Do you ever try to predict the future? Are you usually right, or wrong? If so, then read on.
Modern project management has made a paradigm shift in the last couple of decades. As new trends continue to emerge, many of these developments have already made an unprecedented impact on how projects are managed and the roles of project management professionals.
Can you predict the future of the project management industry? Can you predict the future of project managers? No one can say with certainty what will happen next week much less one year from now. And five years? Not a chance.
Everyone agrees. Predicting the future is hard. It is so hard that a fifty percent success rate is considered extraordinary for a professional futurist. In other words, the professionals are wrong at least half of the time. And yet businesses try to predict the future all of the time. In fact, the majority of business tools require future predictions.
Factors affecting the Future of Project Management
As a project management professional, the future of project management has always fascinated me. Here are the top 5 factors that continue to influence the project management industry.
1. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Automation
Artificial intelligence and machine learning considerably impacted project management processes. Modern businesses use Artificial intelligence to automate manual project tasks and to receive project performance insights.
As per PMI’s exploration and findings, the digital transformation adopted by organizations and institutions during the onset of the Covid pandemic is now a norm.
PMI predicts that future project management will keep seeing companies continuing to invest in AI for risk management, decision-making, knowledge management and data analytical skills, and many other tasks.
AI is used by the project management industry to ensure successful project completion in the following ways:
- Getting performance insights.
- Estimation and prediction analysis and improvement.
- Improve and support decision management.
- Data visualization.
- Doing risk analysis.
- Optimized resource scheduling.
For sure, in the coming times, AI will become a little less artificial, and a lot more intelligent. Now the question is, should you brace yourself for another Terminator, replacing you from your job?
Well, not exactly… In fact, stop thinking about robots. Remember, AI itself was an outcome of a project, which was managed by John McCarthy.
According to PMI, the digital organizational transformation started before the pandemic’s onset and is now a norm. New-age companies redefine core business models to gain a competitive edge in a changing marketplace.
Technologies like cloud computing, the Internet of Things, and AI were deployed to enhance the customer experience, boost employee efficiency and improve project outcomes.
2.Data and Analytics
Data and its management including analytics are the backbones of modern project management. Managers must leverage data insights to make fast and informed decisions that contribute to business growth.
Big Data analytics is a fast-impacting trend in the landscape of project management. It is used in project scheduling, risk estimation, quality management, client, and many other areas. Inside the project team, it plays a major role in giving insights into team sizes, team formation, members to include, and skill sets required to manage projects efficiently.
The demand for improved project outcomes would force business and project managers to predict project success and better guide project managers in the project life cycle.
Project management is a data-driven exercise. Project managers leverage data insights to make informed decisions while contributing to business growth.
Big data analytics will surely impact the PM landscape in risk estimation, project scheduling, and quality management. Data analysis provides valuable insights into team sizes, team formation, members to include, and skill sets required to manage projects efficiently.
3. Machine Learning
Every intelligence on this earth is obtained through learning, be it humans or bots.
Like humans, a machine retains information and becomes smarter over time. But unlike humans, it’s not susceptible to things like memory loss, information overload, sleep deprivation, and distractions. Machines are great at dealing with large volumes of data.
However, it may be easy for a human to know the difference between a cat and a dog. for a computer, not so much. A bot needs to analyze the information of each feature, and compare it with previous data, to identify whether the item is a dog or a cat. For Humans, it is a task of milliseconds but for a bot, it’s the execution of a lengthy sequence of algorithms.
Machine learning is about making machines, learn like humans. And like any young child, they have to learn from past experience. With machine learning, bots analyze thousands of examples, to build an algorithm. And apply those learning in current dynamic situations to make a decision. Luckily, we as humans, are very good at it.
If the future, it is quite possible machines will be assigned a project manager and start the managing projects. However not in near future.
Our Generation have long imagined the ramifications of Machine learning. Imagining a project where robots seek revenge or take over your project team. However, the more logical and pressing question is, how machine learning will affect your project management job? Will it make your work obsolete?
