Blog no. 26 – Let’s discuss recent Project Management Trends

Welcome to blog no. 26 – Let’s discuss recent Project Management trends, in which I will elaborating on certain trends observed since few years in the Project Management space.

Think of how project management space looked like a decade ago? – Fewer methodologies, lesser tools, smaller teams, and simpler projects. Cut to 2020, things have changed tremendously as the teams are no longer smaller and the projects no longer simpler.

There’s a saying – “Change is the only constant.” It seems so true for the project management space. The project management landscape is changing rapidly with evolving technologies, tools, and the latest trends. And, the change doesn’t seem to slow down.

So, let’s get straight to the point now and take a look at the emerging trends in project management happening all around the world.

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1. Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Automation:- There is a lot of buzz around “artificial intelligence” and its impacts. Just like software development, aerospace, healthcare, and finance, the impact of artificial intelligence and automation can also be seen and felt in the project management industry.

Impact:- Many companies have already started using AI in project management to perform their daily tasks that require human effort through task automation. The effect goes beyond automating simple tasks but is also quite helpful in obtaining performance insights. Project managers can use automation to perform complex tasks ranging from scheduling to data visualization and make informed decisions based on the captured insights.

What to do about it: – First and foremost, project managers should embrace AI in project management and then learn how to leverage it for successful project completion. Once you’ve learned to leverage AI to automate data, project execution will be much easier than before. It also makes way for building meaningful relationships with your team members and clients.

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2. Adoption of hybrid project management approach: – It’s true that not all projects are made equal and not all teams can stick to one specific methodology – schematics differ from project to project. Maybe that’s why the concept of hybrid project management has been gaining a lot of attention and the number of project managers and Scrum masters combining more than one methodologies is increasing day by day. In simple words, hybrid project management refers to methods combining approaches from the traditional PM environment and the agile word – suiting to Organization and project schematics.

Impact:- When you implement the hybrid model, you get to bring all your projects, tasks, people, and communications at one place helping you make the right business choices. For instance, on mixing the traditional approach with the Agile methodology, team members with different views, working styles can work together in their own way making way for more stability, engagement, and efficiency.

What to do about it:- Use discretion to understand which methodology works best for a specific project. Smart project managers are opting for a mix of agile and traditional methodology to get the best of both worlds.

Tip:- Recommendation is to a traditional approach for simple and clear project deliveries and agile for complex ones while working in a multi-project environment (Caveat: Purely depends on the project you are trying to deliver)

Have you read my blog on “Best Project Management Processes?” If you haven’t, then you should definitely should since it’s one of my most read blogs ever !

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3. Emotional Intelligence (EQ):- If you are new to the Project Management space or aspiring to get into it – Then you might be wondering how the ability to understand and recognize emotions has something to do with project success? Well, it does play a vital role. When TeleSmart took a survey, it was found that 58% of respondents believe that emotional intelligence is one of the strongest predictors of performance irrespective of the nature of your job. Interesting, isn’t it?

Impact:- Managing projects go beyond defining the scope, making deadlines, deciding the budget. Project managers have to manage people as well and which means more complications 🙂 Failing to understand team members’ emotions could lead to a lot of emotional activity (like negativity) in a team.

What to do about it: – To deal with different personalities and ensuring project success, a proper understanding of emotions (both yours and others) is required – making it a necessary leadership skill for project managers all over the globe. Thus, learning the art of emotions and what drives people is becoming more important than ever to predict project success in the future. (Artefacts like power map may come handy to manage this space).

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4. Increased focus on Data Analytics & Numbers: – Project management involves a lot of data. Project managers are increasingly leveraging data insights to make informed decisions to handle projects in a better way and increase business growth.

Impact:- Whether it’s project planning, quality management, or risk management, the use of big data analysis has already started shaping the project management world. The collected data is useful to learn how to form teams, the size of the team, how to include and position team members, skill sets needed to manage projects better.

What to do about it: – The smart and wise ones leverage the technological advancements to stay relevant. Data analytics, if used the right way has the power to produce a lot of business value.

What gets measured, gets managed

Peter Drucker, Management Guru

If you’re someone who doesn’t like numbers, find the tools that can do the work for you. Project analytics tools offer strategic parameters that could help you get the complete picture of all project activities. Get high-level data and custom reports with tech tools such as Google Data Studio, Tableau to visualize data.

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5. Advanced project management tools and solutions:- In today’s digital era, project management tools have become an indispensable part of project management. The numbers tell the same story. According to a research, 77 percent of high-performing projects use project management software to plan, execute, and control all aspects of the project management.

Impact:- Project management tools and solutions have always been the game-changing factor. Below are some ways how these tools are making positive changes in project management.

• Project planning: Uses data from previous projects to plan better
• Scheduling and time tracking: Keeps track of time spent on tasks and manages scheduled events, meetings, milestones, and deadlines
• Communication and collaboration: Lets you share critical information with team members, clients, stakeholders
• Budgets and deadlines: Helps you deliver projects within the allocated budget
• Progress tracking: Keeps track of the ongoing projects if they are on track or not, if resources need to be adjusted or not

What to do about it:- It goes without saying that project management tools are of much help to project managers to plan and deliver projects on time. They also give team members a platform to communicate and collaborate at a single place.

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6. Increased remote working:- It’s no news that the number of professionals opting to work remotely has sky-rocketed in the last couple of years. And the trend is here to stay. According to Gallup,

“Remote working has been on the rise since 2012: from 39% in 2012 to 43% in 2016. The desire to work remotely is here to stay and it isn’t limited to a few select industries.”  

Impact:- Remote project management offers many benefits. The first one being more flexibility in the schedule and second, not having to commute to the office every day. It’s also important to start considering investing in tools that can help protect you in a remote-work set up. Project costs are also reduced. Plus, you get an opportunity to work a diverse talent pool.

What to do about it:- To bring out the best in your remote team, I have penned down some practical tips:

• Weekly or biweekly check-in meetings and calls to know how things are progressing
• Make team members accountable by asking for status updates
• Start using online collaboration tools to collaborate with team members and stay on top of things
• Hold performance reviews four times a year

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And that concludes my blog on this topic – Let me know your thoughts!! And please check out my blog –  Six must have skills in a Project Manager (Interpersonal).

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