What is digital project management?
Digital project management is the use of electronic tools to leverage knowledge, skills, and techniques to accomplish projects in digital workspaces.
Technically, using word processors, email, and spreadsheets to manage a project would meet this definition, but that’s just the tip of an iceberg.
Intuitively, we know digital technology is so much more than these tools.
What makes a good digital project manager?
Aside from being technologically adept, a good project manager is an excellent communicator.
Being able to communicate clearly and effectively when managing any project is an essential skill.
You have to be able to communicate your visions and articulate your project’s goal in a way that everyone can grasp for themselves, quickly and easily.
Also, you have to be direct in expressing your expectations and giving regular, constructive feedback to your team.
There shouldn’t be room for ambiguity.
Because when a project manager is unable to excel in this area and leaves the rest of the team in a state of confusion and bewilderment, you can expect a little to no hope any project will ever reach a successful conclusion!
Tips to Manage Projects Successfully
Good project management is complex, and certainly, digitizing it just adds salt to injury.
But with the right set of skills, tools, and methodologies, your projects are set up for success right from the beginning.
Here are 12 project management tips:
1. Know the project inside out
You can’t seamlessly manage a project if you don’t understand the WHY behind it.
You need to identify the clients and the stakeholders and catch on their interests and expectations.
Take the time to understand the project’s key objectives and scope. Then, set goals.
When it comes to goals, a sound advice is to follow SMART.
Ensure that the goals are Clear, Measurable, Attainable, Time-bound, and Relevant.
2. Identify the project requirements
This project management tip is as important as the first one because identifying the project requirements is a must. Remember, resources are the key factors that contribute to making a project successful.
After that, assemble a team capable of implementing the plan effectively.
You may start with defining roles and assigning the right set of tasks. In doing so, keep in mind their personalities, strengths, and expertise.
3. Manage potential risks
Risks are the potential pitfalls that can encroach anytime and jeopardize the whole progress of a project.
Hence, this project management tip reiterates the importance of making sure your project runs smoothly by identifying potential risks and planning effective measures to be taken if those problems arise.
Seeing the problems before they take forms is part of the work.
Therefore, you have to define, analyze, and monitor risk before implementing the project.
The more proactive you can handle risk, the more likely it is that your project will succeed.
4. Be good at negotiation
The art of negotiation deserves its own place here.
It is not just about haggling with a seller or contractor for the best deal. Leading a project implies that you are in constant negotiations.
You'll probably get requests from stakeholders, for instance, which can influence hardcore the project’s scope.
Sometimes you have to give them a pushback - but diplomatically - so all interested parties know they get what they want.
Then there are those inevitable disputes between team members or other individuals involved in the project.
If you are good at negotiations, these conflicts can be settled before they endanger the project.
5. Define critical milestones
Identifying the defining moments throughout the project is one of the most important project management tips, as it contributes big time in achieving success.
This can be done by laying out the life cycle of a project, which may include initiation, planning, execution, and closure.
It is advisable to perform an evaluation test after every phase. From parts of the product to the technical documents, you need all of these elements to be flawless to make sure that the project is exceeding the expectations of the clients.
6. Communicate well and often
Remote project management isn't for everyone.
If you aren't a good communicator, project management, in general, may not be for you.
Emails, team calls, conference meetings with stakeholders - they’re all part of the project manager's communication responsibilities.
Here’s another project management tip: Ensure open communication lines between you and the team members so that anyone can walk up to you without any second thoughts.
And while we are there, see the next tip.
7. Be patient and add a bit of humor
A sense of humor is found to be effective in allowing you to see a problem from a different perspective.
Not just that, it also relieves stress from you and your team. And only when tensions are lifted that better actions and ideas can show themselves.
Meanwhile, speeding through a project or getting upset when things don't go as expected is a perfect recipe for disaster. It will solve nothing. That’s where patience takes place.
Although time is a constraint, you can make mistakes if you rush the process. Projects require time to be carefully thought about - all the elements involved - in order to run smoothly.
8. Tap into individual’s strengths and weaknesses
The success of a project largely depends on the skills of the team members.
Therefore, make an effort to get to know your team members’ inherent strengths and weaknesses so that you can allocate work accordingly.
Remember, someone’s strength is often someone else’s weakness. Thus, make sure the work is assigned to the team member who is inherently capable and faster at completing it.
Tapping into the strengths of team members ensures faster task completion and better time management.
With everyone in a team putting their best foot forward and making the most of their capabilities, the project is sure to be a success.
9. Motivate your team
A pessimistic manager is a guarantee to put any team on a sharp downward spiral.
Remember that enthusiasm is contagious. Positive managers naturally draw their members toward them, and this positivity will soon rub off on the rest of the individuals involved in the project.
The project management tip that is at play here is: Observe your team and their personalities. Or better yet, ask them what turns them on in the professional world.
Through that data, you can formulate ways to motivate each of your team members.
10. Use a project management tool
This should be the first tip in the “digital” project management, but we thought it best to start with the personal attributes first.
Topping the list of the many gifts of technology to project managers in the digital age is the project management software.
Project management software act as a centralized platform for everything and everyone in the team - from files to documents, file-sharing to giving feedback, effective communication to seamless collaboration.
11. Test deliverables
Earlier, we talked about defining critical milestones. This time, let’s focus a little bit on testing the deliverables either at the end of each milestone or at the end of the project.
Testing deliverables gives you a fair idea of whether the project is what it was planned to be.
It is a crucial step, as it determines whether the output is meeting or exceeding the expectations.
At the end of every critical milestone, if any fallacies are encountered, corrective measures can still be taken into account immediately to bring the project back on track.
12. Evaluate the entire process
Each project is a learning tool.
Good managers constantly review the project as a whole, as well as analyze various project components.
By doing so, they can point out the successes in a project, what went wrong in it, and what can be improved for future ones.
So what better way of ending these project management tips than reiterating the importance of feedback?
At the end of the project, meet with your team so you can collect and document the lessons learned.
Ask your team for feedback on your performance. It not only shows them that you value their opinions, but it also gives you an opportunity to reflect on your own project management style and improve where necessary.
Project Management Tips Conclusion
Project management has changed exponentially over the last decade. Today’s work settings don’t typically involve working in a cubicle or even in an office anymore. Although this creates greater flexibility for team members, it can pose a challenge for project managers.
As a result, it is more important than ever for project managers to proactively plan and develop sound milestones throughout the project.
Utilizing the right resources for the team plays a vital role in the project’s success. Hence, it’s vital to adopt a resource that helps make managing projects and enhancing teams seamless.
Bitrix24 is a project management tool that does just that.
It is easy to use and implement and can be used anywhere and at any time. It is designed with team collaboration features, CRM tools, and many more. In fact, it’s a platform for all your project needs.
Kick your project into high gear today by giving Bitrix24 a try
