The future of project management

According to the Project Management Institute (2017) ‘projects are proliferating globally and it’s projected that, over the next decade, organizations of all sizes and types will need nearly 88 million people working in project management roles’.

In the last step we, identified many ways in which project management is important to a wide variety of organisations. It is likely that this importance will grow, but in what ways?

A recent report by ARUP suggests that change is likely in two areas: the types of project that will be delivered, and the context in which project managers work (Edkins 2017: 4). The report highlights that the biggest trends and drivers affecting the future of project management are:

1. Globalisation and virtual teams
2. Open innovation culture
3. Diversity of workforce
4. Gig economy
5. Changing corporate culture
6. Automation and human-machine collaboration
7. Digital construction and project complexity

Your task

What trends can you predict about the future of project management? You may like to read the article written by ARUP (2017) about the future of project management available to download here. You’ll need to scroll down and click the ‘download’ button on the web page.

Post your predictions about the future of project management in the comments.

Try to focus your answer on the two areas identified above: the types of project being delivered and the context project managers find themselves working in. If you are short on time, you might pick just one of the drivers and trends to read about, starting on page 14 of the report.

References

_{Edkins, A. (2017) The Future of Project Management [online] available from Web link [1 August 2019]}

_{Project Management Institute (2017) Project Management Job Growth and Talent Gap Report 2017-2027. PMI}