What Is Digital Project Management? [Ultimate Guide]

Project management statistics show that 77% of high-performing projects use project management software.

Although many individuals and companies use digital project management tools, not many understand the concept of digital project management.

How is digital project management different from other traditional project management methods? What skills do you require, and what does a digital project manager do?

This article will cover everything you need to know about digital project management.

What is Digital Project Management?

Two key terms make up digital project management. Digital refers to business activities that use the internet. On the other hand, project management is a set of processes, techniques, and tools used to manage a project to reach its desired goal.

Here’s a comprehensive definition of digital project management.

Digital project management is the process of planning, managing, and executing online projects through web technologies like browsers and connected devices.

If you use technological innovations to boost the management and delivery of projects in the digital space, that’s digital project management.

Digital project managers are responsible for managing projects throughout the project management life cycle. They are responsible for initiating projects, planning, executing, monitoring, and closing them.

The difference between digital and traditional project managers is the project type. An example of a digital project is setting up an online store, while a general project example is building a church. Other digital types of projects include creating websites, mobile apps, and video games.

Although both projects have different domains, they have the same goal of successful completion within the set budget, allocated resources, and timeline.

5 Aspects of Digital Project Management

Every successful digital project has one thing in common: proper management. However, thinking of digital project management as a whole can make the process seem more complex than it is.

If you want to carry out effective digital project management, the best approach is to break it down into easy-to-digest phases.

1. Choosing the Digital Project Manager and Assembling a Team

Starting a digital project without first hiring or appointing a project manager is a recipe for failure.

The digital project manager is essential in the management process. They are responsible for managing the project throughout the five phases of the project management life cycle (project initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and closing).

Choosing the digital project manager is not a decision you can make blindly. A digital project manager should have some essential project management skills like soft, technical, and digital skills.

Organizations hire qualified project managers with a PM degree or PM certifications like Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. When picking a successful candidate, check for experience and a good track record in managing related projects.

After hiring a competent digital project manager, the next step is to assemble a project team. The quality of the team will determine if your project will be a success or failure. Pick team members with valuable skills needed to deliver the project successfully.

2. Project Planning

The project planning phase is the most crucial aspect of digital project management. If you get your plans wrong here, the result is project failure.

A qualified and competent digital project manager can help you navigate this phase successfully. Create a project plan and define your scope and the work breakdown structure (WBS) for successful execution.

Your project plan should identify the steps and resources needed to reach the set objectives or goals. A good project plan defines the resources, budget, timeline, schedule, deliverables, stakeholders, and potential risks.

Involve relevant stakeholders and the end user if you want your digital project plan to be successful.

Answering these questions can help you create better project plans.

• Does the project plan address stakeholders’ expectations?
• What are the project management methodologies and documentation for the project?
• What are the tasks or activities needed to deliver project success?
• What is the timeline and deadline for each project task?

3. Resource Management

The project manager is responsible for managing resources throughout the project life cycle. There is a need for proper resource allocation to ensure that available resources are sufficient for the project deliverable (on time and within the budget).

Effective resource management involves scheduling and allocating tasks and resources to the best-qualified team members within the project’s budget.

Project resources play a vital role in moving a project from the raw stage to completion.

Here are some examples of project resources.

• People: They are individuals responsible for executing the project. People are the most important project resource because they hold the most influence over the project’s success.
• Information: For any project to succeed, the project team needs to get the right information to complete every task. Digital project managers should ensure they communicate project-specific information and notify members of any changes.
• Tools: Digital managers make use of modern project management tools like collaboration software and Gantt charts to complete the project.
• Money: The first thing that comes to mind when you hear project management resources is money. One of the reasons why projects fail is because of budget overruns. The better the project manager sets a budget, and the more the project team sticks to it, the higher the chances of project success.
• Time: Meeting deadlines you set within the project schedule is vital. Time is a limited resource. Every digital project manager must know how to manage time effectively. Regularly check the project schedule and progress to ensure the project is moving according to plan.

