Introduction
Technology (particularly “undertaking management application”) has been and will carry on to be an crucial component of venture administration discussion and exercise. This is justified. The appropriate venture management application that is implemented properly can have significant, optimistic effects on an firm. However, the wrong application, or software applied poorly can pull an business down.

In our experience, we have seen corporations battle with the proper implementation of the appropriate application. Numerous times we uncover this stems from a minimal or misunderstood check out of the goal of technological innovation in the very first area. For instance, corporations might look for a device that can just “timetable projects”, or they merely do not believe by way of the broader, strategic goal that the technological innovation should serve. This qualified prospects to picking the mistaken technologies or not applying it in a way that supplies the most value for the firm.

The purpose of this white paper is to give a clean perspective on five significant purposes of technologies (and project management software program in certain) in undertaking management.

These functions occur from classes discovered in the aviation discipline. The aviation field is equivalent to task management in the sense that it seeks to develop predictable, effective results in an exercise with inherent chance. It utilizes technological innovation heavily to fulfill that aim. By studying the function of technologies in aviation, we can derive the key and related purposes that technology ought to provide in venture management. In so carrying out, we can also boost the strategic use of technologies to support our organization’s strategic objectives, requirements, and processes.

Objective 1: Situational Consciousness
Some of the most crucial aviation technologies, this sort of as the ILS (instrument landing system), glass panel shows, and GPS (world-wide positioning system) are targeted on situational recognition: allowing the pilot know at each minute where the aircraft is headed, how it is oriented, how substantial it is, the place it wants to go, how it is performing, or a quantity of other items of information.

Task management engineering is no distinct. It wants to give situational awareness of every single project’s scenario, where they are headed, how they are carrying out, and how they want to continue. It also demands to supply recognition of the circumstance of an organization’s whole task “portfolio.” If you can’t employ your technologies to know the existing situation of your initiatives, you are not making use of technologies properly.

The “recent undertaking circumstance” may possibly be distinct depending on your organization and its distinct procedures and goals. It might suggest the status of the undertaking schedules, the good quality of the deliverables, the existing degree of threat, the pleasure of the customers, or the point out of the budget or revenue figures.

It may suggest how present source utilization will have an effect on the task, what problems have arisen that would derail the venture, or what has slipped through the cracks.

The important point is to constantly be mindful of the venture circumstance so that you can make clever, well timed, well-knowledgeable choices.

You can aspect this into your undertaking management technology implementation by performing the pursuing:

Determine the important data that you need to have to keep situational consciousness.
Ensure that your project administration software instrument(s) can monitor and give this information.
Prepare your personnel on delivering this information within the tool.

Objective 2: Decision Making
In aviation, pilots have to be able to make rapid decisions making use of exact data. For case in point, a pilot wants to know precisely what is wrong with the aircraft to make a very good selection on next steps. They require to know how a lot gas is remaining to make a selection on weather conditions avoidance.

Similarly, managers want to have accurate data to make conclusions in venture administration. They require to know what is wrong with a venture so they can make a great determination on up coming steps. They want to know source availability to prioritize efforts and choose directions. In Trune , this sort of information is not readily available, possibly because the proper toolset is not in place or the toolset has not been carried out in a way that supports this strategic purpose.

In excess of 10 many years in the past there was a project manager position that was held by the creator of this whitepaper. Each week, the undertaking management group would invest hrs (virtually) compiling prolonged standing studies for management. They would need to have to monitor down the position of every thing and doc them, alongside with a host of other info. Is it great to have this information compiled? Yes. But it positive is a source-intensive way of doing it that could be substituted with good technologies and great method. Was the data properly and utilized? That was unclear.

Question yourself, what is the information you need to make excellent selections? What difficulties does your group routinely confront? Do you have real-time insight into individuals troubles? Do you have all of this information conveniently obtainable at all occasions? If not, make a pro-energetic effort to use approach and technology to empower your selection producing to be a lot far more correct, educated, and effective.

In purchase to make conclusions, two issues have to happen:

The information needed to make conclusions should be compiled.
The data necessary to make choices have to be conveniently offered.

Task management application engineering matches into this broader purpose, but once more you need to have to make certain that:

You know what info you need.
Your project administration software technologies is able of compiling the data you require to make decisions.
The information in your undertaking management application engineering is often commonly accessible.
Your group is skilled on how to correctly compile the correct details into the resource so that you can retrieve it to make choices.

Objective three: Automation of Regimen Responsibilities
A modern post in an aviation periodical referred to a particular present day airliner as a 650,000 pound pc. There is a good deal of technology in cockpits right now and considerably of it automates regimen tasks for pilots. For illustration, pilots can use automatic motor administration systems that eradicate the want for the pilots to deal with the distinct thrust amounts, temperatures, and other engine parameters checklists are automatic alerts (notifications) are automatic and so forth.

This automation does three issues:

It lowers the threat of human mistake (i.e. someone makes a miscalculation even though adhering to a uninteresting, routine process).
It frees up the resources (aka pilots) for much more critical issues.
It makes it possible for far more duties to be attained in the very same quantity of time with fewer people (a third pilot is no lengthier necessary).

There are several, several regimen duties performed in project administration which just take an tremendous quantity of time. Each firm has regimen duties that it has to do to be operational. Often it is inconceivable how several numerous hours are invested on mundane activities. This may only be simply because it is a lot more relaxed and simple to do things the same way that we are employed to doing them. Some that appear to thoughts include the notification of occasions, the reporting of standing, locating out if some thing is carried out or not, discovering a doc, routing incoming requests for operate, filling out and disseminating forms, and collecting time.

