Digitalized Project Management

Digitalization is a hot topic in all sectors of the built environment from City Planning to Property Management and Operations. There are almost infinite number of technology solutions when it comes to IoT solutions and Smart... [ view full abstract ]

Digitalization is a hot topic in all sectors of the built environment from City Planning to Property Management and Operations. There are almost infinite number of technology solutions when it comes to IoT solutions and Smart Cities (whatever that is). But there is still at least one area in the construction sector that is based in old, document based processed and habits. That is Project Management.

Current document based project management is based on the information, that replicates the traditional paper based information management. This means, that although the project team might use advanced design technologies such as BIM in their work, the information is flatten to PDFs and other static formats for the project management. This also sets limits to the information, since it can be only one dimensional.

In order to take control over the ever increasing flow of information, we need also to change the way we handle the information. We need to digitally record our decisions, tasks and schedule events. The information needs to be multi-dimensional, it has to have meta data, a change log and it needs be located in a dynamic database rather than in static documents. In other words, the information has to be digital.

At the same time as we change the format of the project information, we need to change the way utilized the information. Reading printed memos will not be efficient enough, we need to learn how to filter, search, include and exclude things based on the metadata and other digital elements of the information.Digitizing the project information and changing our habits how we use it, are the essential starting points for Digitalized Project Management.