Project Management Trends You Need to Know for 2022

Many organizations struggle to succeed due to a lack of workforce, project management tools, poorly defined scope, failure to track progress, lack of proper communication, etc. 

The success of a project depends upon how well you manage the project. The necessity for project management is increasing every day. With the change in time, the project management trend is also changing. 

The project management tool gives you a clear picture of the project, ensures the proper flow of projects, and manages and mitigates risk.

It helps reduce costs and ensure the appropriate utilization of resources, increasing productivity. 

It also helps you to meet the deadline, complete your work within an allocated budget. It enhances team collaboration and communication and ensures transparency and accountability in the team.

Besides project management tools, you will also need a good project manager who can inspire, motivate team members and stakeholders, and lead the team.

He/she should be an excellent communicator and should be able to solve any problem. 

There are many project management methodologies and tools that you can follow to complete your project without any hustle. Here is a few project management trend for 2020:

Project Management Trends:

Artificial Intelligence

During a project, you have to deal with a vast amount of data, making it challenging to manage all the data.

But with the assistance of AI, you can collect data of any size and help you complete your task faster and efficiently.  

AI helps reduce your operation cost and error that are likely to occur during project management.

Sometimes, your project progress may get late due to the estimated time, technical error, project mismanagement, and many more. AI helps to find such reasons, identify and mitigate them. 

Impact of AI on Project Management:

Cost Reduction  

Implementing AI helps to reduce the cost of operation. 

For example, you may need to do some tasks repetitively for a project. You may have to hire some people to complete the job. 

But if you use AI, it helps complete repetitive tasks without any human effort and reduces cost.

Task Automation

When you have to do the same task, you will feel monotonous again and again. Instead of doing such repetitive functions yourself, you can automate them using AI to complete such tasks.  

For example, if you have a busy website and get lots of messages from your customers. At that time, you can use the AI bot function to reply to customers.

AI bot will automatically respond to customers within a second. This will help you complete your task efficiently and keep a healthy relationship with your website visitors. 

Risk Analysis

AI helps identify possible risks, analyze risks, find a way to solve and mitigate them. For example, in a bank, AI solves any small financial error before it becomes a huge problem.  

Decision Making

Organizations sometimes have to make a prompt decision and sometimes study many factors while making decisions.

Many organizations have now moved from a data-driven approach to an AI-driven process. The AI-driven method is suitable for creating a prompt and reliable decision.

For example, AI is used in the medical field for diagnostic purposes as it uses a suitable algorithm to detect health problems and treat the problem.

In manufacturing industries, they use AI to decide the quality of the product. They also use AI to determine the quantity of raw material necessary to produce the product.

Agile Approach

The agile project management approach is an iterative and incremental software development model. It is suitable for those projects where requirements change again and again.

In this approach, we divide the project into different phases, which are:

In the agile approach, first of all, customers describe the requirement. Products are made as per the requirement; then, customers test the product. Finally, as per the feedback, product improvement continues. 

This approach’s main benefit is that you can continuously improve the product, reduce cost, and deliver business value.

Scrum

Scrum project management is a form of agile project management that usually consists of a small team of 7-9 members. The team is self-organizing and cross-functional. 

The scrum master leads the team and organizes daily meetings. In the meeting team, members share their work progress and problems.

The scrum process includes:

Product Backlog:

The product backlog is the starting phase of the scrum that includes a list of tasks that you need to complete during a project.

Sprint Backlog: 

The sprint backlog lists tasks to complete during a sprint cycle.

Sprint Cycle: 

The Sprint cycle process consists of selecting, developing, reviewing, and assessing and is usually 2-4 weeks.

The team selects functions and features to build during a sprint cycle. Then they develop and review the parts before starting a new sprint cycle.

Result: The customers use the product, review it, and give feedback. 

Internet of Things (IoT)

Internet of things refers to interrelated devices for transferring data over the internet. In 2020, the importance of the Internet of Things in project management will increase. Communication and collaboration are being effective due to the IoT.

