No matter where you are in your PM journey, you’ll find something to help you along the way in these project management articles.
Learning how to manage a project is an ongoing endeavor—you’ve got to continuously try out new techniques and upgrade your project management skills. This year, the expert team at The Digital Project Manager has produced dozens of articles on project management, from comprehensive how-to guides to opinion pieces showing what daily life as a digital project manager is like.
Here it is: our best digital project management articles of 2020!
Articles About Managing And Controlling Projects
We published several articles this year covering how project managers control and manage projects and tasks, the challenges they encounter, and the methodologies they use in doing so, whether this is a traditional waterfall methodology or something agile, like Scrum.
- How To Use Project Milestones To Keep Your Projects On Track by John Carter
- What Is & How To Create A Risk Management Plan by Emily Luijbregts
- How To Build A Workflow Management System (+Examples) by Marc Boscher
- A Guide To Agile Project Management Methodology & Tools by Ben Aston
- Top 3 Project Management Challenges In 2020 [Survey Data] by Nuala Turner
- How To Make A Project Roadmap (With Roadmap Template) by Galen Low
Project Management Membership Articles
We also covered project management memberships from a few angles. Read about the reasons behind and benefits of project management certifications and memberships, our own DPM membership and offerings, and more.
- Top 5 Project Management Membership Orgs + Other Ways To Network by Nuala Turner
- What’s The Difference Between DPM Membership And The DPM School? by Galen Low
- The Story Of DPM Membership by Ben Aston
- How To Choose A Digital Project Management Course For 2022 by Nuala Turner
- 5 Biggest Benefits Of Digital Project Management Training by Nuala Turner
Digital Project Management Articles
These articles focus on digital projects and digital project management, offering updated perspectives on the digital space and how project managers can grapple with it throughout the project lifecycle to ensure successful projects.
- 5 Ways To Improve Your Digital Project Management Process by Nuala Turner
- The 2020 State Of Digital Project Management by Ben Aston
- 10 Digital Project Management Best Practices For Project Success by Nuala Turner
- Digital Adoption: Models, Examples, Challenges & Tips by Ken Thompson
A Few Other Miscellaneous Articles
- What Is A Project Proposal, And What Does It Look Like? by Galen Low — an in-depth guide to project proposals for new projects, part of our in-depth series on the topic
- Do You Have What It Takes To Be A Technical Program Manager? by Dharma Mehta — covers the role of the Technical Program Manager and helps with the decision making process about whether it’s right for you
- What Is Microsoft Project Management Software? (Guide To MS Project & MS Teams) by Ben Aston — a look at the project management software offerings from Microsoft
Case Studies
Here’s a case study from 2020 that looks at how project managers can create effective development teams that are client-facing.
Digital Project Management Tools
In 2020, we evaluated dozens of project management software tools and summarized the information in our reviews. Find descriptions of their features, main pros and cons, pricing, and what to consider when choosing different types of PM software for your projects.
If you’re new to project management tools:
First have a look at our comparison of the top software for project management. Then, check out our review of popular resource management tools that you can use to allocate resources (staff, rooms, equipment), map out your dependencies, and monitor for changes over time. We’ve also got a well-researched list of Microsoft Project alternatives, and a summary of project scheduling software tools.
Beyond general PM software, we’ve also got some helpful reviews of other types of tools that we published in 2020, such as agency management systems, agile tools, and others listed below.
Remote Work Tools
Remote work has been on the rise, and never more so than in 2020. Project managers, project teams, and other stakeholders rely heavily on tools in work-from-home scenarios, and often have an ecosystem of tools in place to get work done.
This includes:
- Video meeting software such as GoToMeeting or alternatives, as well as screen-sharing software.
- Tools that enable and expand collaboration within team and project workflows
- Remote project management tools and other project management tools specifically intended for remote teams
Tools For Small Businesses
There are lots of project management tools out there intended for small businesses and startups — if you’re working for (or running!) a small business, check out the following.
- Project management software for small businesses
- Project management software for startups
- CRMs for small businesses
Project Planning And Tracking
Every project manager needs tools to assist with planning projects from start to finish and tracking team member progress. We covered a variety of tools that serve these purposes.
- Project management dashboard software and project dashboard software for visibility and monitoring project status and progress
- Project tracking software for keeping track of tasks and projects, delays, and status
- Project planning software and other tools that assist with planning
- Gantt chart software for planning projects on Gantt charts
Specialized Project Management Software
Sometimes a general project management software won’t cut it. If you need something more specific to your business, industry, or projects (such as IT projects, creative projects, marketing projects, or other), try these articles:
- Agile Project Management Software
- Online Project Management Software and Web-Based Project Management Tools
- Visual Project Management Software
- Enterprise Project Management Software
Other Business Software
Project managers are often involved in other business processes within their organization, such as operations, product development, invoicing, and others. We reviewed the following types of software in the hopes that project managers and their peers may be able to make use of it.
