Project management isn’t easy. Being able to take a broad, often vague, idea and ensure it’s delivered on time and on budget is a tough skill to pull off. It usually involves co-ordinating a number of people with different skills and experiences, setting out and monitoring a clear time frame and liaising with senior managers to update on progress.
In order to demonstrate the scale of the challenge, Mavenlink highlights some startling statistics about project management from a number of sources. They include the fact that:
· Only 2.5 per cent of companies successfully complete all of their projects.
· Almost three quarters of people (73 per cent) admit that their projects are either always or usually ‘doomed right from the start’. More than a quarter (27 per cent) say they always feel this way.
· 57 per cent of projects fail due to breakdown in communications.
All this should go to demonstrate that when it comes to project management you need all the help you can get.
That’s where technology comes in. The right software can cut the burden on a project manager and empower them to be able to successfully lead and deliver the work they are being asked to oversee.
Let’s explore some of the fundamental ways in which technology can work in the favour of a project manager:
Providing a road map for the project: Project managers need to be able to communicate key goals, establish the expectations of key partners and share knowledge of plans quickly and effectively. The first step to doing this is to create a road map for the entire project. This is a project manager’s way of taking an idea and visualizing how it will actually come to fruition in practice. Without technology, this would be a very long and difficult process. However, there are a number of road map templates that can be downloaded and put to use to deliver this, including one with the help of pmo365.
Delegation: The most lucrative projects are the most complicated. They might well include people from different departments and external contractors and freelancers. Project management software helps you to easily delegate work and to split big tasks into their constituent parts. That way, everyone has a clear understanding of how they fit into the big picture and you can easily pinpoint any particular tasks that are becoming a problem and identify individuals that require support.
Time management: Speaking of which, time management is also simpler with software. You can ask each person to log their time next to their part of the task in question and keep an accurate record of how long each aspect is taking. This data allows you to see if you’ve underestimated any part of the project and spot bottlenecks early enough for you to be able to act upon them. Time management is important for any business – and software allows project managers to monitor this and make informed decisions.
Efficient feedback: By using software that brings all of this together in one central location, it’s much easier to share feedback among a whole team – with one update taking the place of several calls and messages. Mass communication technology has been a way that thousands of companies have been able to instantly communicate feedback to teams. Not only that, but using software such as Google Drive allows you to easily update documents and collaborate on projects without having countless emails pinging around inboxes.
Get all of this right and project management will be easier – allowing you to focus on following your instinct and doing the things that can only be done with the ‘human touch’.
Founder Dinis Guarda
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