Top Trends and Innovations Shaping Project Management
Successfully completing a project is a complex process involving properly managing and tracking all the moving pieces that need to be coordinated seamlessly for a project to not just get done, but to stay on track and within budget.
The different parts of a project may include collaboration between employees and partners, scheduling meetings, tracking tasks sequentially, minding strict budgets and timelines, analyzing reports, and more.
Manually managing all the components of taking a project from concept to a completed result can be challenging for teams, even when they are working with a designated project manager at the helm.
Add these typical project complexities to those of the remote work of the hybrid workplace model, and you can certainly expect to see some changes and innovations in how projects are managed.
Here’s a closer look at 5 of the key trends that will be reshaping project management software in the years to come.
Rise in Remote Work Leading to Increased Reliance on Cloud-Based Project Management Tools
While many companies were already making the transition to remote work or at least leveraging cloud-based software and systems in the past couple of years, a hybrid workplace model is the preferred way nowadays.
Cloud-based software is now more heavily used than ever before, and thanks to the vast benefits, ranging from a stronger bottom line to efficiency increases, this trend is only expected to grow in adoption. This is particularly true in the instances where companies are choosing to keep their businesses remote even post-pandemic.
Project Management software is certainly no exception to this trend, and companies working remotely will now need an easily accessible and robust collection of tools, features, tracking, and integrations that are all designed for smoothly managing projects from beginning to completion.
Whether a project involves a lot of intricate steps or requires that groups of employees and/or clients work together seamlessly, project management software can help a company successfully manage and complete projects across all departments or even externally with clients or partners. Even for teams that are working face to face, project management software helps keep each member apprised of what their colleagues are doing individually.
Project Management software provides a comprehensive, bird’s-eye-view of the project, and does so in a way that’s far more efficient than endless and often not particularly productive meetings. It cuts down on the phone and email traffic and reduces misunderstandings as well.
Dispersed Teams and Innovations in Online Tools Brings About Hybrid Project Management Models
With an unprecedented number of employees now working remotely, project management practices, models, and tools are positioned for changes and innovations in the coming year.
While particular industries or project types may favor certain methodologies to complete projects or bring new initiatives to fruition, the use of hybrid methodologies and tools is becoming much more prominent.
Project Management software solutions typically offer tools to support various project methodologies, from Kanban and Agile to Scrum and Lean. These solutions can be used to support the most favored project methods, while also providing a variety of integrated options and tools that project teams can try out while looking for the best methodology or use if they prefer a mixture of tools from various methods.
AI Introduces New Automations to Streamline Projects and Empower Project Managers
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is starting to appear more and more frequently in all types of business software solutions, including project management systems. AI can:
- Help eliminate mundane or error-prone tasks such as data entry
- Glean insights with advanced reporting applications
- Automate processes and build up efficiencies
- Find patterns and make predictions based on historic and ongoing data sets
- The most prominent role that AI is currently positioned to play in Project Management software is automation. This could mean streamlining and automating tasks that project managers or team members typically have to do manually, such as
- Resource allocation
- Scheduling
- Budgeting
- Reporting, and more.
While there is some speculative worry surrounding the role of project managers and how AI will support (or replace) their efforts and roles overall, the general prediction is that AI will help project managers work more effectively and dynamically, while freeing up their time to focus on more strategic initiatives versus manual data entry, calendar scheduling, etc.
Project Management Goes Back to Basics with Increased Importance of Emotional Intelligence and Other Soft Skills
Managing projects with face-to-face access to key team members and the collaboration born from in-person interactions undoubtedly help increase project completion and smooth the communication process.
However, with all of the collaboration tools, scheduling assistants, and project and budget tracking tools available in cloud Project Management software, remote teams can still accomplish goals and meet project objectives under the guidance of a good leader with top-notch communication skills and emotional intelligence.
These are the types of soft skills that can’t be quantified well in sheer numbers or milestones, but they’ll be the things that infuse life into projects and motivate employees to collaborate and work together, no matter where they’re located. As a result, more companies will be looking for project managers and talent that are strong in these skills and capable of leading and motivating a team.
Project management software isn’t a substitute for good leadership, but it is a great tool for facilitating it.
More Emphasis on Data Analytics
Data analytics is what drives innovation forward. Having numbers to analyze can give fixed parameters for a project to measure and predict success. Being able to mitigate risks quickly given the data available can mean that you can avoid unnecessary corrections later.
An example of the use of analytics in project management software would be to judge how much staff is necessary. Based on the data, you are able to decipher how the current staff is allocated and fix any redundancies or even address the need for more staff as the workload increases. Likewise, data analytics can make project management much more efficient.
With the rise of cloud-based project management software options available and their quick adoption due to the changing workplace environment, project management tools can increase efficiency greatly. With more attention to detail using data analytics, AI, more emotional intelligence, and a hybrid project management approach, project management software is transforming how businesses grow.
Explore the best project management software options for you and your business and use our buyer’s guide to help you decide what tool is best for you.
About Wheelhouse
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Please visit our Project Management software page for a complete list of all the solutions we have on offer.
