Businesses ride on the wave of technology and are progressing through the decades. Technology impacts all industries, and the project management area is no exception. Today's consumers and project teams are already using technology tools in their everyday life.
Traditional project management techniques can deliver successful results in today's world only if the right project management tools are used. There may be a struggle for project teams to adapt to technology, but project managers can refer to this article on how to enhance project management practices with technology.
Let’s summarize everything and find out how technology improves project management.
Improves communication and collaboration
Over the past few years, there’s been an increase in the number of project teams working remotely across the globe. The pandemic accelerated this. What comes to the forefront is the challenge of collaboration and communication.
Poor communication is cited as the leading cause for failure on almost a third of doomed projects (29%) as per PMI.
The success of a project always depends on transparency in communication and sharing of the project status. As a project manager, you should collaborate with your team members by assigning tasks to them and viewing their progress daily in real-time.
Many communication and collaboration tools enable instant messaging, audio, and video calls such as Slack, Google Hangouts, etc. These types of devices allow for instant communication and the ability to send/share documents with other team members.
Project management tools have Agile or Kanban boards that show the real-time status to project teams. Team members can move their tasks according to progress and change the status. Technology helps project managers view the status of their projects in real-time. They can identify issues earlier and act on them promptly which’ll save them time and resources.
Securely share information with team members
Project information and documentation increase over time. Securely storing documents online is of prime importance. Sharing secure cloud drives or links helps secure shared data.
Project management tools offer the sharing of data in a restricted manner. The project manager can assign tasks with a due date and a priority level which can be made restricted or visible to all the team members. Some project management tools have features where tasks assigned to members are visible as ‘My tasks’ when they log in. This type of feature enables faster communication, accountability, and improved productivity. Project managers can use the task board, which can be an Agile or Kanban model, and discuss it in meetings.
Cloud-based project management tools, or ERP applications, can help project managers efficiently organize and share work statuses in real-time. Many project management tools get delivered from the cloud in a Software as a Service model. Using similar project management and ERP applications provides the whole project team with real-time information meaning everyone’s aware of the latest project status.
The project manager can leave comments on a task and assign it to a project team member. Documents can also be attached to tasks. Technology enables project management on a single unified platform that has real-time updates which keeps stakeholders and project team members in sync.
Assists with time management
Project managers and teams always keep an eye on the deadlines for project deliverables — technology tools can help assign time to tasks. A project manager can assign planned hours for a task and later compare them with the actual hours of a project team member. Some tools can compare planned time with the actual time spent on tasks.
Alerts and notifications to changing project tasks or status boards help improve productivity.
Time tracking modules are part of project management tools and help project managers assess productivity and allocate resources better. It helps to bill customers and creates accurate project estimates by managing and allocating project teams time optimally.
Provides an integrated suite for various team requirements
Businesses need different features to suit their operations. Some teams may use a Customer Relationship Management tool that integrates with a project management tool. Project management tools combined with applications help deliver unified views of integrated data.
Gantt charts are an indispensable project management tool that shows important dates (including the start/finish dates of projects and critical milestones) and codependent tasks. It also shows how essential tasks relate to each other. In this way, multiple features may vary from organization to organization. Integration capabilities, feature-rich applications, easy and flexible customization all help project managers manage projects better.
Read on: Introduction to Vault’s integrations.
Status updates and tracking KPIs
Technology helps in project management as it allows you to set clear goals and tasks. Real-time updates of project tasks and statuses are vital features. Project managers have daily meetings with teams and stakeholders and use various features like KPIs, dashboards and reports to monitor real-time metrics.
Management can get real-time updates on the status of projects across the enterprise.
Using technology allows project managers and teams to quickly share updates, view and act on assigned tasks, and identify risks and mitigate them faster which’ll keep projects on track.
Read on: Increasing efficiency in remote project management.
Try Vault for project management
Empower your team to use Vault for software project management. The cloud-based SaaS application is user-friendly. Your teams can use it to plan projects and monitor, manage, and report on work activities. Improve your team’s efficiency and productivity with real-time project visibility thanks to analytical dashboards and drill-down reports.