Why Our Project Management Tools Don’t Matter

As project managers, it’s easy to fall in love with one tool and let it define the way we manage projects. Perhaps in the rush to support a big project, we pushed the tool we were using to its limits, using advanced features and becoming a power-user in the process. We inserted structure and process into the tool and made it work for us.

However, despite expertise with our project management tool of choice, our team isn’t experts with our tool, nor should they be.

The agile manifesto states, “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.” It’s easy to fall into the trap that processes and tools guide individuals and interactions; however, we know that’s not the way things work out.

As digital project managers, creating and guiding the process with tools is an inherent and crucial part of our role. We should strive to master our tools, and at the same time ensure they don’t have the final say in dictating the way we work.

A Personal Case Study In Pursuing Alternative Tools

When I joined the talented team at Crema over seven years ago, we were engaging primarily in waterfall-style projects. At the time, this worked best for the projects we were pursuing. To manage these projects, we were using Asana. Previously the team had explored a handful of other tools but ultimately settled on Asana due to its incredible flexibility.

Our team flourished and continues to perform in Asana. Our team is passionate about process and experimentation, so setting up custom processes in Asana was something we enjoyed and continuously pursued. We created workflows within Asana to fit our team and our clients, all of which were very well received.

Originally published at https://thedigitalprojectmanager.com on Sep. 12, 2017.