Well, not really. At least, not in this century. Just like the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century, it’s not about humans versus AI. It’s about humans and machines versus problems. Every industrial project succeeded, with joint collaboration between man and machine.
Project management is a crucial area, which is heavily impacted by the rise of machines and bots. The bot can provide enhanced strategy, and support to project people. Machines are already helping the project team, to process complex data, and uncover the patterns for successful project delivery. From scheduling to analyzing the team’s working patterns, the robot has become an obvious benefit to projects.
4. Remote Project Management
Technology has made global project management possible. Increased participation and collaboration of talents beyond the boundaries of a nation’s border has improved project management with faster and better project outcomes with desired quality. More than it was possible before.
Understanding the impact of remote work and distributed workforce has now become imperative for project managers to better design, execute, measure and control project outcomes and goals; how a project manager should plan projects and communicate with diverse and remote team members.
The latest project management tools are proving a blessing for project managers by making effective collaboration possible and more affordable than ever.
5. Blended Approach to Project Management
Hybrid project management combines various aspects of different project management methodologies. It mixes them to create an entirely new method that would meet all project requirements. It is often preferred by project managers who feel limited by a single methodology.
One of the recent project management trends is this shift from exclusively one project management alone to a hybrid model. According to a PMI survey, 60 percent of Project managers mentioned using either a hybrid of waterfall and agile or other project methodologies for their project.
Such a hybrid model provides the flexibility to create one’s own recipe for a project’s success. A project manager mix-matches and blends things to suit the project and no fixed rule applies here. It is completely left to the choice of a project team with the mixing process.
There is no fixed rule of what project methods can be combined; however, some popular ones include:
- Waterfall Project Management
- Critical Path Method (CPM)
- Agile Project Management
- Six Sigma
- PRINCE2
Project management trends 2025 and Beyond
Here is a trend list for seven top industries , which are growing with need for project management and qualified project management professionals .
1. Construction Projects
Increasing prices, regulations, risks, uncertainty, and other concerns make it very tough for project management in the construction industry to profit even under excellent demands and look for qualified professionals to take care of construction projects.
Companies also prefer a more collaborative project management approach and make the overall construction lifecycle much more transparent by using building information modeling (BIM) software and cloud-based management tools.
2. Engineering Projects
Digitization, robotization, Artificial Intelligence, IoT, Virtual Reality, 3D printing etc. are changing the way engineering industries work. These are also changing the attitudes of customers and other stakeholders that companies must interact with.
Often engineers find themselves managing engineering projects as part of their duties and therefore project management skills are becoming a part of the core competencies that engineers need to have. Project management is now being considered a tool by matured organizations to implement the strategic changes that are required to adapt to the changing market environment.
3. Information Technology Projects
With newer technologies and management paradigms, IT project management’s future continues to evolve significantly, and enterprises need to keep up with these changes or risk closure. The PMI survey reports that 81 percent of professionals mention that AI and automation impact their firms.
As per the IT industry experts and Project managers, the things shaping and shaking the world of project management in 2023 and beyond.
- By automating low-value-add tasks, project managers now focus their efforts and energies on tasks that benefit their businesses, increasing the possibility of each project reaching its strategic goals.
- Project Management Software combined with AI-based automation capabilities brings about positive changes in the way organizations manage their projects, even the large and complex ones.
4. Financial Projects
Project management plays a crucial role in the finance industry. As per the information obtained from PWC, the following are the trends:
Financial management tools using data analytics to identify spending patterns to budget and save more effectively are gaining traction.
Cloud-native systems will replace legacy alternatives. Cloud-based systems support increased agility and decrease IT costs and operational expenses, apart from playing a key role in ensuring that employees can be effective when working remotely.
