Project Management

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what is digital project management ?

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Md. Golam Rob Talukdar
Community Champion
Project Manager| AWR Development (BD) Ltd. Cox's Bazer , Bangladesh
Traditional project management is a linear approach that involves breaking down and planning a project before launching it. But what is the approach of Digital project management in the construction sector? 
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Kiron Bondale Retired | Mentor| Retired Welland, Ontario, Canada
What you have described is a traditional, predictive approach in some very specific industries such as construction engineering. Digital project management is just a buzzword - it could mean the approach taken to deliver a project or it could relate to the scope of a project. What is likely more relevant for construction projects is incorporating adaptive or iterative approaches where feasible and where they would add value.

Kiron
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1 reply by Md. Golam Rob Talukdar
Feb 15, 2024 9:17 AM
Md. Golam Rob Talukdar
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Thank You Kiron Bondale for your information.
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Anton Oosthuizen Senior Business Analyst / Project Manager| Self Employed Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa
Digital project manager? Sounds like another money spinner where somebody will offer certification to become a 'digital' project manager. I wish people would stop tacking on buzz words to make up some 'skill'. Instead of saying a project manager with digital project experience it just becomes a digital project manager.
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2 replies by Amit Khedekar and Md. Golam Rob Talukdar
Feb 15, 2024 9:27 AM
Md. Golam Rob Talukdar
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Dear Anton O ,
Thank You
"I came across the term 'Digital Project Manager' on some freelancing platforms a few days ago."
Feb 16, 2024 2:16 AM
Amit Khedekar
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I totally agree with Anton. Pitching such buzz words makes it a trend in the industry which further materializes into a new position in some organization.
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Md. Golam Rob Talukdar
Community Champion
Project Manager| AWR Development (BD) Ltd. Cox's Bazer , Bangladesh
Feb 14, 2024 7:39 AM
Replying to Kiron Bondale
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What you have described is a traditional, predictive approach in some very specific industries such as construction engineering. Digital project management is just a buzzword - it could mean the approach taken to deliver a project or it could relate to the scope of a project. What is likely more relevant for construction projects is incorporating adaptive or iterative approaches where feasible and where they would add value.

Kiron
Thank You Kiron Bondale for your information.
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Md. Golam Rob Talukdar
Community Champion
Project Manager| AWR Development (BD) Ltd. Cox's Bazer , Bangladesh
Feb 15, 2024 7:29 AM
Replying to Anton Oosthuizen
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Digital project manager? Sounds like another money spinner where somebody will offer certification to become a 'digital' project manager. I wish people would stop tacking on buzz words to make up some 'skill'. Instead of saying a project manager with digital project experience it just becomes a digital project manager.
Dear Anton O ,
Thank You
"I came across the term 'Digital Project Manager' on some freelancing platforms a few days ago."
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Amit Khedekar Construction & Engineering Specialist| Fluor Daniel India Pvt. Ltd. Mh, India
Feb 15, 2024 7:29 AM
Replying to Anton Oosthuizen
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Digital project manager? Sounds like another money spinner where somebody will offer certification to become a 'digital' project manager. I wish people would stop tacking on buzz words to make up some 'skill'. Instead of saying a project manager with digital project experience it just becomes a digital project manager.
I totally agree with Anton. Pitching such buzz words makes it a trend in the industry which further materializes into a new position in some organization.
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1 reply by Md. Golam Rob Talukdar
Feb 25, 2024 11:36 AM
Md. Golam Rob Talukdar
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Thank you very much Amit for your feedback
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Galen Low Co-Founder| The Digital Project Manager Toronto, Ontario, Canada
I may be a bit biased, but I don't think of digital project management as being a buzzword as much as it reflects a flavor of project management that accounts for the complexities of working with people, pixels, and code (like what Kiron mentioned about digital project experience). Generally within my community, we help PMs working in interactive digital media—projects that involve integrations with emerging tech, complex interaction design, and using digital solutions to drive business outcomes.

That being said, I can see how the term can be misused (and seemingly *is* being misused!) — "digital project management" isn't something that should stand apart from "project management", but should be used to describe roles where an understanding of how business, technology, and the user experience intersect becomes a valuable asset when leading digital projects. Also, I'm not sure how that fits into the construction sector!

I'm curious: are you all finding that "digital project manager" is being used as a surrogate for "adaptive" or "tech-savvy" instead of in a digital context?
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1 reply by Md. Golam Rob Talukdar
Feb 23, 2024 9:28 PM
Md. Golam Rob Talukdar
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Thank you Galen Low
have a nice day
BR
Golam
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Md. Golam Rob Talukdar
Community Champion
Project Manager| AWR Development (BD) Ltd. Cox's Bazer , Bangladesh
Feb 23, 2024 4:17 PM
Replying to Galen Low
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I may be a bit biased, but I don't think of digital project management as being a buzzword as much as it reflects a flavor of project management that accounts for the complexities of working with people, pixels, and code (like what Kiron mentioned about digital project experience). Generally within my community, we help PMs working in interactive digital media—projects that involve integrations with emerging tech, complex interaction design, and using digital solutions to drive business outcomes.