Likewise, project managers, team members, and customers can observe project progress in real-time and improve collaboration with IoT.

Sometimes during the project, you might need some historical data. If you search those data by yourself, it might take a whole day or more than that, but if you leave the task for IoT, it provides you with the data right away.

You can connect IoT with project management tools for faster communication and better results. It even allows you to automate, organize, and handle business information to generate business reports.

Trust on Employees 

In effective project management, checking upon employees all the time might not be sufficient. Employees feel there is no trust among organizations and employees.

Instead, organizations can use time tracking tools like timeTracko. It helps to monitor employees’ productivity without disturbing them and measure their productivity. 

It is suitable for both remote employees as well as onsite employees. 

Employers can check their employees without nagging them all the time. And employees will feel employers trust their work.

This creates a positive environment among the team. And in due course, it increases the productivity of the group.

Hybrid Project Management Approach

Hybrid project management combines agile and traditional project management, suitable for large projects.

In hybrid project management, you divide work into different manageable components according to their functionality. This process is known as the Work Breakdown Structure. 

Each component has different teams that use the project development method as per project requirements.

For example, using a hybrid project management approach, you can plan and define requirements using the waterfall model. And develop the product by using the agile model.

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify, manage, and control your own emotions. It has four elements: self-awareness, social awareness, self-management, and relationship management. 

Since it is an essential element in project management, employers test candidates’ emotional intelligence before hiring them. 

If your team members are emotionally intelligent, fewer chances of conflicts. As a result, there is an increase in productivity and project success. 

You work with different team members, and your personality may not match your team members. Thus it is essential to understand one another in a team, and better communicate among members.

Project Management Tools and Solutions

Last but the most critical project management trend that is skyrocketing is project management tools. It is essential for both onsite employees and remote employees. 

It helps plan, schedule, set deadlines, manage tasks, track progress, report projects, etc. It also allows you to communicate and collaborate by sharing your file with team members and customers. 

You can schedule, organize, send meeting objectives, create tasks for meetings, and many more.

It even allows you to manage resources and budget to ensure the proper operation of the project. 

Project Management Tools You Should Use!

Here are some best project management tools in 2020:

Asana

Asana is a project management and productivity tool for collaboration and team management.

The app allows you to create a project with your team members, assign tasks, set deadlines, and communicate with them. 

More than 70000 organizations from 190 countries use Asana, including renowned companies like Nasa, Deloitte, Voz Media, etc.

It allows you to organize your plan and structure work, set priorities, and stay on track.

The app provides a portfolio view to monitor your task progress, update your task, etc.  It even allows you to create and customize your to-do list.

It offers integration with apps like DropBox, Google Drive, Slack, etc. It allows you to customize templates, add milestones, forms, view progress if you use its paid version.

Features of Asana:

• Has a Gantt Chart feature that allows you to set deadlines, view task progress, update tasks, and share it with your team members.
• With its rule features, you can keep completed tasks on one side of your project board.
• Allow you to add comments, attach files, and tag your team.
• View the work progress of your team members with their portfolio. 
• Offers list view and board view of projects.

Pricing of Asana:

There is four plan of Asana whose price is:

• Basic: The basic plan of Asana is free.
• Premium: The premium plan of Asana costs $10.99 per user per month billed per annum.
• Business: The business plan of Asana costs $24.99 per user per month billed per annum.
• Enterprise: It has custom pricing.

Available on: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS.

Benefits	Drawbacks
Offers integration with more than 100 apps.	Does not have a Karban feature.
View pending tasks in the to-do list, Gantt chart, and the calendar.	Communication features can be better.

Trello

Trello is a project management, productivity, and team collaboration application suitable for all sizes of projects and organizations.

You can use the app to create projects using the digital board and collaborate with the team.