4. Communication

Clear and effective communication is vital for project success, and many projects fail because of poor communication.

Before you start any project, draw up a communication plan. Identify the key stakeholders involved, the mediums you want to use to communicate, and what information you want to share.

There are many communication methods, such as email, video chat, text messages, and phone, that digital managers and teams use to communicate through the project.

However, if you use a specific tool your project team is familiar with but ignore the basics, it won’t be effective.

Here are some best practices to improve communication among team members and key project stakeholders.

• Encourage and respond to questions from team members, especially about unclear project requirements in complex projects.
• Provide frequent updates about the project to relevant stakeholders and the project team.
• Use team communication software and online collaboration tools, especially for remote teams.

5. Testing and Deployment

Before delivering the digital product to the end user, the digital project team must thoroughly test the deliverable to ensure it meets the set standards.

This testing phase is crucial for quality assurance and control. It covers the project tasks you need to do to check that your products meet the project scope.

If you conduct poor project testing, you may end up delivering projects that do not meet your client’s requirements. On the other hand, quality testing will produce the desired results and deliverables.

An example of a test plan for software testing.

After the digital project passes the quality assurance tests and standards, you can launch it to the target market or deliver it to the client.

What Does A Digital Project Manager Do?

The roles and responsibilities of the traditional project manager apply to the digital project manager. This individual is responsible for planning, delegating, analyzing, managing, monitoring, and controlling projects from start to finish.

A digital project manager may take other titles depending on the industry. These titles include program manager, product manager, and technical project manager.

What does a digital project manager do? Digital project managers’ roles and responsibilities vary based on the company and the type of digital projects.

However, some common roles and responsibilities cut across the different variants of a digital project manager.

• Manage Projects: The digital project manager takes on the leadership role in the project team. This individual is responsible for managing and guiding the project and team members toward achieving the set objectives and goals.
• Delegate Tasks to the Project Team: Each team member gets their specific roles and responsibilities from the digital project manager.
• Provide Progress Reports: Clients and stakeholders require the digital project manager to provide progress reports at intervals.
• Maintain Communication: The digital project manager maintains regular communication with the project team and clients. This individual ensures that the project team clearly understands the project requirements.
• Review the Appropriate Documentation: Reviewing the necessary project documentation, such as the project plan, timeline, schedule, scope, budget, and risk, fall under the digital project manager’s responsibilities.

Becoming a digital project manager is one of the best career paths that offers you remote work and an enticing salary.

A digital project manager's salary is $72,473 per year in the United States. Note that the salary estimates will either be higher or lower based on multiple factors like experience, industry, company, and city.

Skills for Digital Project Management

There are skill sets that you need to lead a project team successfully in today’s digital world. Beyond knowing project management approaches like Scrum, Waterfall, and Agile, many essential skills separate an inexperienced project manager from a great one.

• Strong Organizational Skills: The ability to effectively organize the project team and activities from start to completion is a skill set the project manager must have.
• Time Management Skills: A digital project manager knows how to manage time effectively for the success of the project. Track and monitor your project team to ensure they are delivering on their tasks at the due time.
• Technical Skills: Although the technical skills required for digital project management vary based on the project type, having them is vital. For example, if you are managing digital marketing campaigns, the technical skills you need include SEO, social media, and proficiency with content management systems.
• Digital Skills: A digital project manager must have experience in UI/UX design, HTML and CSS, and Content Management Systems (CMS).
• Financial Skills: Having strong financial skills is essential for digital managers. You need to know how to determine project costs, set realistic budgets, conduct financial analyses, and manage project resources to stay within the budget.
• Problem-Solving Skills: Digital managers should possess business acumen and a keen eye for solving problems that arise during the project.
• Leadership Skills: Since the digital project manager is the head of the project team, this individual must show strong leadership qualities. You must have relationship-building skills and create a friendly environment where employees can enjoy working towards the project goals. Know when and how to motivate your team.
• Communication Skills: Having great communication skills is vital for successful digital project management. A digital project manager must know how to listen to clients and understand what they require for the project. Communicating with team members and other stakeholders about the tasks and projects is the other part.
• Social Media Skills: As a digital project manager, master how to use different social media platforms. Don’t just study the basics of different platforms but know their ins and outs and their limitations. A good digital project manager should know how to use social media management tools like Sprout Social and Hootsuite.
• Attention to Detail: If you want to manage multiple projects successfully, paying attention to detail is the skill you must have. Many digital managers plan campaigns that fail because they miss out on little but important details that can ruin the project.

