Future of Project Management

Here is a short article associated with a project management presentation I gave recently.

Well, this feels a bit awkward. I agreed to focus my presentation on the future of project management. As a first approximation, given my decades of experience in the profession and given that I actually made some modest contributions to the direction of the profession, that topic may seem to be a good idea. However, upon further reflection, I must admit having reservations.

It was Ken Olson, president, chairman, and founder of Digital Equipment Corporation who said in 1977 that, “There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.” Years earlier in 1927 it was H. M. Warner, co-founder of Warner Brothers movie studios who said, “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” And let’s not overlook Lewis Strauss, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, who in 1954 when speaking about electricity from nuclear power plants, stated that, “Our children will enjoy in their homes electrical energy too cheap to meter.”

All of this brings me to Samual Goldwyn, the founder of Paramount movie studios who summed it up nicely when he stated that, “Only a fool would make predictions, especially about the future.”

Well, today I am reluctant to play the fool. So, instead of trying to predict the future of project management, I will focus on preparing for the future of project management. I will focus on four preparations project managers can undertake to increase the odds of success in the future world of project management.

??1. Keep Up:?The project management profession is still quite young, and it continues to change rapidly. What began in the Department of Defense world on large technical development projects has transitioned into the civilian world to IT and other projects. What began focused on project management knowledge areas and processes has expanded to include business considerations and value. What began as a separate career path is now recognized as a strategic organizational competency. As Steven Covey famously advised, “Sharpen the saw.” Or, if you will, continuations learning. You can do that through active involvement in a professional organization, by volunteering for experience-building assignments, or even by reading a few books.

??2. Another Domain:?As important a strategic competency as project management is becoming, it is by itself, unlikely to sustain a long-term career success. Think of popcorn, satisfying in the short-term, but insufficient nutritional value for the long-term. That longer-term value can be supplied through expertise in a second domain:?knowledge of a specific, specialized discipline or field. I am not in a position of recommending what that complementary domain should be. The domain could be electrical engineering as mine was, or even intelligence collection as mine was, or the increasingly popular IT domain, or an aspect of the medical field, or an emerging field such as artificial intelligence. You name it. Let’s recognize that contributing to business success, no matter how good you are as a project manager, can be better accomplished when you have skills in a domain directly related to that business.

??3. Horizontal and Vertical:?Let’s assume that you have been successful keeping in up with the evolving field of project management and that you have excelled in another domain, now it it time to further expand your capabilities. I realize that for some, this need for expansion might feel a little like the situation described in the expression, “the beatings will continue until morale improves.” Meaning, that things will get harder before they get easier. That does seem to be a common characteristic of emerging growth fields; this is accompanied by increasing complexity. For project managers, this expansion extends horizontally to similar projects and/or areas within the organization. And, it extends vertically up and into organizational levels that possess higher levels of authority. In both cases, for horizontal and vertical expansion, the purpose is for project managers to increase their ability to know about, influence, or perhaps control situations with potential impact to the project. After all, a project manager’s success remains tightly linked to the success of the projects they manage. Same for executives, research has established that a primary reason for executive failure is when they fail to deliver on their commitments. Horizontal and vertical expansion can increase the odds of delivering projects and on commitments, and can be better accomplished when you have skills in a domain directly related to that business.

??4. Change Agent:?Recognize that a key characteristic of a young profession is change. The field evolves as it matures and as external forces act upon it. And, it will do so in sometimes unpredictable ways; just when project managers were working to master the waterfall process, agile arrived. Just when the triple constraint of time, cost, and schedule became a cornerstone of the profession, risk and value and more were added. More change. Thank you, Ben Franklin, for putting it so succinctly, “When you're finished changing, you're finished.” In these situations, skills in adapting to change are essential; think adaptability and flexibility. And, skills at implementing change become a competitive advantage; think leadership.

So, the bottom line for me if I were looking for success in the project management field of the future, is to avoid doing much predicting, and instead, focus on preparing.