Teamwork, they say, makes the dream work. For digital businesses, finding software that can bring together all the people and resources needed to see a complex initiative through to completion is vital.
There’s a lot of choice out there: Basecamp, Asana, Slack, Monday, Trello; then Google and Microsoft OneDrive for collaborating on documents and spreadsheets. With the market for project management software set to hit ca. £3.2 billion this year, the list of options is likely to grow.
As a category, project management tools are obviously seen as a winner, but very often, they don’t deliver quite what businesses expect. In the main, there’s only one reason why that happens: hoping technology will solve problems on its own.
Not as Straightforward as they seem
Project management tools give businesses a holistic view of projects underway, including their budget consumption and progress. Anyone on a project team can use them to maintain version control, simplify, control or broaden access to information, engage in chats, comment and update in real-time. There’s no question that they have utility.
But the tools themselves have to be clear and intuitive; as well as configured to the specific needs of the business or sector the organisation operates in.
They often fall at the first hurdle. Not everyone in the workplace is a digital native and people have different levels of skill and comfort when navigating the interface of a project management tool. Most organisations have two to three generations in the same team. If just three people in a team of twenty don’t fully get how to use a Kanban board, problems are going to arise quickly.
Combining multiple tools for different functions can confuse things further. A tool like Slack has numerous integrations, making it easier to link up with something like Asana or SharePoint – but what if the mix of products doesn’t fit together so well, and what do you do if people in different functions silo themselves and use the tools they have differently, and store documents or track activity differently from other sections of the project team?
Technology can’t solve every problem on its own
With so much technology bombarding us every day, and the talk of going digital dominating so many business conversations, maybe it’s not surprising that there’s a common belief out there that technology can solve every problem.
The truth is that technology is only part of the equation. Project management and other software tools can give you powerful new capabilities, but they have to be translated into processes that make tasks easier to execute first. On top of that, they need to be flexible enough to accommodate different end-user work styles.
In short: the people factor is still the key ingredient that determines the success or failure of new technology implementations. If project management software is hard to use or isn’t tweaked to the needs of defined job roles and departments, expect resistance, lack of utilisation, and general confusion.
Teams need to be involved in the implementation process at an early stage if you want to secure their buy-in. Get people’s input on the project management tools being considered. Have a representative group trial the software options on the shortlist a and get their feedback before you make a final selection. An effective PM tool should be flexible enough to configure for the needs of specific organisations.
And then once the software is ready to use, people need to be correctly trained to use it. Making training the final phase of implementation will improve the chances that people will adopt it quickly, and minimise the likelihood of people falling back into old ways of working. Proper training can also ensure that everyone uses the system in more or less the same way for the same vital tasks.
Project management platforms make using their systems seem easy. Still, everyone is different and – let’s be honest – some vendors over-promise or assume a higher-level of technical ability than exists in many workplaces.
Keep the people factor in mind, and you’ll maximise the chances of a successful project management system implementation. You’ll see ROI faster and keep your project roadmaps on track.
Want to know more? Ask us about PMlysi – the project management solution tailored to the needs of your organisation.
