“A new study from Planview found that many project managers report problems with work collaboration that result in negative business impacts.”[1]
While the world of work has changed with today’s digital transformation, the need for effective team management remains constant. However, teams today continue to face numerous project management hurdles, such as ineffective communication between team members and with external project contributors, the lack of effective project management tools, and the time-consuming nature of creating project status reports. Yet, the no. 1 collaboration hurdle cited by 52 percent of respondents in Planview’s 2018 project collaboration survey was, not surprisingly, “too many emails.”
What is surprising, however, is the fact that a whopping 93 percent of respondents also reported that email was their top form of communication for project management. Doesn’t make much sense, does it? Why continue to rely so heavily on a tool that is only making collaboration and project management more difficult?
As featured in the TechRepublic post, “Why everyone is now a project manager,” the 2018 Planview project collaboration survey revealed not only these top challenges and primary forms of communication, but also that two out of three professionals have official responsibilities to manage projects, even though they don’t actually carry the title of “project manager.” These professionals represent the growing number of “accidental project managers,” who manage projects without formal training. With the right collaboration tools, accidental project managers will have the ability to not only survive in this new world of work, but excel at their job and help their teams meet strategic goals.
The key is to stop digging for information through all those emails and start searching for more effective solutions, particularly ones that offer a strategic dashboard and document sharing capabilities (two of the primary capabilities teams look for in project management solutions, as reported in the survey). For more information on these survey results and all-things project collaboration, download the eBook, “Everyone is a Project Manager,” where you will find greater detail on the top collaboration hurdles mentioned above and how you can overcome them.
[1] Deppen, Laurel. “Why everyone is now a project manager.” TechRepublic, 17 July 2018, www.techrepublic.com/article/why-everyone-is-now-a-project-manager/ . Accessed 23 July 2018.