3 Pillars To Guide Your Next-Level Project Management Strategy

Project management is only becoming more complex as organizations struggle to navigate a hybrid workforce, growing webs of tech stacks, and the pending impact of AI on their industry.

As Wellingtone found in their new State of Project Management report, only 37% of project managers are satisfied with their organization’s current level of PM maturity. And a meager 34% complete projects on time and on budget.

Evidently, many PMs are still in dire need of strategies and resources to help them streamline their processes and facilitate informed decision-making, and reach their project goals.

That’s where this quick guide aims to help. As the project management landscape continues to evolve, we’ve identified three core areas for PMs to focus on — and the tools you need to achieve success with each.

Process and pipeline management

First and foremost, project managers need a platform that allows them to seamlessly customize and set up new projects, harnessing organizational data to make vital decisions for their pipeline.

As the Project Management Institute reported in their Pulse of the Profession 2024 survey, almost one-third of organizations on average struggle with project scope creep as well as budget loss from failed projects. With these key resources, project managers can better anticipate these potential challenges and prepare their teams for success:

• Project intake and execution workflows. Customize project intake forms and metadata fields, clearly outlining each project’s owner, proposed business impact, budget, and scope to streamline project review and approval.
• Prioritization tools. Automatically rank and prioritize projects based on specific business drivers so you know where to focus your attention. 
• Plan-vs.-actual analysis. Compare your current progress to your original plan so you can see how your projects have evolved and how to adapt for future optimizations.

Enterprise resources control

Project managers should have complete control over their resources and budgets to streamline the decision-making process. 

This is easier said than done. According to Wellingtone, project professionals identified resource management and change control as the most difficult PM processes to embed into their workflows.

That’s where Proggio’s solutions can help:

• Resource utilization visuals. Make sure each team member is utilized to their fullest potential with resource management capabilities that allow you to identify and allocate talent by skills and other variables. Also, see how resource changes can impact deadlines and deliverables, so you can adjust workloads as needed.
• Budget management tools. Set budget targets for each portfolio, project, and task, and see how your projected budgets can impact progress weeks or years down the line.
• Time tracking. Implement time tracking reports that are automatically updated and instantly shared with executives, so everyone can see how long it takes to reach project milestones and better plan for future goals.

Seamless execution

Project managers must be able to track progress and real-time data to gain full visibility into their entire portfolio at any moment. Still, as Wellingtone reported, 47% don’t have access to real-time project KPIs, leaving them to manually gather data and create status updates for stakeholders.

Alternatively, project managers can save time, improve collaboration, and boost productivity with the following resources:

• Project and portfolio maps. Forget the complexities and quirks of Gantt charts. Visualize your entire project portfolio and timelines in a glance so you can easily track progress — whether you’re taking a quick bird’s-eye-view or honing in on specific tasks.
• Risk management tools. Assess, identify, and categorize potential risks so you can mitigate them before they derail your project progress.
• Shareable timelines. Provide stakeholders and collaborators with customizable dashboards that update in real time, so everyone has the information they need to make more informed decisions and meet their project goals.

Ready to improve your project management performance? Get started with Proggio.