That being said, I can see how the term can be misused (and seemingly *is* being misused!) — "digital project management" isn't something that should stand apart from "project management", but should be used to describe roles where an understanding of how business, technology, and the user experience intersect becomes a valuable asset when leading digital projects. Also, I'm not sure how that fits into the construction sector!

I'm curious: are you all finding that "digital project manager" is being used as a surrogate for "adaptive" or "tech-savvy" instead of in a digital context?
Thank you Galen Low
have a nice day
BR
Golam
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Sergio Luis Conte Helping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based Organizations Buenos Aires, Argentina
The problem is use <something> Project Management. This type of things jeopardizes the use and value of project management to use it in projects to be run in different domains.
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Galen Low Co-Founder| The Digital Project Manager Toronto, Ontario, Canada

That’s a very interesting point, Sergio! So are we also saying that the use of terms like “construction project management” in courses and job descriptions is detrimental to our craft?

I appreciate that courses from colleges and folks like Coursera targeted at “construction project management” could be construed as snake-oil money-grabs.



But equally the value of some college and trades-focused courses is that they give folks practical skills that prepare them specifically for the industry in which they want to practice - like, hitting the ground running to do the job and build up the experience to get a PMP and then get the PMP and be more able (and confident) to practice project management in almost any industry.



I guess I see it both ways! : )

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1 reply by Sergio Luis Conte
Feb 25, 2024 5:52 AM
Sergio Luis Conte
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This is an "ancient" debate about specialization and generalization and mainly about the definition of project management and project manager role. Is something like if the project manager is the orchestra director or not. You know, the orchestra director must know about each orchestra instrument but it must not be the subject matter expert for each one (no matter indeed they will have expertisse in some more than in others). I sustain that project management is generalistic and the project manager must do her/his work before is assigned to a new initiative which is called elicitation about the business domain, the stakeholders in the domain, the process in the domain, the tools in the domain. Sorry for putting here my personal experience but in my case I am Ph.D with Major in Software Engineering and system and software was my first field of action but after that I have the pleasure to work as business analyst and project/program manager in lot of other and diverse domains including whole transformations to implement approach like agile. When organizations search for a specialist more of the times is because they do not have the subject matter experts to help the project manager in doing the work. No matter that, I was in this type of situations lot of times.
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Sergio Luis Conte Helping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based Organizations Buenos Aires, Argentina
Feb 24, 2024 10:44 AM
Replying to Galen Low
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That’s a very interesting point, Sergio! So are we also saying that the use of terms like “construction project management” in courses and job descriptions is detrimental to our craft?

I appreciate that courses from colleges and folks like Coursera targeted at “construction project management” could be construed as snake-oil money-grabs.



But equally the value of some college and trades-focused courses is that they give folks practical skills that prepare them specifically for the industry in which they want to practice - like, hitting the ground running to do the job and build up the experience to get a PMP and then get the PMP and be more able (and confident) to practice project management in almost any industry.



I guess I see it both ways! : )

This is an "ancient" debate about specialization and generalization and mainly about the definition of project management and project manager role. Is something like if the project manager is the orchestra director or not. You know, the orchestra director must know about each orchestra instrument but it must not be the subject matter expert for each one (no matter indeed they will have expertisse in some more than in others). I sustain that project management is generalistic and the project manager must do her/his work before is assigned to a new initiative which is called elicitation about the business domain, the stakeholders in the domain, the process in the domain, the tools in the domain. Sorry for putting here my personal experience but in my case I am Ph.D with Major in Software Engineering and system and software was my first field of action but after that I have the pleasure to work as business analyst and project/program manager in lot of other and diverse domains including whole transformations to implement approach like agile. When organizations search for a specialist more of the times is because they do not have the subject matter experts to help the project manager in doing the work. No matter that, I was in this type of situations lot of times.
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3 replies by Galen Low and Md. Golam Rob Talukdar
Feb 25, 2024 11:36 AM
Md. Golam Rob Talukdar
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Thank you very much Luis for your feedback
Mar 09, 2024 1:58 PM
Galen Low
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I love that analogy of the orchestra director. I think there’s huge merit in project managers putting in the work to understand the business domain they’re working in so that they understand enough about what their project team members do and can support the work effectively. We don’t need to be able to code or write a full business requirements document or design a user interface by ourselves, but we should know what’s involved and why it’s important.




I am a huge proponent of seeing project managers as experts at managing the collaboration process and delivering business value through projects.




From that standpoint, I suppose my perspective is that digital project management doesn’t mean you can’t be a generalist or that you need to learn a different type of project management to be successful. But I do think that learning about the business domain and sharing the tactics that work well in that context is valuable.




Reflecting on the original post, if I were to transition into construction, I’d wish there was a training program or community to help me succeed at managing a construction project. But I think the job postings for a digital project manager in the construction industry is a somewhat flawed and confusing way of asking for a project manager who already understands the construction domain as well as the digital technology domain. Or, as Sergio has pointed out, it can be a dangerous way of asking for subject matter expertise beyond project management to fill gaps on the team.




Fun thread! I love this! : )

Mar 09, 2024 2:22 PM
Md. Golam Rob Talukdar
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I like the analogy of the orchestra conductor. Project managers need to grasp the business domain to effectively assist their team. Facilitating collaboration and delivering business value are essential. Acquiring knowledge about the business domain is crucial for successful digital project management. @Galen Low
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