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In a recent post, I addressed the high cost of using legacy project management tools. The crux of the matter is that legacy project management tools struggle to deal with the uncertainty and unknowns that are inherent to projects.
Historically, project plans haven’t been able to keep up with the rapid pace at which requirements change and updates occur. In other words, there’s a big and ever-increasing gap between the project schedule and what’s really going on. This probably accounts for why so many studies have uncovered a high failure rate among technology projects.
Teams Need a Fluid Way of Managing Projects
A standard practice of using static and rigid tools such as Microsoft Project is that project plans are often built on guesstimates and best-case scenarios. There’s no way to quickly adjust these estimates based on changes of any kind. As a result, these project plans tend to be brittle, collapsing at the first impact of even the smallest change in priorities, scope or availability.
Managing projects, teams, and stakeholders with out-of-date and unreliable plans does not set businesses up for success. With increasing and changing business and customer demands, tools that lag behind reality and leave everyone guessing about priorities and deadlines don’t cut it. Even Gartner is saying that the standard PPM tools aren’t keeping up with the evolution of work.
This is why Dynamic Project Management (DPM) matters.
What Is Dynamic Project Management?
Dynamic Project Management is a fluid, supportive, and responsive system of managing projects that helps teams conquer uncertainty and respond quickly to real-world changes in priorities and resourcing.
DPM is a way of managing projects that reflects reality and helps teams adapt quickly to the fast changes happening in and around their teams. Dynamic Project Management is built on seven principles. Here’s how it works:
- The schedule accounts for uncertainty. Projects and tasks are estimated in ranges based on best case/worst case scenarios, generating predictive finish dates.
- Risks present themselves early. Predictive schedules let teams see changes coming down the pike so they can respond proactively
- Schedules are reliable, realistic and sustainable. They are based on team members’ availability, with resource capacity factored in, so work hours are reasonable and people stay engaged throughout the project.
- The plan is always in real time. The schedule updates automatically each time a contributing team member makes a change.
- Priorities are clear. Task priorities drive the schedule, and they’re easy to change, so everyone knows they’re always working on the most important tasks. Your organizational priorities are built into schedules.
- Teams collaborate in a common platform. This gives projects a transparent quality and provides individuals with easy access to the information they need.
- Instant project insight. Project information and date is easy to access. This means you have your finger on the pulse of your project portfolio; can update stakeholders as needed, and will know where the project stands every step of the way.
A More Resilient Project Management System
The philosophy behind Dynamic Project Management is that projects are living, evolving constructs. This philosophy helps teams plan and schedule projects that map to the real world. Because you start with priorities before building a plan, the dynamic project management system helps teams work on the right priorities at the right time. It also helps teams see and mitigate risks much earlier than they would with a legacy project management tool.
The Dynamic Project Management system is an elegant combination of a fluid process, an adaptive methodology, and a predictive, automated tool. This is the way for modern companies to do great work and stay one step ahead of increasing business demands.
Could your team benefit from adopting the Dynamic Project Management system? We can help you find out.
Our new Diagnostic Tool is a nine-question multiple-choice quiz that helps you check the health of your project management implementation. We’ll give you a percentage score based on the performance of your project management system in three dimensions. Your score also comes with suggestions for improvement and an eBook filled with solutions.
