and security and compliance information (if available) from the app page. Request this from your admin if that’s your company policy. We recommend only choosing services you trust when installing apps.

Close Out Your Project and Archive Your Channel

The project was a success—the client got exactly what they expected. You came in on budget. And, because you collaborated with your team in Slack, the entire team never missed a beat. Now it’s time to close out your project. Let’s review what that means in Slack, starting with archiving your channels.

Archiving a channel removes it from the list of active conversations in your Slack workspace and all members will be removed from the channel. The channel won’t be open for new activity, but the history will be retained for easy browsing and searching. The contents will remain searchable for members (or if it’s a public channel, for everyone) in the workspace.

Sometimes you might have to reflect on a project, review what worked or didn't work, reuse certain workflows, or refer to past information for a current project. Have the peace of mind knowing you can always go back and retrieve the information you need.

Provide Closure

Every member of a channel will get a message from Slackbot when you archive a channel. So we encourage leaving one last closing message, explaining why the channel is closing and where or who members can turn to for important information.

Archiving a channel depends on how your workspace is set up. You may need to contact an admin to do it. Or you may have the option by clicking on the channel name, selecting the Settings tab, and choosing to archive the channel for everyone.

It can feel very final when you archive a channel. But that’s the nature of projects and project management. Rest assured you managed your project well and encouraged collaboration best practices in Slack. Good job!