Enterprise project management can be tremendously complex and challenging, even under the best circumstances. Dealing with large budgets, high stakeholder expectations and large, geographically diverse teams can test the abilities of even the most experienced project manager. As organizations look for quicker delivery, better quality and faster returns on their investments, the demands on project managers and teams grow even more intense.
Fortunately, project management technology continues to improve at a rapid pace, allowing project teams to increase their efficiency and effectiveness year after year. As a project manager, it’s important that you stay aware of current trends and best practices for using technology in project management. Here’s a look at some of the ways you can apply today’s tools and solutions to your enterprise projects.
Bring Your Team Together Through Online Collaboration
Enterprise projects rarely, if ever, take place within a single office. In most cases, project teams are composed of employees, vendors and business partners in multiple cities or countries, often using different methodologies to manage their parts of the overall project. Cloud-based collaboration tools are essential for breaking down barriers and allowing team members to share their ideas and insights in real time.
Track Resource Allocation Across the Enterprise
One of the biggest challenges in enterprise project management is ensuring that resources will be available when needed on each individual project. Most large organizations have dozens of projects in progress at any given time, with employees dividing their time between multiple assignments. Without the right project and portfolio management software, managers might find it impossible to align their team members with the needs of each project. Next-generation solutions like Planview AdaptiveWork, however, make it easy to manage project resources and view availability and utilization across the entire organization.
Share Updates and Changes in Real Time
Few enterprise projects make it from inception to closing without at least a few changes to the plan along the way. With so many people working on your project, it can be difficult to ensure that every team member is up to date on the latest developments. Cloud-based software allows project managers to maintain and update important documents like project plans and Gantt charts in real time, so that team members can always be sure they’re looking at the current version.
Store Documents and Task Information in a Central Location
With so many people working on project tasks and editing documents at the same, enterprise project teams often struggle with version control. When two team members are working from different drafts of a task specification, for example, miscommunications and quality issues can easily result. Here again, a cloud-based project management solution can eliminate the confusion by providing a central location for all documentation, including discussions that might take place via email or online chat.
