Emerging Global Trends in Project Management

Mal Smith PMPProject Management Institute, Canberra Chapter

Emerging trends - a practitioner’s observations

• Project manager qualifications and soft skills

• Definition and quantifying of ‘Business Value’ and ‘Benefits

Realisation’

• The value of a PMO to deliver an organisation’s change program and

grow organisational project management maturity

• The growth and acceptance of Agile

• The way we do business – leveraging technology

Project Manager Qualifications and Soft Skills

• Traditionally, the PM role was less defined – almost an afterthought

• Now, a greater emphasis on specific PM qualifications

• Greater focus on project manager soft skills:

• Stakeholder and Communication Management Skills

• Emotional Intelligence

• TRANSITIONAL vs TRANSACTIONAL Project Management

Business Value and Benefits Realisation

• Both Government and private sector executives now require

business cases / concept briefs which quantify:

• The value of proceeding with the project, and

• The benefits realisation, and success criteria.

The Value of a Project Management Office (PMO)

The Project / Program Management Office has taken on a far more

defined role:

•Program and Portfolio Management

•Corporate Governance

•Owner and developer of PM policies and procedures

•Key player in organisational change

•Responsible for the organisation’s PM methodology and maturity

The Growth of AGILE

• Agile has developed into a mainstream PM framework

• Its use has expanded from software development projects to much wider applications

• It is now in use in both private sector and government

• Formal training in Agile is now available

• PMI have now implemented the PMI-ACP (Agile Certified Professional) qualification

Technology – The way we do things

• Project documentation – Soft copies, in a central repository,

accessible to appropriate team members

• Collaboration – As above for documentation, but for meetings and

communication also (video conferencing, document sharing)

• On-line communities of practice – access to resources, white papers,

forums

• On-line training and webinars