Project Management in the Digital Era

Project management has increasingly become an important part in corporate activities in the past several years. Businesses have evolve to include it in their yearly operations because it lends agility especially to large bureaucratic companies. In times past, project managers are the only critical elements to a successful project, but now the digital age has demanded more speed and efficiency from the project manager and their teams, which is why the project manager and technology have to work hand-in-hand to make every project work.

Technology is the key to keeping up with the fast pace of today’s business environment. This means that project managers have to evolve and adapt to these changes. This is why there is a rise in digital project managers. Much like traditional project managers, digital project managers ensure things get done, but because the world has gone digital, their work revolves around getting things done in a digital setting.

Technology: The Key Driving Force

According to a Forbes article, companies are in a greater pressure than ever before to deliver goods and services at the speed of ideas, and that there is no other way to stay ahead in a highly competitive environment. This is why many companies are now turning to technology to improve the way they do business, migrating their traditional processes into reliable digital platforms such as Microsoft Project.

The age of digitization has also posed several developments in the world of digitized business that project managers have been constantly adjusting to. Newer and newer technologies come out every year promising more efficient means of fulfilling tasks. This has challenged traditional project management tactics leading project managers to adapt along with new technologies or fail. This means that project managers need to be more dynamic and respond to a business environment in flux.

Transforming Project Managers

With the demand on project managers increasing pressure on them, project managers need to step up and gain competency in 7 skill areas:

• Stakeholder partnership – Project managers must be able to communicate effectively and build relationships with every stakeholder involved in the project.
• Judgment – Decision-making skills and analytical ability are a top priority to every project manager as they have to make judgments based on what is happening currently.
• Risk-management – Project managers need to be aware of their organization, what is wrong and what needs to be done to improve the current situation.
• Team leadership – A project manager should not only be able to lead and supervise, they should also be able to work in a team.
• Ownership and commitment – Project success relies on achieving business results, but at the same time, project managers must be able to achieve personal goals and objectives.
• Learning ability – Adaptability is the name of the game now, and effective project managers need to constantly research, learn, and respond to the changes around them, especially in the realm of technology.
• Business knowledge – The business and the project cannot be separated, therefore, every action that the project manager does must be in line with business goals.

Because of these demands, project managers need constant communication, updates, status reports, and other things at their fingertips, to be able to make the right decisions and actions to see to the completion of the project. This is what project management technology provides. Project management technology is the new personal assistant of project managers. It is through the alliance of technology and human ingenuity that project managers can become successful in this digital age.