New Year, New Project Management

Project management is clearly changing for the enterprise. In 2010, we have seen that enterprise communication in general and particularly in collaboration has changed a lot.

Social media tools and real-time collaboration are quickly becoming the most effective means of managing a project, whilst older, most established project management processes (especially such that rely on an hierarchical approach) fail by virtue of their strict methodologies.

 Projectplace sees the biggest project management trends in:

• New Communication Channels
• Changing Communication Structures
• The evolving role of the Project Manager
• The Rise of Social Project Management
• Collaboration in the Cloud – from Trend to Standard Practice

 New Communication Channels

The way we communicate with one another is changing as the use of social media channels is increasing. Those channels are starting to play a more important role even in business communication. 

Projects can benefit to a great extend if social media functions are integrated smartly in collaboration tools with integrated social media functionality. We have already seen some examples of communication features in project tools such as Conversations in Projectplace or Chatter in Salesforce – and there is more to come. 

Changing Communication Structures

Back in the days, information meant power and information was often restricted only to a few. Nowadays, it is essential for a successful collaboration to keep information open to all in order to work productively.

Trust among co-workers as well as structures that are less hierarchic and more osmotic lead to a stronger engagement of all project members.

The evolving role of the Project Manager

When talking about online collaboration and projects as “temporary social systems” it is interesting to highlight the evolving role of the project manager. His role is changing from one that is information and commitment intensive to a more mediating role. It is essential to gain mutual trust and coordinate commitments among team members - instead of planning all the details of the project.

The Rise of Social Project Management

In summary, the trends mentioned above point towards a concept in project management which will gain quite an importance in 2011: Social Project Management. Social Project Management is a style of project management with bottom-up planning, emergent structures, unlimited communication within the team enabled through new social media channels.

Collaboration in the Cloud – from Trend to Standard Practice

Over the past years, cloud computing has been widely discussed and all sorts of work tools, including collaboration tools, have been moved into the cloud. In 2011, project management in the cloud and the possibility to work in a more flexible manner – even on the go - is leaving the trend stage and turning into standard practice.

Would you like to talk more with us about these trends and the evolution within project management please contact:

Anna Ålenius Mathson, International PR Manager 
Phone: +46708930246 Email: anna.alenius.mathson@projectplace.com  

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