Project management is a booming trend in all organizations. All the business people want to find a way to manage their projects effectively to boost the business’s productivity, and the only solution is to use the methodologies of project management.
Day by day, new methodologies are adopted by all the software, and developers are keenly developing new software to handle the projects and overcome the limitations in the software features.
They upgrade the software and release the new version into the Market. The competition is high among the developers to update the latest version of Project Management software.
Image by Dirk Wouters from Pixabay
Here we can see the trends that will drive the project management to the top to be followed vigorously in the upcoming years.
Now we will see the maximum project management trends followed in the year 2020 to revamp the methodologies of project management periodically to be a success in the future.
Have a look into it.
Top 10 Project Management Trends followed in 2020
Top Trends in Project Management
#1. Agile Approach
Agile is one of the latest approaches in project management. Unlike the waterfall approach, it is not unidirectional, and so a step-by-step process is not followed here to incorporate any changes in the project management software.
So this approach of software development is sincerely followed by all the developers. It supports cloud-based service applications. There are many benefits of using this approach, making this one of the critical project management techniques.
It helps the developers, testers, and scrum masters to achieve a successful end product.
What is happening in an agile approach
So you can see a few differences between the Agile approach and the typical software development life cycle followed to develop any software product.
An Agile vs. Waterfall approach
Unlike the waterfall approach, it is not unidirectional. You can implement the change between the development and testing phases of the product.
- It is an iterative approach. The loop is executed as per the requirement, whereas it is a sequential approach in a waterfall.
- Here in agile, the design process is split into modules, and the designers work on modules, whereas, in a waterfall, no module is a whole design process.
- Here, the customer can provide the requirement or the changes to be implemented between the development and testing phases. In contrast, customers have access only to the end product after the project execution in the waterfall model.
- Any bug or error can be fixed in the middle of development. In the waterfall, the testing phase is introduced only after the development of the end product.
How it impacts
It mainly impacts the project workflow. The above differences between the agile approach and the traditional waterfall approach will provide how it affects the project deliverables. It is effortless to create any small project with the agile approach. Still, it is not easy to do significant projects because estimated time and resources are difficult to be defined in advance.
Top Trends in Project Management 2020
#2. Scrum
When you talk about project management software, the next agile process framework is scrum, a type of agile approach.
- Here nothing but the changes are incorporated in between the implementation phase before developing the end product.
- So they go one step back to fix the change, and it forms a loop to continue the means to fix it, and this iteration is called a sprint.
- This sprint helps the developers to fix the bug in the software before the product goes live.
- Scrum has become a common framework that is inevitable in project management software.
What’s happening in Scrum
As already discussed, it is another type of agile approach used in the software development team, which mainly deals with the development team’s task management process. Usually, 7 to 9 members constitute a scrum group.
The responsibility of the scrum group is to create a product backlog. The end product details are created, and it is known as the product backlog of the product. If any change needs to be implemented between the development or testing phase, then the iterations are conducted to implement the changes. Such iterations are called sprints.
Completed product backlog
Each time when the iterations are carried out, the updated changes are entered in the product backlog.
Sprint execution
The iterations or sprints are executed to incorporate the changes, and the sprint plan is shared with all the team members.
Tracking the changes and the iterations
As per the bug reported and customer feedback, the changes are tracked, and the required changes are implemented.
How it impacts?
We can see a step-by-step process followed in scrum management and how the workflow is impacted by scrum management.
How Scrum Works?
- Develop the completed product backlog
- Implement the changes as per the user requirements and feedback
- Create the story points, i.e., estimated work effort to be assigned to incorporate the changes
- The iterations conducted are known as sprints
After each iteration, the changes are recorded in the sprint backlog.
An overall agile approach and Scrum framework will allow you to grab the following benefits compared to the traditional method of project management.
- Enhances the end-product quality
- High customer satisfaction
- High return on investment
- Project transparency and control
- Risk and resource management
Project Management Skills
#3. Magnified reporting and data presentation
Though project management software helps track the task assigned and the work progress, it lacks data-driven presentation features. With existing project management software, developers are trying to upgrade with so many features to create useful reports and excellent presentation features, which will help the higher management category. It helps them to analyze the data for insights and to present their projects correctly.
What’s happening with reporting and data presentation
- How to have excellent data presentation to analyze the reports
- To get accurate reports on your project, you need to get the project’s data, the task assigned, and the resource to outline the report.
- Many project management software provides KPI factors and graphical representations.
- KPI is nothing but a key performance indicator. It supports analyzing the performance of any team member based on their productivity.
- You can have customizable reports and KPI dashboards to analyze and view the reports.
Based on various parameters, you can create multiple reports. Parameters like project budget, real-time productivity, estimated project performance could view the graphical representation before initiating it.
How it impacts?
KPI dashboard in reporting and data presentation impacts your overall report
- KPI dashboard is essential in analyzing the reports of any project.
