Covid, and enhancements in technology have combined to change the way that we manage projects. There is a process of evolution taking place as we respond to home working, enhanced technical capabilities, and organizations that are adapting to having distributed teams. Tim Stobierki outlines some of the trends he sees occurring as follows:
1. Greater Reliance on Digital and Remote Teams
Due to covid, and advancements in technology, Teams are no longer bound to the confines of a typical office. Project management teams, like most office staff, are having to adapt to new ways of working.
2. A Closer Connection Between Projects and Strategy
The expansion of projects from being a temporary endeavor with a finite start and end, but rather applied to broader strategy and initiatives. The merging of strategy, vision, and execution, using projects, programs, and portfolios to make strategies actionable.
3. Project Management and Change Management
Change has always been associated with project management, but the emergence of the coronavirus has forced many organizations to embrace substantial change initiatives. Project managers are now frequently left managing not only their own projects but the organization’s change initiatives as well.
4. The Emergence of Hybrid Project Management Approaches
Rather than applying a single project management methodology, project managers are becoming more adaptable in their approaches and have even merged different methodologies into hybrid approaches more suited to their specific industry, along with increased usage of alternate PM methodologies such as Kanban, Agile, Scrum, and Lean.
5. An Emphasis on Soft Skills
In addition to analytical and organizational skills, Project managers are required to understand people, and to be able to manage them in optimal ways. Soft skills have become increasingly important in understanding and maximizing the output of teams.
6. The Impact of Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics
Most experts feel that some degree of disruption due to Artificial intelligence is unavoidable, although it is difficult to predict how it will be impacted, however, the automation of certain administration or resource allocation tasks is likely. Project managers should be aware of the AI strategies of organizations in order to prepare for any forthcoming changes.
Great article. It’s good to see the growing trend of the need for soft skills in so many fields where it wasn’t as prevalent before. Thanks for sharing.