Tips For Digital Project Management

If you ask different digital project managers what their best tips for successful digital project management are, you will get quite a long list. While they won’t list the same things, there are certain universal tips.

1. Enroll for a Digital Project Management Training

The learning process never ends; ask any successful digital project manager. There are always new techniques and best practices that can help you better manage digital projects.

Getting a project management certification is a great way to learn new skills and improve your technical knowledge. Many digital project management courses can help you on your journey.

• Professional Certification in Digital Project Management: Many institutions like Boston College offer professional certifications in digital project management. The Boston College certificate teaches you how to manage a tech-savvy project team and use the best project management approaches to successfully deliver digital projects.
• Project Management Professional (PMP): This highly-rated course offered by the Project Management Institute teaches you the necessary skill sets needed to manage projects successfully.
• Certified Scrum Master: Scrum Alliance is the organizer of Certified Scrum Master. Digital and technical project managers can get advanced knowledge of Scrum needed to manage cross-functional teams.

2. Learn Different Project Management Methodologies

As a digital project manager, advanced knowledge of the different project management methodologies is essential.

Choose the best methodology for the type and size of the project you are managing. However, consult with your team to know their preferences for the project. There is no point in choosing a methodology that no one on your team will adopt.

Best Project Management Methodologies for Different Project Types

Here are the best project management methodologies digital managers can use to plan and execute projects.

• Waterfall: A project management approach that involves finishing one phase before moving to the next item. This approach is best for simple projects that you can break down into steps or activities in a logical order.
• Agile: This modern project management methodology breaks down the project into smaller phases called sprints. However, unlike Waterfall, the project team works on the different project parts simultaneously while reviewing and revising them. Agile works best for complicated and technical projects like software development.
• Kanban: A project management framework that helps you manage projects through a visual board. Team members use cards on the Kanban boards to track their project tasks and progress. Kanban works best for small and chaotic projects.
• Scrum: This agile framework breaks down the project into sprints for easy tracking and management. Scrum is ideal for complex projects because it allows you to prioritize sprints based on their importance levels.

3. Set Realistic Expectations and Performance Metrics

Digital managers need to communicate their expectations to the project team for overall success. Don’t assign tasks to a team member without clearly explaining expectations and the project management metrics you want to use to evaluate their work.

Set realistic and attainable expectations for your project team. If you set unrealistic goals, project failure is inevitable. Hold regular team meetings to understand what your employees can and can’t do.

One of the mistakes many managers make is setting too many key performance indicators (KPIs). If you pick too many KPIs, it can lead to confusion, and you will end up not meeting the important ones.

Instead of spending time tracking a thousand and one metrics, pick the most important KPIs for the success of the project.

4. Align with Your Business Goals and Strategies

Successful digital project managers know that every project should align with their business goals and strategies. Any project isolated from your organization’s strategy may be realized, but it won’t have the desired impact on your company.

When managing a digital project, ensure it aligns with your business goals. For example, if the goal is to increase sales volume by 150% for your online clothing business, your digital marketing campaign should include the necessary steps to achieve this goal.

5. Choose the Best Digital Project Management Tools

When you hear project management tools, the first thing that comes to mind is online project management software. Apart from this software, there are other tools involved.

