Online Project Management
All but the smallest projects require teamwork, and team mates have to communicate. In a small office or at home, face to face meetings and ad hoc collaborations suffice for projects that are performed entirely in-house. If outsiders' input is needed -- such as an architect or vendor of supplies -- a conference call is usually all it takes. However, there comes a time when these simple forms of communication are not enough.
Large, enterprise-wide projects involve many people in many locations: employees, managers, service providers, vendors, contractors, etc. Getting all of them together for a meeting would be nearly impossible. Teleconferences become more difficult to schedule and conduct as the number of participants rises. For large projects, most enterprises today turn to online project management solutions.
Online project management software includes all the functions that a single project manager must perform: task scheduling and tracking; materials estimation and takeoff; documentation of bids, contracts, and correspondence; etc. But the big difference between standalone project management software and its online cousin is the latter's communication capabilities.
Online project management software allows multiple persons to make changes to blueprints, bills of materials, and other documents; it keeps track of who changed what and all the prior versions of a document in case any questions arise.
Live chat sessions can be built into online project management software to facilitate virtual meetings of widely distributed people. Digital whiteboards may be included so a participant can display or draw something on screen and have it displayed to all other participants, who in turn can mark up or add to the original drawing.
Calendars are a key function built into online project management software so that members of a project team can keep everyone up to date on their schedules, availability, and progress of tasks they're working on. A master calendar pulls information from everyone's calendars to give the lead project manager a precise view of how all phases of a project are coming along. Calendars also highlight tasks that are behind schedule, and shows the critical paths -- the series of tasks upon whose completion the timing of the entire project depends.
Training, certification, and even advanced college degrees are offered in online project management, which can be incredibly complex. Online project management training is offered through community colleges, universities, and private schools that offer only online project management degrees. You can even get an online project management masters degree. But online project management doesn't have to be as expensive as a graduate degree.
Free online project management software is available from a number of service providers. Typically, such services support a limited number of tasks and/or users; unlimited versions are available on a pay-as-you-use basis. Some of the popurlar players in free online project management are Basecamp, Central Desktop, 5pm, Comindwork, Wrike, Proworkflow, Huddle, Nozbe, Liquid, Zoho Project, Projectplace, and GoPlan.
Online project management is a mainstream application now. Careers in online project management are widely available. If you are interested in project management work, start with some free online project management software and then move up to paid training and advanced education.