In order to complete project tasks in digital workspaces and reach project objectives, digital project management is defined as the use of digital tools to leverage knowledge, skills, and techniques. Continue reading, you will learn more about digital project management including skills and responsibilities.
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What is Digital Project Management?
Let’s lay out exactly what digital project management is with a nifty math equation:
Project management is the leading, organizing, motivating, and delivering of web-enabled projects using the internet and delivered through screens or connected devices. This is frequently done within digital agencies, studios, or internal web teams.
What Are the Types of Digital Projects?
It’s all about getting things done in the digital world when it comes to project management. Some examples of real-world digital projects are:
- Software and mobile app development
- Website design and development
- UI/UX designs
- Conversion rate optimization
- Digital Marketing Campaigns
What Does a Digital Project Manager Do?
A digital project manager’s responsibility is to make sure all project deliverables are finished, handed off on time, and within budget. Project managers are now accountable for ensuring that the project also aligns with corporate objectives. Understanding how to manage project managers is also crucial for some roles.
Digital project managers ensure that every aspect of the project is proceeding without a hitch. This can include:
- Creating and communicating a project plan, schedule, and budget
- Assigning tasks and deadlines
- Scheduling frequent check-ins
- Clearing roadblocks
- Escalating challenges when necessary
- Providing status reports to executives or the PMO Director
- Managing project scope
- QAing all project deliverables
- Contributing to client proposals and quotes
- Assessing and evaluating project success
What is the Digital Project Manager Job Description?
Galen Low, the co-founder of The Digital Project Manager, put it best one day during a casual phone call: “In the simplest terms,” he said, “DPMs gather, curate, translate, and communicate to deliver a project on time, and on budget.”
DPMs specialize in completing tasks, which we define as ensuring that each member of the team has the tools, time, and expertise necessary to complete their tasks.
Let’s be more specific if that still seems a little nebulous. We asked Mackenzie Dysart, a PMP- and CSM-certified Product Manager at Connected, to tell us what a typical project lifecycle looks like for her:
- Scope & Expectations: Knowing the project’s scope, the digital products involved, and what was sold (which may be different!)
- Internal & External Kick-Offs: Identifying the preferred project management software system for the client, expressing your project management methodologies, meeting your project team, establishing the project schedule, and choosing the most important performance indicators for the project are all important steps.
- Daily Stand-Ups: Make sure everyone is on track each day by checking in with your team and leadership, evaluating how resources are being used, and managing your time effectively. Then, update your team and leadership on your progress.
- Budget Reports & Scheduling Logistics: maintaining a record of budget updates, sharing them with stakeholders, planning for upcoming holidays and vacations, and responding to unforeseen problems as they affect the project’s overall budget, timeline, and scope.
- Getting Client Sign-Off & Going Live: Obtaining final approval and getting the Minimum Viable Product to market for assessment
- Addressing Concerns & Optimizing For Best Performance And Results: real-time performance evaluation and product improvement leadership.
What Does a Digital Project Manager Job Description Look Like?
The type of projects and the project management software that the company uses can affect the job descriptions for digital project managers, so that’s a good question. Some employers will demand that you have prior tool experience. The appropriate candidate will receive tool training from others.
Here is a typical digital project manager job description:
A project manager with at least 3-5 years of project management experience is what we’re looking for. Planning, leading, and coordinating technology projects and teams are prerequisites for qualified candidates. The PMO Director is responsible for this position. The chosen candidate must be able to communicate with experts at the highest levels of the client base’s organizations.
It reads a lot like a traditional project manager’s job description, but take note of the crucial phrase in the second clause: technology projects and teams. Being knowledgeable about current technology is crucial for digital project managers.
What Skills Are Needed for Digital Project Management?
Through fundamental work experience and teamwork, digital project managers can learn a number of skills. In almost any role, you can develop abilities like managing time, managing resources, managing project communications, planning, organizing, and delegating. But if you want to stand out from the crowd, there are a number of online digital project management courses, books, and certificates that you can get. Check out our blog post “5 Online Project Management Courses for Beginners” for a full list of project management courses, certifications, and information on how to become a certified project manager.
Every digital project manager has a unique skill set depending on their background and experience. As you manage projects, make sure you are always learning how to get better. However, here are some skills you might see listed in the job requirements for a digital project manager:
- Collaborative
- Strong communication skills
- Problem solver
- Attention to detail
- Strong organizational skills
- Ability to multi-task and prioritize
- Goal- and results-driven
- Get things done
- Manage cross-functional teams
- Coordinate and facilitate meetings and reviews
- Simplify complex workflows
- Tech-savvy
- Data-driven
What Are Digital Project Management Tools VS. Qualities?
The most important tool in your project management toolbox is flexibility. Okay, so flexibility is more of a quality than a tool, but it’s still the best quality a DPM can have.
Because you’re not always in control of the tools you use. It is your responsibility to join whichever workflow processes your client uses in order to develop a project plan and oversee the deliverables.
Anyone can follow the SCRUM, waterfall, or agile project management methodologies, but the difference between a successful and disastrous digital project is the DPM’s ongoing commitment to improving its project management capabilities.
How Much Does a Digital Project Manager Make?
You might be wondering how much project managers make overall with all of these duties. Alternatively, what is the salary of an IT project manager (be sure to also read our guide on how to become one)? The annual salary for a digital project manager can range from $59,000 to $134,000. Around $75,000 is the average annual income. The salary of a digital project manager typically varies based on their experience, location, and job role.
Is There a Digital Project Management Methodology?
Depending on the organization, team, and project, each project manager uses a unique digital project management process. Each project will be different from the others and probably call for a different set of procedures or approaches.
