Project Management Predictions: What are the Future Trends?
Studying project management may seem easy but actually, it is one of the most challenging jobs. The experience of global companies and innovative startups have shown that planning and executing projects require a variety of professional and individual skills. Learning from own experiences is the most valuable way to practice, however, it’s also important to learn from the experiences of other people as well.
Is there a future for this job? Would companies survive and act confidently without the help of professional project management? In this article, we try to give an objective assessment of this sphere and profession and identify the key trends that will be relevant in the near future.
So, if you have doubts about the importance and usefulness of project management in your company, let’s delve into the facts and some recent statistics.
Latest project management statistics
Project management matters. Here are some interesting relevant facts concerning:
- projects failure
Many projects fail, it’s not a secret. And the most common reason behind project failure, according to executive leaders in 2018 was a lack of clear goals (said 37% of respondents).
- project manager’s salary
As of December 2018, the average project manager’s salary nationwide is $90,000/yr.
- biggest project challenges
TOP-3 biggest problems faced by project managers in 2017 were the following: 1) managing project costs — 49.5%; 2) hitting project deadlines — 45.8%; 3) sharing information across teams — 43.9%
- PM methodologies
The ideal worldview assumes that a single company uses a particular PM methodology. However, almost 57% of companies in 2018 used a combination of project management methodologies.
- certified project managers
For the last years, 80% of high-performing projects were led by certified project managers.
- projects and customers
Two-thirds of companies were communicating with their customers using project management software.
Why is the position of project manager critical nowadays?
A project manager is a person who has the key responsibility for a project — for the initiation, all steps planning, design, monitoring, execution, and project closure.
Efficient project managers are welcomed in software development, construction, architecture, information technology, petrochemical, and many more industries that produce products and services.
This person must have a variety of skills including the ability to manage a team, detect unstated assumptions, resolve conflicts, ask penetrating questions, avoid risks and have more general management skills. Every PM’s decision must directly benefit their project.
The future of this profession is bright and promising and a PM is gradually becoming the indispensable leader, responsible for:
- planning and defining project scope
- planning resources and team
- developing schedules and docs
- time and costs estimating
- developing budgets
- managing Risks and risk analysis
- reporting progress
- business partnering and strategic influencing
- cooperating with vendors
- quality controlling
Having all these skills and knowledge, a progressive manager should constantly monitor trends and innovations and be on the same wave with industry leaders.
5 project management trends for the future
1. The power of soft skills
Soft skills are general attributes. They are not specific to a particular job and usually, no training is needed to build them.
No matter what field you’re working in: project management of marketing, soft skills are always desirable. This combination of skills may include communication skills, problem-solving, leadership, critical thinking, team working, resilience, flexibility, negotiation skills. Every project manager who wants to be successful and in demand tomorrow should today think about acquiring such skills.
2. The growth of projects complexity
Even though global projects are becoming more complex for those who perform them, they should be explained to the audience in simple ways. Managers who can present complex projects to their customers in a simple form will be able to create successful strategies for project promotion.
3. Design thinking
Design thinking helps project managers in developing solutions for which integrated approaches are used. The solutions may be borrowed from engineering practices, business, or social sciences.
Design thinking accompanies project managers when they try to develop the project’s essence, define requirements and search for solutions for atypical problems. The approaches of design management or web design as a trend will grow because more and more companies today help their project managers to master them.
4. Agile dominance
Project management methods and techniques have been changed greatly over the years.
Just some time ago, the Waterfall method was the most used among businesses that run projects. Projects followed certain steps until they were eventually completed.
Nowadays, Agile methodology is becoming the key standard for companies in different industries and gaining stream.
The popularity of Agile growths because of its iterative nature in quickly adapting the scope requirements to reflect the changing business environment. Agile maintains flexibility and usually features short rounds of development.
5. The role of project management software
It’s rather difficult to imagine the project manager’s workflows without a convenient project management tool.
For example, Kanban-oriented tools with powerful boards and cards are increasingly being integrated into more structured project management. They allow project managers to embrace innovations to manage their projects.
Everything suggests that project management software will become more integrated in the future. Popular platforms continue to become simpler to use and more integrated with other helpful business services.
Conclusion
It seems that these trends will dominate in the near future. There are other tendencies and project management concepts that may be also relevant tomorrow (remote working, automation, more varied roles, etc.) How will these project management trends affect us?
Next years will definitely be the years of the digital and Agile PMO. New methodologies will be explored. More businesses will apply automation so that PMs will manage projects much more effectively. Anyway, these are only our predictions. Let’s wait and see.
