Project management in the digital age

Project mode is very popular. Many companies are adopting it. It's popular for its cross-functionality and ease of implementation. But as easy as it may seem, it's not a natural process. Without tools and methods, the risks of failure, budget overruns and delays are high. Read all our reviews of project management software.

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Project management and its four key dimensions

Bringing a project to fruition means bringing together a wide variety of conditions.

The members

The choice of profiles

A good project is first and foremost a good team. But how do you put it together? Start with the skills you need. Choose complementary areas of expertise. On paper, your team will have everything it takes to succeed. But from a human point of view, it's just as many people, with their respective personalities, who are going to have to work together towards a common goal. Will the chemistry work? Will the current flow? Difficult to guarantee.

The role of the project manager

The management of human resources in project mode is essential. And this is where the team leader plays a crucial role. As a leader of men, he or she must mobilize each team member individually and as a team, by understanding the challenges that each one faces in view of the collective stakes involved. In addition, he or she must have a global vision of the project's progress or delay.

Resources

Allocation

Human resources are the capital allocated to the project. But very often, the team members mobilized here are also mobilized elsewhere. To give visibility to the project's progress potential, you need to be able to estimate each person's workload and deduce their availability.

Their limits

If human resources have their limits, so do finances. Firstly, in terms of remunerating staff in terms of time spent. But also in terms of the costs and investments associated with the project. It may be necessary to rent a meeting room, a workspace, dedicated IT equipment, specific machines in certain cases...

Processes

There are the resources, both human and financial, and the way in which they are deployed. These are the processes, with their associated work methodology. But very often, bureaucracy and protocol take precedence. And the means of communication, whether for requesting authorization or simply exchanging information with colleagues, are poorly adapted. The number of e-mails sent out, either bilaterally or to the team's list of addressees, multiplies, making finding information a headache.

The tools

Working methods are intrinsically linked to the tools used and the possibilities they offer. However, if each team member uses a different tool, either out of habit or as a matter of course, incompatibilities are likely to arise. This may mean exporting in one or more formats, so that other team members can open them. The heterogeneity of the tools adds to the time-consuming and laborious manipulations.

When a project turns into a nightmare

A company that embarks on a project without considering the above points could pay a high price.

Let's take the example of a six-month project involving the departments of various international subsidiaries. The time difference is one aspect to be taken into account. Since some people will be in Asia, while others will be in Europe or on the American continent, it will be necessary to work with a time difference. If collective meetings, by videoconference for example, become impossible due to time constraints, exchanges will be mainly in writing.

And if the only means of communication is by e-mail, the risks of confusion and wasted time are high. Let's say a mailing list is set up for the team. If, for one reason or another, one of the e-mails is skipped at the umpteenth "reply to all", the recipient in question will miss a whole series of exchanges, as well as any attachments that may come with them. If he continues to work on his own, on his outdated version of a document, it will then have to be reconciled and consolidated with the others.

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Digital technology for successful projects

Project mode is expected to be a source of agility. To maintain this quality, it is essential to equip yourself with the appropriate tools, capable of streamlining both exchanges and processes. Various dedicated software packages are available. Genius Project is one of them. With its unique, ergonomic interface, it's quick and easy to use. Its EDM (Electronic Document Management) enables dynamic management of work media. Everyone can access each other's modifications in real time, and share information via the social collaboration platform. The project manager also has up-to-date visibility of everyone's availability. As a result, the collaborative approach takes over, and progress is optimized.


Projects are subject to strict quality-cost-delivery constraints. To meet them, your best ally will be the relevance of the methods you implement. Thanks to digital technology, there are now tools such as Genius Project that can be adapted to your company's needs, giving your project teams every chance of success.