Trello was released in 2011 by Atlassian. More than 19 million people are using Trello, and it is available in 21 languages. 

You can customize your account by changing your name, bio, avatar, and language. You can organize tasks using a board, card, lists, checklist tool, etc. 

One of the best features of Trello is that it ensures high-security standards and provides bank-level encryption that allows you to share sensitive data without worry.

Features of Trello:

• Prioritize your task and set deadlines.
• Offers integration with apps like Slack, Github, Evernote, Freshdesk, Evernote, and more.
• Receive notification anytime with its notification features.
• Has drag and drops feature to move your task on the board.
• Ensure security by providing two-factor authentication features.

Pricing of Trello:

There are three plans of Trello the are:

• Free: it is free forever.
• Business-class: Trello business class costs $9.99 per user per month per annum.
• Enterprise: The enterprise plan of Trello costs $17.50 per user per month for 100 users.

Available on: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Web

Benefits	Drawbacks
Has a simple user interface.	It does not have a time tracking feature.
It has kanban features.	You can attach only 10 MB files per attachment in the free version.
Provides excellent customer service.

ProofHub

Proofhub is an all-in-one project management software providing most of the features that a project management tool needs. It is suitable for freelancers and large organizations. 

It keeps track of the time you spend on the project with its timesheet features. You can share your work progress, updates task, and notes with your team members using Proofhub. 

It also allows you to collaborate with team members, have discussions and group chats on projects. You can bookmark your tasks, files, note, and a project you frequently use using the Proofhub bookmark feature.

Features of Proofhub:

• It provides Kanban boards that allow you to divide a big task into small sub-tasks and assign them to team members. You can track the time spent on the tasks. 
• Has Gantt Chart to view tasks, change schedules, track progress, add private lists, and more.
• Chat features allow you to connect with your team members and have one-to-one communication and group communication. 
• Allow you to add, organize, attach files on your notes, and share them with team members.
• It has a calendar feature to remind you about deadlines.

Pricing of Proofhub:

There is two plan of Proofhub that are:

• Essential: It costs $45 per month per annum. It can have unlimited users and 40 projects.
• Ultimate control: It costs $89 per month per annum. It can have unlimited users and unlimited projects.

Available on: Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, iOS.

Benefits	Drawbacks
Has time tracking features.	It does not have budgeting tools.
Easy to set up.	Sometimes the app gets slow.
Has lots of features necessary for project management.

Scoro

Scoro is a cloud-based Saas product that provides an all-in-one solution for project management. The app time tracks employees and provides billable and non-billable work.

You can use scoro for project management, task assignment, billing, etc. It helps manage customer relationships and offers integration with iCal, toggl, Gmail, Outlook, etc.

Features of Scoro:

• It provides a project timeline feature that allows you to view work progress, prioritize your task, and set task assignments and deadlines. 
• Allow you to budget and forecast your project and compare it with actual expenses.
• Has invoices and expenses management that keeps a record of purchase and order expenses.
• Share files with your team using scoro file sharing features.
• View your deadlines, task project status, and others on the dashboard.

Pricing of Scoro:

There is four plan that scoro provides, which are:

• Essential: This plan is suitable for a small team. It costs $26 per user per month.
• Work Hub: There are two plans under the Work Hub plan: standard and pro. Standard costs $37 per user per month. And pro cost $49 per user per month.
• Sales Hub: There are two plans under the Sales Hub standard and pro. Standard costs $37 per user per month. And pro costs $49 per user per month.
• Ultimate: It has custom pricing. 

Available on: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Web.

Benefits	Drawbacks
You can view work progress reports and financial reports with one click.	It does not have Gantt Chart features.
It is easy to set up.	The app is quite expensive.
It has good customer support.

Jira

Jira is a popular project management tool among the agile teams, software development team, HR team, and marketing team. It has features like scrum and kanban, essential for an agile team. 

Jira was initially released in 2002 by Atlassian and is available in five languages: English, Germany, French, Spanish, and Japanese. 