• Gantt Charts: The Gantt chart uses horizontal bars to visualize project activities, dependencies, milestones, and timelines. Thanks to Gantt chart software like Monday.com and ClickUp, you can automatically create, edit, and update your Gantt chart and share it with team members.
• Kanban Boards: The Kanban board uses cards and columns to visualize the project workflow. A simple Kanban board has three columns: To Do, Doing, and Done. With Kanban software, you can create, edit, and share Kanban boards and track project progress in real-time.
• Project Calendars: The project calendar is like your yearly calendar, only that it shows important dates relating to your projects, such as deadlines and milestones. You can create your project calendar with a spreadsheet and Google Calendar. However, the best way is to use online project management software.

The best project management software for you may vary depending on your team size, project nature, and framework. Monday.com and Clickup are great tools for planning and managing digital projects throughout the project life cycle.

6. Communicate Effectively with the Project Team and Stakeholders

As a digital project manager, you need to effectively communicate with all parties involved (the project team and stakeholders). Poor communication can break your digital project.

Digital projects usually involve cross-functional and remote teams in different geographical locations. A digital project manager needs to draw up a communication plan and use the best mediums to interact with your client, sponsor, and team members.

7. Schedule Regular Check-Ins with Your Project Team

Smart managers know that they have to track their team’s progress at regular intervals for successful project outcomes. You don’t want a situation where you leave your project team to work and find out major errors or slow project progress close to the deadline.

You can check your project team’s progress weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, depending on which style suits you. Take out time to develop a strong relationship with each member of your team through face-to-face communication, office games, and group lunch.

However, if you manage a remote team, you can use virtual team-building activities to build relationships.

Here are some questions you can ask your project team during the scheduled check-ins.

• Do you have the project resources and support you need?
• What do you feel needs to be improved about the project management?
• What do you love about the project?
• What do you hate about the project?
• Have you encountered any difficulty or setback so far?

Examples of Digital Projects

There are many examples of digital projects. But for clarity, I will divide them into two: narrow and wide projects.

1. Narrow Digital Projects

Narrow digital projects are small that can either be continuous or finite.

• Software and Mobile App Development Projects: These are projects that involve developing a software or mobile application for an organization or individual as a deliverable. The process can be simple or complex depending on the product you want.
• Website Design and Development Projects: This project example involves creating and designing a website as a deliverable. Upgrading your content management system is an example of a web development project.
• Digital Marketing Campaigns: Projects that involve raising awareness about your brand or products and launching a new product or service.
• UX/UI Design Projects: Any project that has the objective of creating a great user experience and interface for a target audience. A good example is a project that aims to improve the user experience on a food and nutrition website.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Projects: This project example involves improving your SEO and SEM results. Keyword research, identifying marketing trends, competitor research, acquiring backlinks, and creating SEO-optimized blog posts fall under this example.

2. Wide Digital Projects

Wide digital projects are large and continuous, leading to more projects. Many businesses and industries embrace digital transformation, which involves using digital technology to create and improve business processes.

In the digital world, innovation moves at a fast pace. Any company that doesn’t watch out for technological trends in its industry is in danger of losing market share and customers.

Examples of wide digital projects.

• Process Transformation Projects: Any project that requires you to improve or reinvent your business processes to reduce costs and improve product quality. A good example is a brick-and-mortar clothing store looking to create online sales channels.
• Domain Transformation Projects: This wide digital project occurs when a company wants to enter a new industry. For example, Amazon was originally an online bookstore. Today, Amazon is the biggest player in cloud computing thanks to its AWS project.
• Business Model Transformation Projects: A broad project that involves a company changing its entire business model and core goals. For example, Netflix started as a mail-based rental of DVDs. Today, it is an online streaming service provider.

Explore Further

• What is Agile Program Management?
• 5 Stages of Team Development (including Examples)
• What are Burndown Charts and How to Use Them?
• What Is Project Design in Project Management?

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