There’s a vast number of out there – in fact, every PM working the digital space seems to have their own unique list! Some have broad philosophies about managing risk or expectations. Others swear by specific tools and tactics for time or managing people.
Knowing which best practices are a personal taste versus which ones are on your critical path to success can be a little daunting, so I’ve started to gather some of the top best practices being discussed within our global community of digitally-oriented professionals. Below I’ve shared just a few of our favourites that have helped our members build their portfolio of successes and advance their career.
It’s also worth noting that as you become more experienced and battle-tested as a , you’ll be able to work out your own personal best practices based on what works best for you and your teams. Training and courses can also help you discover new or improve existing ones.
10 Digital Project Management Best Practices
As promised, here are ten that you can start incorporating into your projects and processes right away.
1. Commit to Continuous Improvement
Digital projects typically have the benefit of rapid, iterative progress. While the breakneck speed and various moving parts can be overwhelming, this also provides a massive opportunity to learn and improve at that same pace.
When you’re ending a sprint or as part of the closure process, invest the time to run a retrospective with your , and if possible, with your client or sponsor. This will help you understand how the sprint or went from the various perspectives of those who were involved.
To amplify the learnings across your , be a champion of sharing those learnings. Brainstorm and test viable processes and methods for making insights from retrospectives accessible to others who will walk a similar path on their .
2. Choose Project Management Software That Works The Way Your Team Works
In a more analog and sequential context, the primary user of a is… well, a . But when it comes to digital, is often so much more than that.
Moving Gantt charts and resource schedulers, your digital toolkit allows your to manage their own tasks, log their time, and automate and govern workflows. It also allows clients to view a real-time dashboard and get involved in the conversation, as well integrates with many other tools to provide a full picture.
Depending on the size of your , the nature of your projects, and the methodology you’re using, the “right” for you may be very different from what your PM friend at that big consultancy thinks is best. To make the best decision for you and your , start with our list of the best to find the right one for your use case.
3. Tackle Risks Head On… Together!
New digital solutions inherently introduce new risks that can morph and change wildly as a progresses. To give yourself the best chance of catching all the key risks, build a culture of collaborative risk by involving your and your stakeholders in risk activities throughout the .
Early on, as you’re creating your risk plan and initial risk register, start identifying risks as a group. Use various perspectives to create strategies to deal with risks, and make sure risk owners are on board with what is expected of them.
As the progresses, continue adding to your risk register. Make risk assessment part of your regular cadence or ceremonies, and encourage members and stakeholders to flag new risks as they see them so that you have enough time to avoid or minimize impact.
A little shameless plug: Our DPM School course covers managing risk in-depth, as well as how to recover when issues do occur. There are many more risks that come with the digital space, including new and emerging tech, more involved quality , and the potential for due to client misunderstanding of the limits of digital.
4. Choose a Project Methodology That Fits The Work
Those working in digital can debate endlessly about whether is better than Waterfall or whether a hybrid of the two is good or bad, but the fact of the matter is that the methodology needs to fit the work.
Depending on the nature of the , the type of , the preferences of the , and the need to plug in to your client or sponsor’s broader organizational ways of working, certain methodologies or other methodologies will have advantages over the others. Our guide to methodologies can help you choose the right one.
An important factor in this decision is your ‘s preference. While the decision may ultimately be up to you as the , make sure to consult your to get agreement and input from everyone. A methodology is much less useful when no one on the is adopting it.
5. Build Trust Through Transparency
Your sponsor or client may not fully understand all the technical components and risks of the , and they may be relying on you to be a beacon of confidence, but they aren’t dumb.
While it may be tempting to use jargon and twisted versions of the truth to obfuscate issues and avoid uncomfortable situations in the short-term, the long-term wins that will truly boost your career trajectory are rooted in the relationships and the trust that you build by navigating the tough stuff together.
Whenever possible, take the time to build trust with your clients. Educate your client or sponsor and explain the complexities. If there’s an issue, do the appropriate prep to finesse your messaging, but make it a priority to communicate it sooner rather than later. And, of course, always provide viable solutions to any problem you present – don’t leave your client or sponsor empty handed for when they need to explain the situation to their bosses.
6. Set Clear KPIs
The key success factors of a can often be minimized, misunderstood, or easily forgotten. Near-sightedness during a can lead to a product being introduced to a world that no longer has a use for it. And once a digital product has launched, failing to measure its performance could limit the appetite for continuing on the product roadmap.
At the outset of every , establish KPIs and be clear about the criteria for meeting those KPIs. Choose a small number of metrics to keep the focused on the most important goals. Otherwise, you risk spreading yourself and your too thin across too many KPIs, and you won’t meet any of them.
This is especially important for digital projects as there are so many KPIs to choose from. Nailing down the most relevant ones is critical for ensuring you can definitively deem a a success and avoid tracking metrics that don’t really say much.
For example, if increasing conversions is the , you’re better off tracking conversion rates than metrics like traffic or impressions.
7. Create Standard Processes That Are Viable… Then Revisit!
Without set processes and standards for work and documentation, it doesn’t take long for things to spiral out of control.
