The Future of Project Management: Innovations and Expectations

What Kind of Future is it for Project Professionals?

In an increasingly project-oriented global economy, project management practices are evolving within traditionally less project-oriented industries, brightening the future of project management, which predicts essential growth in the coming years. Project management roles are significant keys for business transformation and organisations’ change, as recently, most companies are shifting to become more project-oriented and welcoming changes.

This is a good sign that the project management field will always grow, even with the vast technological revolution and the release of AI. Simply put, a technological revolution has started to appear in project management with AI, machine learning, automation, and virtual reality, leading to a higher demand for project managers and more project complexity. As per the PMI Report¹, there is an increase in the number of jobs requiring project management-oriented skills and higher demand for project professionals due to economic growth. By 2030, the global economy needs 25 million new project professionals, and 2.3 million people will be required every year, including project managers.

As the business environment gets more global, digitalised, and fast, organisations need to adapt quickly to bring products and services to the market, and who is better than project managers who can make this happen? As per PMI, this growth and widening of the project management sector will open new opportunities and job openings for project management professionals in many industries, as shown below:

Job Openings in the Following Years

According to PMI, the globalisation of project management discipline and the innovation in methods, practices, and techniques applied to projects have already started to shape the project management profession. It will continue over the coming years. and these trends will leave an impact on the work of project managers as the following:

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial intelligence (AI) significantly impacts project management processes. As per PMI’s findings, the digital transformation adopted by organisations during the COVID-19 pandemic is becoming the norm, and most businesses have redefined core business models to compete in the fast-changing market. Project managers use AI to boost employees’ efficiency, enhance customer experience and improve project outcomes. It is used through project management software to schedule complex projects, visualise data and interactive dashboards to inform stakeholders and help them make accurate decisions. PMI predicts that organisations will continue investing in AI for risk management, knowledge management, decision-making, performance insights and other tasks.

Widespread Agile

As organisations are widely and globally shifted to be more project-oriented and respond to fast changes in the market, project managers are more focused on agile principles, which encourage changes and embrace flexibility and adaptability. A significant shift will happen toward agile methodologies: Lean development, SAFe agile, Scrum, Kanban, cross-functional teams, early feedback, rapid prototyping, and more, which are becoming keys to success by organisations. 

Hybrid Project Management

Hybrid project management combines two methodologies to create a new method that provides flexibility, adaptability, and a mixing process to meet project requirements. Project managers choose this mixture because they want to produce successful outcomes efficiently. Post-pandemic, a hybrid approach becomes a norm, and a hybrid strategy becomes more complex with remote and dispersed teams, especially if the team members are across various time zones or have different backgrounds. Most organisations are using a hybrid approach to avoid resistance against change and move smoothly toward a changing and agile mindset.

Data and Analytics

Data and analytics are the modern life of project management, where project managers use data insights to make fast decisions and contribute to business growth. Data analytics is rapidly impacting project management, and it is used in project scheduling, quality management, risk estimation, and giving insights into team formation, sizes, and skills.

Conclusion

Increased adoption of Agile and Hybrid methodologies by organisations saves and provides adaptability in the changing market and gives flexibility to continuously meet customers’ needs and expectations. Also, AI will continue to drive efficiency and dependency on it to replace manual tasks, which will become more efficient. Project managers can also access more data and insights to deliver high-quality results and make better decisions. In addition, the future of project management will rely increasingly on project management software to make better decisions and deliver projects under budget and within schedule.

So, choosing the project management profession provides lots of flexibility and high earning potential. The variety of skills required for a project management career is required in almost every industry, and project management has a bright future that will transform project managers into leaders who will motivate and inspire teams and empower them to adapt their management style to the project and environmental context.

Reference Literature:

1. PMI. 2021. Talent Gap: Ten-Year Employment Trends, Costs, and Global Implications