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It is generally accepted that Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements. It is a discipline of carefully projecting or planning, organizing, motivating and controlling resources to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria. These Project Management principles has chiefly been practiced informally by the Business of the Built Environment – Design; Engineering and Construction and the Business of Technology – Software and Hardware & and as it grew as a distinct profession in the mid-20th in the Knowledge Economy ((late 1900s – 2000s) and as it gained popularity and its benefits were recognized, it was adapted by most industries.
The Knowledge economy is characterized by a Knowledge worker who is computer literate and well-trained in handling data, developing algorithms and simulated models, and innovating on processes and systems. These Knowledge workers in turn create a Competitive Advantage for the company - allowing the organisation to outperform its competition through a superior market position, skills, or resources and focusing management strategically on with building and sustaining competitive advantage.
Harvard Business School Professor, Michael Porter asserts “that today’s economy is far more dynamic and that comparative advantage is less relevant than competitive advantage which rests on “making more productive use of inputs, which requires continual innovation. It has been reported that, 70% of the companies on the Fortune 1000 listed 10 years ago have vanished and in an environment where no business is too big to fail or too small to succeed, where technology and society are growing at a faster pace than organisation and corporation can catch up." According to Professor Richard Foster of Yale University, the average lifespan of an S&P 500 member in the 1920s was 67 years. Today that has fallen to 15 years. He estimates that in the future it will take eight years for three quarters of the S&P to be populated by firms we haven’t even heard of yet.
We are now into the 21st Century and the Knowledge Economy beget the Digital Economy where Social, mobile, real-time, and other disruptive technologies have aligned necessitating dramatic changes within organizations, forcing them to adapt in order to maintain relevancy. This digital transformation is significantly driving real change within businesses where new models, team structures, and customer-centered philosophies are being developed quickly to stay afloat.
This digital transformation is significantly driving real change within businesses where new models, team structures, and customer-centered philosophies are being developed quickly to stay afloat. 88% of Organizations Are Undergoing a ‘Digital Transformation,’ According to Study by Brian Solis of Altimeter Group. In the article: No firm can survive for long by staying with the same formula - the author states that “when Sergey Brin and Larry Page realised Google was going to be a smash hit they sacked themselves. The Google co-founders were brilliant at developing the product, the search engine, but they lacked a skill even more vital for chief executives: the ability to handle business transformation”.
These changes in business in the digital economy is about driving change and cutting complexity, while our project intuition has been formed by a set of experiences and ideas about how things worked during the Industrial and Knowledge economy where changes were incremental and somewhat predictable. The digital age is full of opportunities but it is deeply unsettling and it forces us to identify the long-standing trends that are breaking in business, to develop the courage and foresight to clear the intellectual decks and prepare to respond to changes that affects the way we deliver projects and its affect on the practice. These changes are definitely going to affect the practise of project management potentially creating a fork in the road for the industries that use project management and probably ultimately alter the practise itself.
To address these changes Flexibility is key in project delivery asbusiness move towards lean processes and agile business practices, reacting swiftly to a rapidly changing landscape where PMsembrace risk and keep on learning in an ever changing business climate. In view of the above let’s look at some of the anticipated changes that are being predicted in two of the main industries where Project management is practised:
Business of Technology: Everyman PM
12 Ways Project Management is Evolving According to Gartner: In this article Gartner indicates that as “the basic building blocks for digital services and products … have become so evolved, inexpensive, and ubiquitous, that they can be easily combined and recombined.” As IT moves away from it’s “focus on repeatable processes, standards, and certifications.” and as we are “on the cusp of the third stage, platformization, which will focus on business models, markets, and alliances” as the desired outcome of innovation and frenemy collaborations.
The article further states that “Once upon a time, project management was solely about planning and coordination. Many artifacts of this era, including PM-specific skills, linear thinking, and “best” practices, haven’t survived. Today, the name of the game is driving change and cutting complexity. “I got new software” is not a solution. Meaningful change is.”
Gartner indicates a trend towards Everyman PM: “As a result of too many projects and PMs that are few in number and stretched to the brink, the year 2020 will expect a basic PM skillset of every line of business manager. Once this skillset is as common as, let’s say, business writing, we will need fewer, professional full-time PMs.”
Business of the Built Environment: Maturing of the PM profession
7 global project management trends: In this article Raconteur indicates “ The days of the amateur are over. This is the era of the specialist project manager.” A project Manager who embraces risk and who pays increased importance to risk management within projects while adjusting to a changing business climate.
In this article Richard Goold, partner at business transformation consultancy Moorhouse, says: “Project management will never be fully evolved as the very nature of the market will ensure that new skills and an increasing versatility from project managers are essential. It is not a cookie-cutter approach, but the ability to lead things that have never been done before, and against the backdrop of an evolving competitive, regulative and legislative landscape, which could change the course of what is planned with very little warning.”
The article concludes by saying “With more qualifications and a big move towards professionalising the industry currently in motion, we should see progress towards project managers who are fully aware of best practice and with leadership qualities that can deliver change matching the public’s aspirations,”
Do you see a fork in the road for the profession? I see it clearly, maybe you see both paths leading to one mature profession. I would love to hear from you.