Creative Project Management: How It’s Different from Traditional PM
- Adilla
- May 2
- 3 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Project management now extends beyond the information technology industry and the construction sector, evolving to better fit different industries. With the rise of creative or artistic projects, they need a management approach that fits their need for flexibility and adaptability.
Creative project management, or artist project management, has become a go-to method for dealing with these projects. Then, what differs traditional project management from its new counterpart, creative project management? Let’s read on!
Table of Contents
What is Traditional Project Management?
There may not be an official explanation of what traditional project management is, though it is commonly understood as a linear, structured process for managing a project. It comes with a step-by-step method for planning a project timeline and managing tasks and goals. Some frameworks would be considered ‘traditional’ project management, like the Waterfall method, critical chain project management and Gantt charts.
What is Creative Project Management?
We defined creative project management as a flexible approach to planning and coordinating tasks and resources for the effective execution of creative work. This method allows creative teams to adapt the project flow without affecting deadlines or overall project goals.
Unlike its traditional counterparts, there are no specific named frameworks other than the different available creative project management tools that are available, like TESSR, Asana and Trello.
Creative Project Management vs. Traditional Project Management: The Difference
Here’s a quick overview of the difference between these project management methods:
Creative Project Management | Traditional Project Management |
More flexible and adaptive to any creative changes | Structured, linear approach |
Measures success by team collaboration and the quality of the creative work that is produced during the project | Measures success by sticking to schedules and predetermined goals |
Encourages new ideas during project progression without affecting the overall project timeline | Strictly regulates the ideation throughout the project to produce the exact deliverables |
Actively participates and directly engages in review processes | Mainly focuses on whether the task was completed during the review process |
Provides a duration rather than a fixed deadline as a space for creatives to create without time pressure | Typically, it does not allow any changes to deadlines or task executions |
Choosing Between Creative and Traditional Project Management
Traditional project management and creative project management are in no way competing with one another, and one is not better than the other. Both options can coexist for various industries and needs, depending on the project and its team members.
However, as the name suggests, creative or artistic projects are more suited for creative or artistic project management, as it allows them the space and time to create while still sticking to the project goals and timeline.
How TESSR Creative Project Management Software Helps Your Creative Journey
Do you know that TESSR has free creative project management software that can help jumpstart your journey? Yes, TESSR can help you implement this method with your creative team (or your artistic work as a freelancer). One of TESSR’s key features is its TESSR Woohoo module, which shows you a visual overview of the team’s workload.
This module calculates the completion percentage of projects for all members, so as a manager, you can see the insight into the work progress and performance of the team. A useful feature for an artist project management tool for creative project managers to make informed decisions, plan, and balance workload properly among their team.
If you are interested in transitioning to a creative project management tool like TESSR, let’s get you signed up by clicking the link here and join our creative community!
Conclusion
Project management is steadily being implemented into creative fields, making it evolve into creative project management or artist project management. The traditional method is not competing with its creative counterpart; rather, it is a variation for a project management style that breaks the rigidity and strictness of its former method.
FAQs
What are the benefits of implementing creative project management?
There are several benefits to practising this management style, such as improving team performance, communication, and collaboration. Hence, boosting the overall quality of the team member’s work.
Are non-creative projects suited for creative project management?
Yes, the flexibility and adaptability of this method make it suitable for risk management in general, whether it is for a creative project or not.
What are the requirements to be a creative project manager?
While there is no specific formal education for this role, typically, creative project managers have a creative background and are excellent in interpersonal communication. It goes without saying that they have good leadership and time management skills.
Author Bio
With a background in Arts English, Adilla has been a casual writer for various hobbies, including parodies of animated shows and plots for board games like Dungeons & Dragons. She loves to read anything and everything from fantasy stories to articles on tips and tricks. Currently, Adilla resides in Malaysia and is a creative writer at TESSR. One day, she is eager to publish her book. To know more about her, check out her LinkedIn.
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