- Digital Asset Management Software for managing, storing, and tracking digital assets and documents
- Online Invoicing Tools for creating and sending invoices to clients or external parties
- Risk Management Software for assessing and managing risk both within projects and as part of larger organization-wide risk management activities
Digital Project Management Videos
We also published a variety of videos and videocasts in 2020.
- Videocast: How To Manage Sloppy Teams
- Project Management Challenges
- Videocast: Project Management Career – Is It Right For Me?
- Videocast: Agile Project Management Explained
- Videocast: Managing Website Content + How To Get Website Content From Clients
- Videocast: Project Manager Salary—How Much Can You Make?
- Videocast: Kelly Tears Down My Project Manager Resume So You Can Make Yours Better
DPM Podcasts
In 2020, we had several different project management experts weighing in on the trickier points of managing digital projects. Here’s a list of project management podcast episodes you can browse to answer some of your harder questions and get a better idea of how PM theory can be applied to real projects.
Our Top 5: Most Popular Podcasts
Here’s a list of our most popular PM podcasts from 2020 to help you narrow down the choices—if you’ve only got a few hours, make sure you give these DPM favorites a listen:
- How To Build Your PM Toolkit (with Sally Woolston)
- Risky Business (with Kiron Bondale)
- How To Create Agility In Projects (with Dimitar Karaivanov)
- Getting Things Done Right (with Michael Luchen)
- Leading Projects Beyond The Iron Triangle (with Susanne Madsen)
More DPM Podcasts
From work breakdown structures to managing scope creep and leading projects, our DPM experts provide insights on a wide range of interesting digital project management topics.
- Beyond The Prototype (with Douglas Ferguson)
- Working Back To Go Forward (with Jeff Gothelf)
- Use Project Scope Statements To Save Your Bacon (with Robyn Birkedal)
- Break It Down: Write A Great Work Breakdown Structure (with Emily Luijbregts)
- How To Make Your Project Management Socially Intelligent (with Kim Wasson)
- How To Optimize Your Process With Workflow Management (with Marc Boscher)
- Why Curiosity Matters—And How To Cultivate It (with Dr. Diane Hamilton)
- Making Agile Work With Metagility (with David Bishop)
- Making Career Transition Work (with Dr. Eric Wright)
- Putting Developers In Front Of Clients (with Michael Luchen)
- Project Economy (with Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez)
- Project Manager Or Project Leader? (with Rebecca Germond)
For DPM Members: More Digital Project Management Resources
Throughout the year, we create a variety of project management resources for members of our digital project management community. While the below resources are only available to our members, we covered a variety of topics that are relevant to all project managers.
If you’re considering joining our membership program, consider this a little sneak preview of the types of content you’ll get. Membership also includes access to our exclusive forum; live mentorship opportunities; project management templates, examples, and samples; and more, plus the resources listed below.
Workshops And Mini-Courses
- Mini Course: Master Project Proposals
- Mini Course: Master Risk Management
- Mini Course: Master Project Estimates
- Mini Course: Master Project Communication
- Mini Course: Master Statements Of Work
- Mini Course: Master Project Status Reports
- Mini Course: Master Project Plans
- Mini Course: Master Sprint Planning
- Mini Course: Master Project Briefing
- Workshop: Master Conflict Resolution
- Workshop: How To Map Out Your Projects Better Using Mind Maps
- Mini Course: Master RACI Charts In 30 Minutes
AMAs
- AMA: I Love Accessibility & Compliance (with Mackenzie Dysart)
- AMA: I Love Jira (with Andy McCormick)
- AMA: I’ve Been A Freelance DPM For Almost A Decade (with Patrice Embry)
- AMA: I Cultivate Teams Of Superhero DPMs (with Pam Butkowski)
- AMA: Kanban Saved My Life (with Jason Ables)
- AMA: I’ve Project Managed Drupal Site Builds For A Decade (with Matthew O’Bryant)
- AMA: How I Stay Organized: Let’s Talk Personal Workflow (with Tucker Sauer-Pivonka)
- AMA: Agile Is Working With My Clients (with Ben Novack)
- AMA: I’m A Remote Agile Product Coach (with Michael Luchen)
Don’t See What You’re Looking For?
Have a digital project management question you’d like answered? Or maybe you know someone with valuable insight on project management trends to share with the digital project management community? Weigh-in and comment with the questions, topics, trends, and people you’d like to know more about. We’ve got good things coming to you in 2022!