Most of us working in the technology world are constantly on the look-out for the best new tool—something meaningful and a bit magical that will increase our productivity, boost confidence and improve the quality of our working relationships and the final product.

But how do you make the transition from the known way of working on projects (even if it sucks) to the new, better way?

It gets tricky: Even when you find what appears to be the perfect product match, teams get stuck in the process of moving from what they know, to something new. Even if the new way is far, far better. Who’s got time to interrupt the flow of work?

We get that here at LiquidPlanner. We’ve been there! That’s why we provide all types of support and training to help teams make the transition into our tool and get familiar with our methodology, Dynamic Project Management.

What does it look like to manage projects in a new tool, with a new process?

Because it helps to see what the new way of doing things will look like, here’s how Dynamic Project Management integrates into the five common phases of managing a project: defining, planning, executing, measuring and completing.

Defining 

• The conception of a project unfolds in one central location. Everyone from stakeholders to project teams has one place to collaborate on the initial requirement documents, make edits and upload changes until the charter is finalized.
• Since a dynamic tool connects all projects and resources within your entire portfolio, you’ll know early in the process whether the new project is feasible based on business priorities and available resources.

Planning 

• All plan items are entered with ranged estimates based on best case/worst case scenarios—so the plan instantly captures risk and uncertainty from the get-go.
• After you build out a version of your plan, you’ll see a predictive finish date. From here, you can make adjustments as needed.
• The project schedule is based on team members’ availability including their current commitment, so no over-promising.
• Once the project is built out and all tasks are assigned, you’ll see how the new project might affect other initiatives and work already in progress.
• You can build out a draft of the project then show stakeholders and project teams the plan before signoff. This way everyone knows what is agreed to, and what’s expected.

Executing 

• With every project plan touch, the schedule automatically updates and shows the most up-to-date plan. Manual updates are a thing of the past.
• You can select the type of data you want to show specific audiences using analytics and dashboards. The information refreshes itself with every update and is always live.
• Since priorities can be changed with a simple drag-and-drop, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel to reflect changes in resources and scope.
• Time tracking is embedded into the dynamic system which means logging time is a seamless activity, and easy to manage.
• The tool shows who’s doing what, and each person’s progress. No need to micromanage or chase anyone down for an update.

Measuring 

• A Dynamic Project Management tool alerts you of any risks well before the project gets too far into the danger zone.
• You can access reports that show project trends over time. As the project team gets better at estimating how much effort a task takes, you’ll notice uncertainty decreasing. And better overall estimates going forward.
• Reports are built into the tool and provide information based on historical and current data.

Completing!

• Since your PM software has been collecting project data—from budget to burn-down charts—your final project reports are all ready for you.
• All project documents and deliverables are already stored in one place. No time spent collecting all pieces of the project into one place.
• An archive of the project can be referenced at any time, so final documentation is minimal.

Part of making a transition is staying open to new opportunities while remaining anchored in the processes and systems that work well for your organization. Know that the initial transition into dynamic project management software will take some time to fully understand but it can be worth it.