Traditional Project Management vs. Web Based Project Management

Project management is a global practice that businesses around the world have adopted since time immemorial. This practice involves the systematic process of organizing and controlling resources to achieve both; short term and long term goals of the organization. Various projects require different project management methodologies across numerous business domains, within their respective funding parameters.

Project management can be largely divided into two categories – Traditional and Web-based. In modern times, web-based project management software is used to handle multifarious projects virtually, using state-of-the-art software and applications. This method of project management is best-suited for teams that handle specialized, dynamic work virtually. Much before this, project management was a process that was done through paperwork, sans automation. This eventually led to a lot of logjam, paper wastage and unnecessary time consumption, which became some of the major drawbacks of this type of project management.

Traditional Project Management
Traditional project management follows a process-based methodology for carrying out projects in a chronological cycle. They typically follow the steps of planning, performing, monitoring, supervising and closing, with the aid of administrative paperwork and constant ‘top-to-down’ administration. In this type of product management, the tools and techniques are rigid in structure and more emphasis is given on the processes, rather than the final product or service.

Web Based Project Management
On the other hand, web based project management is a novel, evolving methodology and are now quickly developing solutions with simplistic UI and state-of-the-art applications, much like the services offered at ‘taskblitz’; to assist businesses in hassle-free project management.

So, what is web based project management about?
It is basically a collection of processes, programs and cloud based solutions, used to manage and track the various stages of the project over the internet. Be it controlling documents, to scheduling or product portfolio management – web based project management systems are team-centric, time-saving and cross-functional. Projects associated with high levels of ambiguity or are extremely volatile or fluctuating, such as the IT industry, can benefit from the web based project management approach.

Web based project management techniques are far more pragmatic and allow for ‘adaption’ and ‘team collaboration’. With this particular type of management, projects can be circulated across different departments/geographies and related activities can be retrieved and altered by stakeholders/clients/team members at any point of time using real-time collaboration through mediums such as ‘HipChat’.

Traditional project management techniques have evolved over donkey’s years and are applicable for a variety of business domains. But for the more recently developing fields that require virtual businesses to function or for software development, these techniques may not be very compatible and as a result, may present a number of shortcomings when compared to the more sophisticated, web based product management techniques and tools. Weighing the pros and cons of the different project management techniques and finally zeroing in on which one would be best-suited for the project, will finally depend on the assignments’ life cycle and its particular requirements.

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