- As we have seen that KPI means key performance indicators, it deals with the individual’s performance.
- It tracks the real-time productivity of any individual.
- A very well-designed KPI indicates the growth of the project and will keep you notified of the flaws.
You can very well tackle the issue with your KPI reports, so it is an essential part of reporting and data presentation.
Big data analytics with the latest blockchain technology can be used for analyzing the data to get useful reports of the project. Using big data analytics, you can analyze your data to get smarter business solutions, unfold the hidden correlations included in the data—the easy way to explore the data more effectively using the latest blockchain technology.
Project Management Skills for Resume
#4. Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is nothing but machine learning. It is not the intelligence of a human. Instead, machines exhibit it. In this modern world, AI has become a trend in project management. It can answer so many questions like
- It gives an estimate of how many tasks an individual could complete when compared to his weekly report.
- Which tasks can be automated
- Who is active in solving a task, and who is sitting idle.
- How many resources are required for any particular project as compared to historical reports?
What’s happening with AI
As we have already seen, AI is machine intelligence. It mainly deals with risk analysis, budget management, time, and human resource management.
How it impacts
Risk analysis
- Handling or managing the project is very difficult as per the project plan, which is already planned well.
- Real-time management needs to look into the risk factors of the project.
- As we have seen in this article, most of the business is based on an agile approach. There will be a continuous change in the project to be incorporated.
- Now the interdependencies of the project are not well calculated by the human. Here you can see the advantages of AI (artificial intelligence).
Budget analysis
- Planning the project’s budget is not very easy as it depends on many factors like risk, interdependencies, resources, etc.
- We can use mathematical models to calculate the budget of the project. AI can provide accurate results from the past historical values of the project.
Time and human resource management
An essential part of project planning is the schedule and human resources. The overall productivity of the business depends upon these factors. AI calculates the schedule based on the project plan, and the schedule is revised based on any additional requirements. AI recommends human resources based on their skill set already saved in a database in a very similar manner. It suggests hiring based on the career portal’s applications matching the skills required for the project. It performs a complete scan of the database to find a suitable candidate for the project.
Overall, it handles the neural network, decision-making expert system to manage the project effectively.
Neural network: It is an artificial neural system to respond to complex activities involved in the project.
Decision-making expert system: It decides which task to be automated and makes a practical decision by the machine learning algorithm fed to the system.
#5. Organization Integration and Collaboration
Nowadays, different organizations are integrated to make use of their services for their business growth. Here launched cloud-based services which make this facility to be used by all the organizations.
Many MNCs provide the tools for the integration of two different business units, which promotes the collaboration between the resources to solve any ongoing task.
What’s happening with organization integration and collaboration
Disparate business units or organizations use cloud computing for their IT infrastructure. They pay for the services of IT and outsource them through a third party. Cloud computing led to organizational integration and collaboration.
The resources like storage and power can be outsourced mainly through cloud computing.
How it impacts?
- They provide flexibility in installing the software, the hardware of the shared resource.
- It enhances the collaboration between the different organizations by sharing information and resources. It helps in promoting your business to other organizations and improves customer service.
- It is cost-effective as you use the storage space only as per the project’s requirements, and you can avoid unwanted resources.
- It increases the security of the system. When your computer crashes, your data will still be available in the cloud, and it can be recovered.
Business collaboration and integration can be advanced with VR and AR technology. Several VR companies like Dora, AltspaceVR, RealSense helps in business collaboration and integration.
#6. IoT (Internet of Things)
IoT is derived as the internet of things. It is nothing, but all the technologies are connected through the internet. It plays a very significant role in project management. It helps in monitoring and controlling the task assigned to an individual or team member.
What’s happening with IoT(Internet of things)
IoT bisects with project management software to deal with project data collection to reporting. In general, IoT means devices are connected through the internet to perform their functions by responding to remote action, especially without any human intervention. Similarly, we can use this technology with your project management software.
The sensor senses the user’s action, and it gets connected to the cloud through WiFi, LPWAN, satellite, Bluetooth. The software processes the data from the cloud to check whether the targeted process, like monitoring tasks of the resources by the actions like a mouse click, by entering keyboard is performed. If not completed, the same notification or alert is sent to the project managers.
How it impacts?
As a project manager, to run the status report on different desktops, it just needs a single click from your mobile.
It helps in monitoring the resources with the help of sensors. The sensors get activated with the mouse click to find out whether the task assigned for any team member is in progress or not.
- It helps in real-time productivity.
- It helps in the up-gradation of software, and it is finding out the historical data of the project.
- It supports advanced data analytics through fast reporting.
#7. Open-source project and solving problems
Open source means it is accessible to all the employees. When any assistance is needed for any project from other business units or any other team, project managers can assign the project available to the public. Hence, the problem can be solved before the deadline.