The right task management software program technologies can automate the routine items that your group does. This has related benefits for undertaking management:

It lowers the chance of human error in your processes.
It frees up methods to do a lot more essential things (this kind of as billable function or using function off somebody else’s plate).
It tends to make it less complicated to execute the approach (significantly less skill is required to complete it).
It makes it possible for more jobs to be achieved in the same quantity of time with less people.

If you put into action or use engineering with no possessing this broader function in thoughts, you will not be utilizing your technologies properly. In reality, you may be basically swapping a single instrument out for one more with no a internet reward.

What are methods that technology in project administration can automate program jobs?

Taking status inputs (such as a team member getting into percent full) and routinely rolling that up into project-stage position.
Routinely notifying important staff when an problem has arisen.
Centralizing all details so that there is a single spot to discover it.
Routinely routing incoming requests so that the correct individual can see and reply to it.
Collecting time noted information and routinely generating reports on actual time utilization.
Immediately aggregating all task programs and schedules into beneficial resource utilization sights and stories.
Automatically generating new projects from templates that comply with a pre-described route and eradicate the need to re-generate that path.
Automating the generation of proposals and other templated paperwork.

What this looks like for your firm will be different since you have distinct strategic goals, diverse processes, and diverse actions that try to eat up a whole lot of your staff’s time.

The stage is to understand the goal of engineering so that you can use it strategically to attain a certain objective.

As with other reasons, you want to consider professional-energetic action to fulfill this goal by ensuring:

You know which responsibilities are routine and time-intense in your group.
Your task administration computer software device(s) can automate individuals regimen responsibilities.
Your undertaking management software instruments(s) are setup correctly to automate these routine responsibilities.

Function four: Support for Standardized Procedures
Standardized processes are a enormous element of the aviation entire world and a massive purpose why it has experienced accomplishment at generating predictable, effective outcomes in a risky atmosphere. In aviation, technology supports the standardized method environment. Technologies is not executed because it would be amazing or neat. It is strategically executed to help the standardized processes. For instance, element of the takeoff checks method is to confirm that the proper runway is programmed into the flight management pc. Effectively, in a lot of programs, the appropriate runway is exhibited correct where the pilot wants to see it to total this regular process. It is also common procedure that when an plane is descending in clouds in direction of a runway that they can’t move forward underneath a specific altitude unless the runway surroundings is in sight. Technological innovation supports this approach by displaying the minimal altitude and alerting the pilots if they go beneath it.

Technology in undertaking management tends to be separated from the goal of supporting standardized processes. We could have a process, but we may also be searching for a “scheduling instrument.” In other words and phrases, we search at them differently, but the two go hand in hand. A single of the primary needs of engineering need to be to help the standardized processes of an business. Why is a standardized approach critical? Since you are not able to have a predictable (requested) end result if you have a random process. The approach should be standardized and purchased.

Technologies need to support us put into action, maintain, and boost standardized processes across the group. Illustrations contain on the web checklists and templates, exception reporting of items outside the process (aka alerts), and workflow automation that follows a specific process. These kinds of items assistance the strategic method and the all round goal of utilizing strategic goals.

Your task management software program resource(s) should satisfy this elementary purpose as well. You also want to consider the adhering to pro-lively measures:

Make certain that your procedures are documented accurately.
Make certain that your project management software program device(s) assistance your processes.
Guarantee that your group understands how to deal with the process in the instrument.
Make certain that your staff is skilled on executing the procedure inside of the resource.

Objective five: Perception into Tendencies, Difficulties, and Efficiency
In aviation, there are programs and even businesses in spot to mine information and determine developments and potential potential hazards. Is there a development of certain errors that pilots are generating that need to be resolved through training? Is there an uncommon spike in servicing anomalies for a specified aircraft?

This is typically the furthest issue from the thoughts of a project supervisor. We are so hectic with the working day to working day that we can not (or will not) consider the time to search at issues like trends and potential issues. Nevertheless, that is element of our task. Issues and pitfalls are often lurking and will strike when we least count on it.

This is in which engineering comes in to engage in. As in aviation, technologies can make it less complicated to do this. The right technologies will aid us run studies, search at information exceptions, and provide related views into our project administration environments.

There are two details right here really worth mentioning:

When you select technologies, you should maintain this function in thoughts. How easy is it to mine for various varieties of information?
We must be professionals at quickly drilling into data and extracting helpful details.

Summary
Corporations keep on to battle with possibly very poor project management software resources or venture administration software tools that are not executed correctly. The objective of this paper was to assist businesses understand the broader functions of technologies in task management by looking at classes from the aviation area. By undertaking so, corporations can broaden their point of view and pro-actively put into action these reasons in their possess undertaking administration environments, hence creating a toolset that more and more supports the strategic objectives, needs, and processes of the business.

Want to Learn Much more?

Check out the “Traveling into Undertaking Management” site at [http://www.flyingintoprojectmanagement.com] for a lot more insight, classes, and discussion on what undertaking administration can find out from aviation to create predictable results and handle danger.

About the Author

Mark Kenny is an aviation fanatic and task administration practitioner. He retains a private pilot’s license with an instrument ranking, about 200 several hours of traveling time, and nearly chose aviation as his job. Mr. Kenny has also put in over 15 years functioning in venture administration in different capacities. He gained a Certification in Undertaking Management by means of the University of Washington, held project management roles in the production, substantial-tech, and health care industries, and is at the moment the President of Team Interactions, Inc., which develops EnterPlicity.