Project management in technology encircles the planning, organizing, and outlining duties for completing specific technological projects and goals. These projects may include product implementation, hardware installation, software development, network upgrades, and data management projects.
Companies measure success by the number of projects they have completed. A project manager should be able to lead various teams in the company to complete projects successfully. Even though project management in technology faces many challenges, project managers can adopt the best practices to lead their team to complete projects successfully.
Challenges
Advancements in technology during the project execution, changes in infrastructure that impact data management and security may make project management a challenging task. Here are some challenges that affect project management in technology.
- Ever-changing Technology Landscape
Technological advances during project execution, such as new devices and systems, can challenge an ongoing project. The project manager will evaluate new devices or systems and decide on the best way to incorporate the technology into the ongoing projects.
- Technological Gap Between Clients and the Team
The communication gap between clients and the experts working on the project may become a challenge. Clients may find it hard to express themselves using technological terms. The project manager should fill in the gap between the experts and the clients.
- Ever-changing clients and Project Needs
One of the difficult aspects of completing a technology project is that client needs may change and grow. It may also include changes in the project requirements while the project is going on. So, clients may require a new platform or modifications to the existing systems. The customers need the project manager to respond fast to the new changes.
Project Management Best Practices
Technology project management requires various skills, such as communication. The project managers also need to understand the team members’ abilities. Here are some of the best practices in project management in technology:
- Budgeting
A technology project manager needs to maintain a clear budget for the task at hand. However, budgeting can be a challenge if the team is working with new technologies and is uncertain about the exact funding.
Communication skills are crucial in technical projects because when projects need more funding, the project manager should communicate on time and give valid reasons.
- Variance Analysis and Tracking
Deviations and variances in technology projects should be reported, addressed, and resolved. An efficient project management process needs regular updates, reports, and meetings of the project team.
Further, an effective escalation process requires that issues be solved at the lowest appropriate level. This helps to identify and deal with problems early when they go off target—topics such as additional risks, cost overruns, and schedule slips. You can use the Earned Value technique for measuring project performance. This technique integrates cost and scheduled performance.
- Specified Company Systems and Roles
You must define specific roles for project managers, other managers, and team members in technology projects. You must also identify the accountability needs of the team members.
Interpersonal skills, leadership skills, teamwork, and a transparent communication system are essential for success. The roles of a project manager are to organize team members, plan, evaluate, direct, and lead the project from beginning to completion.
- Change Control and Work Authorization
Late project changes are a significant source of disruption, resulting in schedule slippage, cost overruns, flaw insertion, and rework. You should put a system in place to change control and management. Changes brought on by scope changes must be resisted, and we need to change control to prevent these issues.
Communicating with customers and team members, budgeting, organizing, and scheduling are some of the best practices a project manager can do to get things done on a technology project. Rapid advancement in technology and faster access to information require a new high-level overview of the deliverables and goals of the project. To manage a technology project, you need to combine digital-age technology and traditional business skills.
