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Getting people to connect today is fairly simple, however, getting them to collaborate is an entirely different thing. Subsequently what is now emerging in the field of project management is called Social Project Management. The aim is to engage more people to collaborate around getting things done in an orderly fashion using common social tools that allow people and process to easily connect. "McKinsey's survey on social tools shows we have reached critical scale: 72% of respondents report that their companies use at least one and over 40% say they are using social networks and blogs." Collaboration is becoming the norm, which enables project management to work better if the tools are designed around human intuition.

Tools and Technology Trends

There's an app for that. Most standard Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are unable to meet every project management need. However, with mobile applications and cloud-based solutions, PMs are able to practically customize their own technology experience. With the increasing sophistication of mobile technologies, many project managers feel empowered to no longer travel with a laptop opting instead for an iPad or other tablet device. Project Management software has shifted to web-based applications that allow for seamless communication with a focus on both scheduling accountability and flexibility as well as a focus on collaboration.

Early in 2015 the Project managers and development team at DevDigital decided that none of the off the shelf project management software allowed us to develop ongoing PM processes in an agile, real-time environment and enabled us to collaborate directly with our clients. Subsequently we set out to build an open source project management platform for our own use and would eventually save our clients the cost of building their own project management applications. We are happy to report that time has come.

Soon to be announced in greater detail, DevDigital now has a fully scalable and customizable Project Management platform for small, medium and even large-scale use for any size company and for any size project regardless of industry. We built it so each client can customize the platform to accommodate the nuances of their business, their industry and of course their customers. Our first client will be a law professor, more details to follow, who will be offering their own customized platform to legal firms and their clients nationally. We also have small businesses wanting to use the platform for one off projects and medium sized businesses wanting to use the platform to manage internal projects.

There is no magic crystal ball through which we can determine exactly what tools, techniques, and competencies the project managers of the future will require. Yet we can reflect on the past to identify trends and cultural indicators and estimate how they will affect the project management discipline. The technologies today’s children use daily free them from the constraints of their physical environment—their home, school, and community—and enable them to collaborate and work in a global digital marketplace. Their capabilities and competencies will evolve to adapt to these changes, and as more of the world comes online to participate in this digital space, new types of projects and methods will develop. Now it is our job to pursue those same opportunities and find ways to digitize the project management process as well as visualize it so collectively we can learn more from the related data that enables everyone to create more value again, again and again.

If you’d like to know more about DevDigital’s Project management Platform available for customization please contact Phillip Turner at phillip@devdigital.com or Josh Griffin at josh@devdigital.com