Every year brings with it a number of exciting tech trends in project management with their own set of challenges and opportunities. These changes help build a culture of innovation in the industry, leading to an increase in efficiency and overall prowess.
Computers, robots, the internet and artificial intelligence or AI are some of the first things that come to our mind whenever we talk about the use of technology in business. There is no doubt that these innovations have helped make project management a lot more interactive and interlinked than it ever was. However, there are a few challenges to incorporating these tech trends within your operations as well.
In this article, we take a look at the benefits and challenges of adapting to tech trends in project management. Read through the lines below and evaluate your strategy towards tech adoption.
Benefits of Adapting to Tech Trends
We first start by listing down the benefits of adapting to tech trends and what this means for project teams and managers.
Increased Pace of Adoption towards Remove Tools and Practices
The industry for remote tasks and project management is valued at a staggering $4.3 billion. The industry is expected to grow even further, as statisticians have set a CAGR of 11 to 14 percent for it. Collaboration tools have been around for much of the last couple of decades and have made remote communication a lot easier for project teams working from multiple locations.
Zoom, MS Teams, Orangescrum, Google Meet, Mattermost, Slack and a number of other tools are leading the industry towards innovation and brilliance.
The current COVID-19 pandemic brought the business world to a standstill, but project teams could continue to work thanks to the efficiency of remote collaboration tools. These tools ensured collaboration while working from home as well and kept the pace of work up during the pandemic.
Collaboration tools offer a number of benefits to remote teams, including:
· Real-time communication and interaction between all members within remote teams.
· Precise sharing and exchange of information
· Putting an end to silos
· Transparency around the tasks and roles assigned to every member of the team.
· Increased accountability in team members.
· Well-defined responsibilities and roles for everyone.
· Clarity in tasks and their objectives
· Teams know the person identified for each task.
Collaboration tools help remote teams be efficient and deliver goods even when working remotely.
More Automation Means More Control
Automation is not only seen as a measure that saves time for businesses but it is also considered as a metric to improve the control businesses practice on their processes. The rise of self-service support portals, chatbots and other tech automations for customers has led to more control in operations that were previously neglected.
The most obvious benefits resulting from this increase in control include:
· Reduction in repetitive and manual tasks
· Elimination of administrative activities
· Automated reporting and tracking
· Quick insights on project completion
· Reduce the chances of human error
· Faster implementation of new and updated processes
Better Alignment between Projects and Strategies
Most projects require a pre-defined goal to be met within the standard timeline. However, there is almost always a mismatch between what customers want through a project and what is delivered to them. While the reasons behind this disconnect are not clear, we know that technology can help bridge the gap between strategies and projects. Heres’ how:
· Adapting to tech trends brings stakeholders and project teams together
· It makes milestone planning easier
· It helps breakdown tasks into sub-tasks
· Quality tracking
· Managers know who is working on what
· Goals are clear
Cost Reduction and Profit Boost
Finally, adapting to tech trends in project management eventually reduces costs and helps improve profits. Operating costs are significantly low in organizations with proper tech mechanisms. Technology has helped many businesses avoid downtimes as traditional machines are susceptible to breaking down and may fall to issues. New processes, project management styles and tech adoption can lead to improved processes without any costly delays and profit hits.
Challenges of Adapting to Tech Trends
As we have mentioned in our intro, the advantages in project management do not come with their own hurdles. There are also a few challenges that businesses have to overcome for success here. These challenges include:
Resistance to Change
Some employees in your organization may not want to move beyond what they find comfortable. This could be due to their fear of trying new things out or a simple case of technophobia. Some employees even fear that technology will take over human jobs and lead to stagnation in their growth potential.
The resistance most organizations face towards change from employees has resulted in the creation of change management measures. Change management requires the introduction of change in a gradual manner with small baby steps.
Lack of Adequate Training
Your employees will not immediately know what to do with the technology provided to them. It is obvious that you need to train them and help align them with the requirements of the process. They may even dislike the system at first but may eventually settle into it and get the hang of their requirements. Once employees are properly acquainted with a system, they will get to like it and will use it in their operations for noticeable benefits.
Project managers in the current era have to inevitably accept all tech trends in the industry. It is necessary to keep an open eye on innovations in the market and implement them within your own processes.