If you create standard procedures for things like initiation, kick-off meetings, risk , and quality , it saves you from having to reinvent the wheel every time.
The key is to create processes that your will actually adopt and sustain, then continue to revisit and adapt as your organization changes and grows.
A risk process for a highly-visible, large-scale implementation of a government finance system probably isn’t the right process to follow if you’re a of four, Kanban-ing your way to a new feature release for your photo sharing app.
Likewise, the process you used when you were a of 15 working in a single office probably won’t work once you’ve grown to 130 employees spread across 3 different continents.
8. Overcommunicate Effectively
The phrase “overcommunicate effectively” may sound like an oxymoron to some, but when it comes to the world of digital projects, it can be make or break.
With the tumult of cross-functional teams swarming towards a sprint goal while using various tools that have communication capabilities (yet never checking their email), making sure your message is landing and that you have the right information for your client or sponsor is critical.
Add to that the fact that your might be working remotely across 3 time zones-none of which are the client’s time zone-and you’ve got motive for effective overcommunication.
My top best practices?
First, build a that everyone can agree to, even if it’s just a cadence of ceremonies and agreement on what tools are for what type of communication.
Then update your and your clients regularly on status, timeline, and budget.
Give your the opportunity to ask questions and make sure everyone is on the same page when it comes to updates from the client and new information. This will bring up questions and issues before they arise and help members confirm their assumptions before they proceed with an incorrect one.
Regular check-ins with clients will increase transparency and trust, and give clients the opportunity to ask questions as well.
Most of all, enforce the . If it stops working due to shifts in the , then rebuild it so that it can be adhered to. The Wild West is no way to communicate when you’re dealing with the complexities of a .
9. Nail The Briefing Process
The digital world helped forge many of the best practices we have for working in hybrid configurations of remote and on-site teams. But even still, any ‘s effectiveness is only as good as its ability to communicate abstract ideas clearly to one another. That’s why briefing is so important.
A good brief contains enough information to give clear direction without having so much information that it’s stiflingly prescriptive for its audience. The trick is that there are different kinds of briefs for different purposes.
For example, a brief may start from the overall context and then dive as deep as key milestones and budget. Meanwhile, a brief may include the reason why something needs to be done (e.g., a User Story) as well as the requirements and constraints.
Our DPM School course covers how to create a and includes in-depth instructions on how to execute them properly for .
10. Be Open To Getting Involved Early
Often, managers are brought into a just before (or maybe even after) kick-off. This could mean you’re inheriting a less than ideal scope of work or can leave you feeling like you’re constantly playing catch up on all the details that were discussed before the contract was signed.
While the sales process may not agree with your nature, it can be very useful to try to get involved in the as the is being shaped. Not only will you have more background when the does get started, but you can also influence the approach, showcase the value of your PM skills in a business development context, and maybe even advance your career while you’re at it.
11. Identify an Ongoing Problem to Work On
Keep a running list of challenges or questions that you’ve been facing during projects that you’re not quite sure how to approach. These could be simply lacking the right tool or vendor i.e. “everyone hates our current time-tracking software!” or “I need a better list of photographers!” It could be a personal struggle – “I’m having a hard time planning project kickoffs and my clients are in the dark.”
Once a month, pull out this “List o’ Struggles” and identify one issue to spend an hour working on. Some of the items on the list might have a quick fix – like researching new time-tracking software to see what other options might be an improvement, or gathering a list of go-to vendors. Some of the issues might require some multi-faceted troubleshooting.
For example, if you are consistently having trouble planning project kickoffs, do some research to see if anyone has written advice on the subject, or see if you can set up a meeting with your manager or mentor to discuss potential solutions. Over time, you will continue to add to this list, but you will also begin to cross things off as you gain new skills and tools for the job.
12. Check In With Your People
At least once a month, make a point of checking in with each person on your team. If you work on a small project management team and you’re feeling ambitious, you could grab lunch with each person once a month. If you work on a large team with members working remotely, this check-in could be as simple as a conversation by the coffee machine or a DM in slack.
You don’t need to give everyone the third degree or demand to know their deepest feelings, but it will go a long way with your colleagues, and help you manage projects efficiently, if you know how the work is affecting your team.
Of course you can also keep things light and find out what shows they’re watching, what podcasts they’re listening to, and where they’re planning to go on their next vacation. Feel out when might be a good time to start a casual conversation and then let the chat evolve naturally. You never know when these conversations could lead to more in-depth connections or collaborations, or to uncovering some detail that will be helpful in your project planning moving forward.
Some questions I like to ask during these monthly check-ins:
- “What have you been working on lately that you are really enjoying or really disliking?”
- “How do you feel the management of this project is going, what could be improved?”
- “Do you have the resources you need?”
- “What are you excited about?”
What Are Your Digital Project Management Best Practices?
Have you used any of the best practices we’ve listed above? If so, how did they work out for you? Feel free to leave any we’ve missed in the comments below. As we mentioned, everyone has their own tips and tricks, and we don’t want to miss out on an opportunity to learn from each other.
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For even more information on what being a DPM is all about, check this out: What Is Digital Project Management? [Ultimate Guide] or listen to our podcast episode on this topic: Is Digital PMing Really A Thing?