How mobility is taking project management beyond the firewalls

According to Apiumtech, agile project management decreases the time to market by 37 percent and increases team efficiency with 16 percent higher productivity than the average. Considering how modern agile businesses demand enterprise mobility strategy, it makes sense for enterprises to move project management applications from within the firewall to third-party hosted cloud solutions. The truth is project management has become a more democratized affair for the whole team thanks to the rise of mobile devices. On top of that, project tasks and schedules are now the center of discussion and understanding by project teams.

Why moving project management to the cloud makes sense

Earlier, project management suffered from lots of limitations, from absent licenses for desktop project management software to muddled schedules. If that’s not all, several gaps existed in the communications taking place between the developers and the project management office. However, all this changed once enterprises opted to move to the cloud.

Enterprises now benefit from freemium solutions and improved overall licensing, which is better than anything that desktop application licensing could ever have provided project teams back in the day. Once enterprises venture outside the firewall, they begin to save considerably on IT resources as mobile security around the platform gets outsourced to the provider of the platform.

Thanks to the new mobile-first or cloud-first approach, project leads, project managers, and teams now have the unique opportunity to access project details from a mobile gadget irrespective of their geographic area.

Mobile app offerings now comparable to robust web solutions

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As technology continues to evolve, mobility is soon going to encompass the features that were exclusive to the web interface. Preparations for this have already begun in the IT industry. Take, for instance, the cloud project management and collaboration market. With customers demanding more from their mobile apps, mobility will bring them one step closer to being on par with the online interface.

Thus, mobile project management now includes expectations such as push notifications, social collaboration, and full user interaction along with relevant project information.

Thanks to the proliferation of mobile applications, team members in the same project are no longer forced to visit the office just to inform others about the project status. In fact, mobility has progressed to such as degree that many enlightened companies are now altering or altogether eradicating the traditional monthly or weekly status reports since mobile applications have become capable of stimulating ongoing notifications and updates from team members involved in the project.

Aside from the rising feature parity, customization options have also made their presence felt of late. Nowadays, mobile apps can easily fit team specifications for project details. Also, mobile-supported programs provide the requisite amount of project management flexibility that is unavailable with desktop-based apps.

Start visualization anytime, anywhere

Project managers had it rough earlier, as everyone focused on the task they wanted while avoiding the more complicated bits like Gantt charts. Thankfully, the move to agile programming software development has led to the rise of self-directed teams. This, in turn, has promoted more visual depictions of project management details that are comprehensible to each team member and stakeholder.

The consumerization of the IT industry is somewhat responsible for such consumerization of project management applications. The increasing number of robust mobile clients for project management platforms based in the cloud has made details that were considered cryptic earlier more accessible to a larger audience.

So, it was only a matter of time before Microsoft Project Gantt charts gave way to less obscure and easily navigable applications that share some, if not all, of the features of the cloud frontend of project management platforms. A lot of mobile project management applications now permit any project stakeholder or team member to see their schedule in a format that is perfectly suited to their requirements.

Support for anytime, anywhere interaction and collaboration

project management

Trends like bring your own device and enterprise mobility have played a major role in introducing anytime, anywhere collaboration to the project management platforms. Currently, we live in a world full of remote teams, flexible work schedules, telework, and team collaboration — all of which take place around the clock. One more reason why enterprises have benefitted from keeping everything within the scope of project management platforms is the present crop of mobile applications features integrated search tools.

Better identity and security management

Owing to the utilitarian purposes of cloud-based project management apps, user access has to be entirely secure but still device agnostic. So, a team member in a particular project should have no trouble switching from a tablet to a smartphone to a Mac. The requisite level of access can easily be provided by identity management solutions. Thanks to the rise of mixed contractor/employee project teams in different industries, identity management has currently become the solution of choice when it comes to securing access for project management platforms based in the cloud.

Recoup the costs of poor project implementation

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Flickr / 401(K) 2012

A 2018 survey by Project Management Institute (PMI) found that global organizations waste $1 million every 20 seconds due to improper implementation rather than poor strategy. The problem is, most leaders are unaware of how project management delivers on strategy.

Thankfully, enterprise mobility is serving as a wakeup call of sorts by focusing more on outcomes and creating alignment and reducing waste through a shared and clear definition of success across project delivery teams. To enhance efficiency and fulfill project requirements, organizations must invest in the correct project management talent, combining a wide range of project management approaches. If that’s not all, they must even engage executive sponsors at the senior level to maintain the progress of projects by communicating the importance of the project within the company. Lastly, they should free up allocated resources as and when needed.

Perfect pairing

As project delivery organizations of varying sizes look for the perfect apps to handle project costs efficiently, it is no longer possible for project managers to stay limited to the project management office. Businesses now require project teams to interact with project scheduling anywhere, any place in real time, and enterprise mobility makes it possible.

Featured image: Pixabay

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