There are thankfully many options available. Waterfall and Agile are two of the most well-liked project management methodologies. Building scopes, managing resources, and working in phases are all aspects of the much more conventional waterfall methodologies used in project management. This method is well-liked because it is simple and sequential. It works especially well for construction projects where the frame must be finished before the roof can be started.
Agile is a significantly more advanced methodology that is based on flexibility and teamwork. Agile methodologies enable teams to react to change quickly and effectively, in contrast to Waterfall’s rigid plan-following requirements. Additionally, this enables the customer or stakeholder to participate at various points and confirm that their expectations are being met before continuing.
What Are Digital Project Management Tools?
Project managers can take advantage of the full potential of digital project management with the aid of cloud-based project management and collaboration tools. They serve as a single source of the truth and provide you with up-to-the-minute information on the status of your projects.
With the help of these tools, you can interact with your team, senior stakeholders, and outside collaborators while sharing accurate, current data. By doing away with status update meetings, you’ll free up your team’s time to focus on what they do best—execute.
Why Use Wrike as Your Digital Project Management Tool?
You can store all of your files, images, and information in one location using Wrike, allowing others to download the files they require at the precise moment they are required without bothering you. Since everything is in one place, they can continue working on their assignments without having to wait for anyone to respond.
You can refer to it as often as necessary because all work and feedback are completed in Wrike. Nothing is unclearly documented or hidden in tasks, folders, or projects, so there are no disputes over who said what or who is in charge of what.
Has a crucial team member unexpectedly taken a few days off? Your schedule may suffer greatly as a result. You can easily correct your situation using Wrike’s Gantt charts. If you can wait for your team member to get back, look at your Gantt chart. If you can wait, rearrange the tasks on your Gantt chart to reflect the new due dates, and inform the team that they should review the revised schedule.
Reassign the task if you are unable to wait. The new assignee should have all the information necessary to quickly pick up where their teammate left off because the original assignee has been tracking their progress in Wrike.
Stakeholders can quickly learn the status of a project when you organize your projects and tasks in Wrike. Everyone has access to information about who is responsible for what, when deadlines are approaching, the state of the work, and who is preventing progress. By supplying them with the information they require to be productive, you are empowering your team.
How to Become a Digital Project Manager?
It’s not as different or difficult as you might think, even though digital project management does require some additional skills beyond those required for standard project management. You can succeed as a good digital project manager if you’re a good manager with computer skills.
1. Technical Skills
It’s not necessary to be intimidated by digital project management. The level of technical expertise needed for your project depends on the type of product you’re producing; for content marketing, you only need a small number of skills, for a visual campaign, a few more in the photo and video editing, and for app development, a lot more.
You shouldn’t have to acquire a wide range of technical skills in order to use your project management software. Different digital project management tools have different technical skill requirements for the user. Make sure the one you choose is appropriate for your team’s and your knowledge level.
2. Communication Skills
In project management, communication is crucial, just like it is in every other aspect of life and work. Digital communication has a number of benefits, including being quick and affordable, allowing for discussions to take place regardless of location or even time zone, and making it simple to access old messages for future use.
However, there are some drawbacks to digital communication that can pose risks for digital project management. Written communication, whether it be an email, text message, or traditional letter, cannot convey the tone of voice and all the subtleties that eye contact and body language offer.
The digital project manager must improve her communication skills in order to reduce the risks of misunderstandings. This includes simple things like writing plainly and giving detailed instructions. She must also develop a rapport with team members, learn to “read between the lines” to detect when something is amiss, and set clear expectations for how employees are to communicate with one another and with clients.
3. Critical Thinking and Data Analysis
The evaluation of the project’s current state is one of the project manager’s most crucial duties. The key performance indicators (KPIs) should be carefully chosen by the digital project manager before data collection and analysis. She must also look beyond the numbers in order to consider causes and effects and to foresee potential project management difficulties and solutions.
Critical thinking skills are essential to interpret and integrating information from
- project team members,
- project stakeholders, and
- project management experts that can contribute to the success of your project.
4. Using Project Management Methodologies
A variety of project management methodologies can be used to manage digital projects successfully. You must choose the methodology—or combination of methodologies—that best suits the requirements of your project and team.
Here are a few of the most popular project management methodologies and frameworks widely used:
Waterfall Methodology
This approach consists of discrete phases that happen one after the other in a particular order. Although there is a lot of control, there is not much room for flexibility. It works best for tasks where iteration is not required and the requirements won’t change.
Kanban Methodology
The Kanban System uses a board and card system to give team members a visual overview of an entire project. It’s excellent for supporting small improvements, but it’s not the best option for challenging product development projects.
Agile Methodology
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Agile project management is “an iterative and incremental approach to delivering requirements throughout the project life cycle,” according to The Project Management Institute.
Scrum Methodology
Originating from rugby play, the Scrum methodology involves dividing projects into short “sprints” in which team members work closely together to complete each element of the project. For small teams, it works best.
How Do You Plan a Digital Project?
5 Steps to Managing a Digital Project
- Initial planning.
- Scoping.
- Development.
- Developing and deploying.
- Maintenance.
What is the Difference Between Digital Project Management and Project Management?
The core difference for a digital project manager is the time spent working across online projects. The manager of a digital project will be well-versed in the field of digital technology, as well as the tools that are most appropriate for their clients’ needs.
Conclusion
When we use the term “digital,” we’re referring to tasks like creating an app, designing a website, or organizing and carrying out an entire marketing campaign.
These projects are by no means simpler than traditional projects; in fact, due to their fluidity and constant moving parts, they may be much more difficult to plan and manage.