Elizabeth Harrin, FAPM
Director, Otobos Consultants
Why is your watch smarter than some project management apps? Elizabeth Harrin, author of Project Manager, has three challenges for the software industry.
1. Give us more data
Projects generate huge amounts of data. We have forecast and actual dates, timesheets, budgets, databases of lessons learned, risks, issues and changes. And yet, mostly, what we know is what we’ve learned from experience. Searching historical project data and surfacing relevant information is tough. Big data and artificial intelligence features should be making it easier.
For example, imagine reviewing estimates from the project team. As you enter their estimated effort for tasks, the software prompts you: Claire’s estimates were 20% under on her last five projects. Would you like to add 20% to this estimate? Well, yes. Yes, I would.
I’d like project management software that makes it easy to make data-driven decisions based on relevant corporate knowledge – the kind of knowledge that leaves when an experienced project manager takes a job somewhere else. We should be capturing it and presenting it to new project managers so the organisation learns and adapts for more successful project delivery.
2. Make it useable
My five-year old can give Alexa instructions and get the song or joke he wants. I want project management tools with the same level of usability. Tools that work without a huge learning curve.
I know what we do is complicated. The amount of icons and menu options on an enterprise tool shows me that. I want all the features, but I also want usability, mobile apps, integrations with other tools, voice commands and contextual help for when I don’t understand what to do next. I want the detail for me so I can do my job effectively, and a simple interface for stakeholders who just need to see overall status.
My five-year old can give Alexa instructions and get the song he wants. I want project management tools with the same level of usability.
3. Give us time
Ultimately, project managers want to win back time from being in front of computers, so they can spend that time with the people who matter for the project. Culture and leadership are what makes businesses successful. You can’t automate stakeholder engagement or motivating a team. Project managers need to spend time on the things that really drive successful delivery, and that isn’t entering data into software.
We could save hours of project time with software that supports project teams by automating what can be automated, making it easy to make the right decision and surfacing information when we need it.
The tech exists out there to move project management tools on leaps and bounds. Typically, we see improvements in consumer products (like Alexa) before those improvements make it into the average workplace. I hope it won’t be long before we start to see some of the fantastic AI initiatives making their way into the tools we use to deliver projects – because, as our project environments get more complicated and complex, I for one could do with all the time-saving, intelligent help I can get.