It helps in so many ways to improve the business’s productivity, and this will be continued in the future for project management.
What’s happening with open source projects
In open-source projects, you will be able to provide access to the public so that they can provide valuable suggestions to enhance your project.
How is it impacted?
- The open-source project will interact with the public, where you will be able to find the resources like several people involved to complete the task, anything updated via blogs, youtube, or any social media platform. The downloads or installation performed. The add-on to be integrated into the project and also helps with the commercial offering.
- Overall it increases the massive traffic to your project website.
In brief, open-source projects will help you in the following ways.
- It enhances your existing skills.
- It will be able to interact with more people who are experts in any particular technology.
- Develop public artifacts that will help you to grow your career.
- You will be able to get leads for your project.
- Continuous positive updates will help you to improve the quality of your work.
#8. Adaptable workflow
Flexible workflow reminds us of the approaches we discussed in this article. It is an agile approach and a Scrum framework.
The workflow of the project will no longer be static. Some users may need a waterfall approach, and some may require agile. So the adaptable workflow will be followed in the project management.
What’s happening with adaptable workflow
The combined workflow with agile and waterfall approaches can be done through this hybrid approach.
How it impacts?
- The adaptable workflow can be implemented by choosing the agile and waterfall approaches in hybrid. In a hybrid, the waterfall approach is used for initial planning, and the agile approach is used for execution and delivery.
- With this combination, you will be able to achieve a well-planned project estimation. After delivery, you can follow up with the marketing team to make any changes that are not as planned in the initial stage as per the waterfall approach.
- The combination of the two approaches will manage the project more effectively with successful project deliverables.
#9. Blockchain technology
When you think about blockchain technology, cryptocurrency will come into the picture. Here blockchain technology can be used for project management. Project management is not only for assigning the task. Nowadays, blockchain technology is used with project management to have safe and secure data transfer. Here it supports cloud storage, and the data is stored in a decentralized database that stores the data, like how much time is taken by an individual to complete the task.
What’s happening with Blockchain technology
Blockchain technology mainly deals with the transaction. It ensures safety and security through this decentralized network.
How does it work?
The blocks are connected through some agreement or some defined protocol. The data is stored in blocks, and it is shared in a decentralized network. If any two parties sending or receiving the data, the same is recorded in the blocks. Each data is encrypted using some hash algorithm so that it is not easily accessible to hackers.
How it impacts?
- It helps in storing performance-related data.
- It helps in storing the invoice transaction data of the subcontractors or the clients.
- It helps in storing essential data reports.
- As it is a database, it helps in storing all the essential data related to the project.
ICO projects are booming, and blockchain technology backs it. Unlike traditional contracts, rigid smart contracts can be deployed in the blockchain for any project deals between two parties for effective project management.
#10. Virtual reality
This feature enables the project manager to view the real-time scenario with virtual resources and plan the project outcome well. It helps to estimate the results and can adjust the requirements for the project accordingly.
What’s happening in Virtual reality?
You can experience reality in the virtual mode using this technology. Project managers can design in advance to compensate for the risk associated with the project. You can view the project report before initiating the project, which helps the project manager to plan the project as per the requirements. It mainly deals with risk analysis and resource management.
VR software applications such as GIS and Revit are used for scheduling and prioritizing tasks in the project.
How it impacts?
- As we have already seen, it affects the project’s risk, and you can view the complete report of the project before initiating the project; you can calculate the risk associated with the charts or graphical reports based on virtual inputs.
Resource management is also handled using virtual reality. With virtual inputs, you can design the project deliverables from the chart and will be able to maintain the resource as per the requirements. If any additional conditions are added to the project, you will be able to get a revised output with this virtual technology based on the project’s interdependencies. - VR apps are used in digital marketing for product sales. Virtual Reality will benefit both the customers and the marketers. For example, VR apps like the IKEA place app will help place the furniture in the customer room virtually by accessing the customer room’s images by smartphone cameras. The customer will be able almost to view how the room looks with the furniture. This helps mainly in marketing projects.
VR technology is mainly used in designing and prototype the designs. You all would have heard about Airbus. It has used RAMSIS -Realistic Anthropological Mathematical System, a VR technology used to virtually design aircraft cabins before starting the project.
Conclusion
Here we have seen the trends which can never be avoided even in the future. Obviously, you can follow the same tendencies to pace up the features of project management software, and It will help improve the productivity of the project. Those trends can be implemented in your project management software to have a suitable ramp for organizational growth.
Author Bio
Jeena. K is a senior content writer at Infinite Open Source Solutions LLP, a leading Direct Selling Software provider. She is a voracious reader, and she spends her free time reading a broad spectrum of subjects ranging from fiction to the latest software technology.
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeseena-k-93486115/
Few other articles by the author:
2. https://www.dragonblogger.com/how-to-keep-your-crypto-wallet-safe-and-backed-up/
