The world has already moved online; has your job moved with it? Gone are the days of managing work using pen and paper, whiteboards and dry erase markers, sticky notes and the four walls of your cubicle. And saving Microsoft Word documents and spreadsheets in a folder on your computer has become a thing of the past.
Today’s most effective digital project managers have moved their teams and processes online. Using online project management, collaboration software, and cloud file storage systems, work is getting done efficiently and with better results.
Here’s how digital project management is improving with the help of the cloud.
1. Work details are more transparent
When you organize your projects and tasks in an online project management tool that is shared with your team, stakeholders can easily find out where a work project stands. Everyone gets visibility into who is assigned to what, when tasks are due, what stage work is in, who is bottlenecking progress and what’s coming next. You’re empowering your team with the knowledge they need to be effective.
2. You get up-to-the-minute progress updates
Cloud-based project management and collaboration tools show you exactly where work stands at this very moment. When work is being done right where you track overall progress, you’ll always have the latest status of work, so you can communicate with executive stakeholders using real, up-to-the-minute data. You can cut out status update meetings, because you know what’s going on just by checking your project management tool.
3. Important information is easily accessible
Keeping all your documents, images, and information in a cloud-based project management tool and/or file storage tool means people can download the files they need right when they need them — without badgering you. And they won’t have to wait 24 hours for you to respond to their email, so work can move even faster.
4. Timelines and assignments can be adjusted
Has a key team member unexpectedly taken leave for a few days? That can cause a huge delay in your schedule. Using project management software that includes Gantt charts gives you easy options to remedy your situation:
Look at your Gantt chart to see if you can afford to wait for your team member to return.
If you can wait, rearrange the tasks on your Gantt chart to reflect your new deliverable dates and let the team know they should check the updated schedule. It maintains one version of the truth.
If you can’t wait, reassign the task. Since the original assignee has been tracking all their progress in the online project management tool, the new assignee should have all the information they need to easily pick up where their teammate left off.
5. You always have one version of the truth
Work and feedback are all kept in the same place, so you can reference it as often as necessary. No arguments over “He said/She said” or “I didn’t realize that was my responsibility,” since everything is clearly documented in one place that everyone can access.
What does being a digital project manager mean to you?
If you’ve already made the switch to digital project management, share your story. What has changed since you moved work to the cloud?