Hybrid working is the future—in fact, 90 percent of employees are happier with the increased freedom that working from home gives them. By leveraging cloud-native systems, employees can access crucial financial data from anywhere, financial institutions can maintain high performance at all times, and finally, improve both customers’ and employees’ satisfaction dramatically.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning will increase in importance. As per IDC prediction, by 2026, 85 percent of organizations will use AI and machine learning (ML) in some way or another to enhance their foresight. This will result in a 25 percent increase in productivity. Low-code/no-code AI is a great advantage. It allows people without coding knowledge to build applications themselves.
5. Healthcare Projects
Artificial Intelligence and Automation- with global healthcare spending expected to rise at a CAGR of 5 percent between 2019 and 2023, there is strong evidence suggesting a forthcoming evolution in the future scope of hospital management projects. The trends are:
AI and automated technologies- these are now providing more precise, efficient, and impactful treatment, allowing professionals to gain unprecedented insights into diagnostics, patient care, treatment viability, as well as patient outcomes. It is also likely to present multiple opportunities for enhanced treatment techniques and technologies.
Cloud-based and AI-powered tools- the new-age real-time, project management tools help reduce delays in patient care by ensuring optimum coordination and well-established links between the different departments and even offices across multiple locations.
6. Marketing Projects
AI to continue to drive efficiency- increased dependency on AI to replace manual tasks, become more efficient and have access to more data and insights to make better decisions and deliver higher-quality campaigns.
Increased dependency on marketing project management software – to make better decisions when planning their projects and do more in less time.
There will be an ever-increasing demand for project management software tools that are cloud-based offering advanced features including:
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- AI and Machine Learning
- Project Online Briefing and Templates
- Project Planning and Scheduling
- Time and Progress Tracking
- Marketing Resource Management
- Collaboration Tools
7. Manufacturing Projects
Increasing operational efficiency – according to a recent PwC survey, 81 percent of CEOs in industrial manufacturing plan to improve efficiency and competitiveness to outgrow the competition. This will be achieved by using resource planning software.
Lean and hybrid project management methods- organizations are looking for methodological flexibility to respond quickly to the changing project environments.
Future of Project Management Jobs
Organizations are under increasing pressure to innovate, adapt to change and achieve strategic growth so it’s hardly surprising that project managers are needed now more than ever to help drive change, deliver innovation and implement strategic initiatives.
According to PMI’s job growth and talent gap report, by 2027 an estimated 87.7 million professionals will be working in project-centric roles, managing data, time, scope, costs, and people.
Just as project management has evolved over the last couple of decades, as projects continue to span the global market, the discipline of project management will continue to change and innovate with business.
When considering a career in the modern world, the two most crucial factors are Earning Potential and Career Growth. Project management fulfills both.
How to prepare for future?
Every profession and discipline in today’s world is challenged to keep pace with change. In the quickly changing world of project management, there is one key to solidifying the future of a project management career. That is the mindset of life-long learning.
An important part of life-long learning involves training, but learning is much broader than that.
As organizations scramble to keep up with those disruptions, the future of a project management career looks bright.
Conclusion
It’s an exciting time to be in project management. Technology advances like AI and data analysis continue to improve how teams work, leading to better outcomes. Other trends, such as soft skills and increasing emphasis on collaboration, point to the human element that will always be integral to executing projects successfully.
- The pandemic accelerated digital project management technology adoption, especially systems that foster remote work and online collaboration.
- Over 80% of project professionals say AI impacted their organizations.
- Deploying cloud computing, AI and IoT to improve customer experiences, employee efficiency and project outcomes is the new norm.
- Predictive analytics will provide robust data for project managers.
- Approximately 90% of project teams are dispersed — 48% in multiple locations within a country and 39% in many countries, giving rise to collaborative workspaces.
- Project teams will use multiple methodologies, calling for an integrated approach.
- Emotional intelligence and soft skills will be critical to the project manager’s role.
- By 2025, global cybercrime will cost $10.5 trillion annually, making investment in cybersecurity measures crucial.
What other project management trends do you think we’ll see in the coming year? Let us know in the comments!
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