It has features like a roadmap that you can use to communicate plans with stakeholders that ensure the project is heading toward the right track. It also provides self-help resources and community support services.

It offers a storage limit of 250 GB and allows users to limit up to 10000 in the paid version.  

Features of Jira:

• It has a scrum board that helps iterative and incremental project development, improves team focus, and promotes sprint planning.
• It provides roadmap features to achieve target goals and allows you to share roadmaps with stakeholders.
• Customize the workflow using color blocks and arrows.
• Allow you to create agile reports like user workload and recently completed issues.
• Offers integration with thousands of apps, including Slack, GitHub, Figma, Miro, and more.

Pricing of Jira:

There are three plans that Jira offers that are:

• Free: It is free for ten users.
• Standard: It costs a $10 flat monthly rate. It needs to have a minimum of 10 users and a maximum of 5000 users.
• Premium: It costs $14 per user. The maximum number of users for this plan is 5000.

Available on: Windows, Linux, Mac, Solaris, Android, iOS, Web.

Benefits	Drawbacks
It is highly customizable	It isn’t easy to set up
It is inexpensive	It does not have a communication feature
It is suitable for iterative and incremental work.

Monday.com

Monday is a project management and productivity tool for managing tasks and teams.  Using Monday, you can manage your project, check progress, manage due dates. 

It was initially known as dapulse and changed its name on Monday in November 2017. More than 100000 organizations are using the app, and it is available in 10 languages.

It is also a collaboration tool that allows you to communicate with your team members and share files, folders, and images. 

The best thing about the app is that it provides 24/7 customer service for all its users. And it also includes security features like two-factor authentication, Google authentication, audit log, and many more.

Features of Monday:

• Use the board to manage your task, drag and drop tasks, update work status. 
• You can invite the client to see your work progress and certain boards.
• Allow you to have video and audio conferencing.
• Provides two-factor authentication for customer security.
• Visualize your project plan and progress using its timeline feature.

Pricing of Monday:

There are four plans that Monday offers, which are:

• Basic: The basic plan of Monday costs $8 per user per month.
• Standard: The standard plan for Monday costs $10 per user per month.
• Pro: The Pro plan for Monday costs $16 per user per month.
• Enterprise: Its cost is customizable.

Available on: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Web.

Benefits	Drawbacks
The app is highly customizable.	The basic plan does not have many features.
You can integrate the app with other apps.	At first, it can be challenging to understand.
It has an attractive dashboard.

Wrike

Wrike is a project management and productivity app that helps you increase your productivity by 50%. It even allows you to communicate and collaborate with your team members. 

Wrike was released in 2006 by Wrike Inc and is available in 9 languages. More than 20000 companies, including renowned companies like Google, Okta, Dell, Airbnb, and more from over 140 countries.

It provides several templates that you can choose from, making project management more comfortable, and these templates are highly customizable. You can even create a Gantt Chart for tracking projects and keeping track of deadlines.

Features of Wrike:

• You can create, assign, and set due dates for projects.
• It has a drag and drops features that allow you to drag and drop tasks to update task status.
• Has a Gantt Chart to view the task progress.
• Allow you to customize templates.
• Allow you to custom workflow status.

Pricing of Wrike:

There are four plans of Wrike that are:

• Free: It is free. The maximum user limit for the free plan is 5.
• Professional: The maximum user limit for the professional plan is 15. It costs $9.80 per user per month.
• Business: A business plan costs $24.80 per user per month. It has a maximum user limit of 200.
• Enterprise: It has custom pricing. It has a user limit of unlimited.

Available on: Android, iOS, Web.

Benefits	Drawbacks
It is easy to set up	Essential features are available only on the business plan
The dashboard is highly customizable.

Conclusion:

Here are some popular trends in project management that can enhance your productivity. You should also use the proper project management tools for effective workflow and trends.