As a decisive factor in the failure or success of any professional project, project management standards and techniques evolve rapidly with the advent of new technologies and changing standards. PM experts understand that success in their field massively depends on their ability to foresee these changes and adapt to the impact on their current and future projects.
Digital communication and increased reliance on digital collaboration defined 2020 for project managers. While these swift changes brought about a great deal of challenges for project management teams and their leaders, as we move through 2021, they pose propitious avenues for productivity growth and lucrative options. In the next few months, we expect to see expansion in task automation, more customized project delivery methodologies, and a greater emphasis on business value as just of the few but sure crucial trends that will continue to revamp the project management domain.
AI Enables Better Risk Estimation
It comes as no surprise that as AI becomes a critical part of a company’s business processes, the impact is making its way to project management. And today, those applications are more numerous than ever. Just like software development, healthcare, aerospace, and finance, the impact of automation and artificial intelligence can also be seen and felt in the project management domain.
AI is already being used by dozens of companies to perform strenuous tasks that necessitate human attention through task automation. The effort exceeds simple tasks but is also quite helpful in procuring performance insights.
Automation allows project managers to perform time-killer tasks ranging from scheduling to data visualization and make more informed decisions based on captured evidence.
What should PMs do about it?
First and foremost, project managers should embrace artificial intelligence and better leverage it for positive project completion.
Project execution will prove much bearable once you’ve learned to leverage AI better. You will even make way for building meaningful relationships with your customers and team members. The gist of working with AI is that you can even get the right estimation of a project’s costs, duration, and progress, helping you foresee realistic timelines for your projects.
More Agile Hybrid PM Approaches
Who said that all teams should stick to one specific methodology? As there is no one-size-fits-all for project categories, the concept of hybrid project management has been gaining a lot of buzz, and the number of PMs combining more than one methodology is mounting.
These new methodologies allow for more diversity in approaches from the traditional PM environment and the agile world. The concept allows PMs to bring all tasks, projects, teams, and communications into one place, helping them make the right business choices.
For example, by combining the Agile methodology with the traditional approach, team members with different working styles, different views can work together in their own way, making room for more engagement, stability and efficiency.
The Impact of Emotional Intelligence
The ability to recognize and understand emotion has more to do with project success than you’ve ever imagined. A TeleSmart study shows that 58% of those surveyed believe that emotional intelligence is a strong indicator of performance, irrespective of the nature of the project.
In 2021 project management isn’t just about making deadlines or deciding the budget – project managers have to manage teams as well, and that brings more complications. Failing to understand employees’ emotions only builds up more emotional uncertainty in a team.
What Should PMs do about it?
To be able to tackle different personalities and ensure project completion, a proper understanding of your and others’ emotions is necessary – making it a valuable skill for project managers all over the world.
Thus, mastering emotional intelligence and what drives people is becoming more important than ever to foresee project success in the future.
Advanced Project Management Software and Solutions
In today’s all-digital era, project management tools have become an imperative part of the domain. Studies, too, tell the same story. Research shows that 77% of high-performance projects use different types of agency timesheets to plan, execute, and manage all aspects of project management.
Advanced project management tools have always been a groundbreaking factor. There are many ways these tools bring positive changes in project management.
- Tracking teams progress: Helps team managers keep track of ongoing projects
- Budgets and deadlines: Help organizations deliver projects within the allocated budget
- Schedules and tracks time: Manages and keeps track of scheduled events, deadlines, milestones, and meetings.
- Collaboration and communication: Allow team members to share information with stakeholders, clients, and other team members
Numbers and Data Analytics: More Important than Ever
Because most of the project management features are already very much data-driven, all project management experts see data analytics as a major focus in the domain’s future.
In today’s massively competitive business environment, project managers are required to keep track of numerous financial metrics. But because projects are increasingly more complex and involve investors at multiple levels, there is a mounting need to also have built-in performance boosting tools and integrated access to data.
Experts believe that many organizations will need to turn to solutions that leverage performance-improving tools, PM features, and advanced healthcare data analytics solutions.
Whether it’s quality management, project planning, or risk estimation, big data has always influenced the way project management works. And there’s no wonder why. Analytics have allowed organizations to better form teams, include and position team members according to their domain expertise and set of skills.
When used the right way, data analytics has the power to produce a lot of business value. The faster you measure risk, the faster it gets managed. Data analytics isn’t for everybody – that’s why the smart and wise ones rely on multiple tools to manage and read their data. For instance, project analytic tools provide teams with strategic parameters that could aid them in completing a full picture of all project activities and make more informed decisions.
