Project Management Trends in 2019
Project management refers to those areas from which the success of modern business depends. Different elements of business strategies can be improved on their own, but without quality project management they will be non-systemic and disjointed.
Therefore, any leader and his team should keep their hands on the pulse of project management tendencies. This will provide an opportunity to respond in a timely manner to the dynamism of the market and adapt their strategies to real circumstances. Based on those trends that are relevant now, you can make predictions for the near future.
1. Flexibility
The trend of today’s effective project management is the ability to work in changing conditions and to accumulate the results of these changes. At the same time, this circumstance opens a new problem – it is very difficult to find those people who have experience of qualitative work in changing conditions.
Modern business in general and the field of Internet marketing in particular requires very flexible thinking. Any project leaves a trace in the company’s activity that makes it change. This is logical, because we are talking about the impact of new accumulated experience on the development of a common strategy.
2. Mentoring, coaching and support
“Less experienced project managers are going to be leaning more heavily on their PMO (Project Management Office) and experienced colleagues because they simply won’t have the experience to make tailoring decisions for themselves,” Elizabeth Harrin, author and blogger at GirlsGuidetoPM.com explains.
Harrin’s mention of PMOs is no accident, as that’s another area of project management that will be on the rise in order to give newer project managers that necessary expertise and confidence.
PMI’s survey backs that up. In fact, 38% more projects met those strategic business goals when project managers could lean on the support of a PMO. Even further, 33% less projects were recognized as failures.
Invitation of top-level trainers and experts, payment of additional training at master classes and professional conferences – all this now belongs to the priorities of not only Internet giants, but also small companies. Interaction in the teams is transformed, and management understands that long-term relationships with one team are much more effective than accessing the services of outside specialists.
It is better to train your own employee a new knowledge, the implementation of which will be among his duties. It is much more profitable than constantly paying for the additional services of competent specialists who do not work in your company’s staff.
3. Analytics and metrics
Today, we have more insights, information, and data at our fingertips than ever before- and, that’s all important for project managers to ensure the success of their projects.
In years past, it seemed that the focus of project management was to simply produce a deliverable or an end result. However, now there’s growing focus on how that deliverable actually contributes value to the overall business.
Moving forward, we’ll see project managers continue to leverage the analytics that they have to make informed decisions and lead projects that present a huge value add.
4. Agile and Scrum methods
Using the Agile Approach. This aspect is very important and requires more detailed consideration. Agile Approach is a collective term, which includes several principles and methods. Among them:
Focus of the team of specialists on the needs and objectives of the company’s customers;
Simplification of processes and organizational structure (above, we have already mentioned that companies are becoming less hierarchical in their approaches to building teams);
Division of the workflow into short cycles with specific tasks;
Focus on feedback and active use of its results;
Increase the authority of members of the work team;
Introduction of a humanistic approach to the company’s philosophy (in the definition and realization of values, corporate relations, interaction with customers).
“Agile and Scrum will continue to grow in popularity because of their iterative nature in quickly adapting the scope requirements to reflect the changing business and market environment,” Ray Sheen Project Management Professional instructor says.
“The speed of business is accelerating. While time to market and return on investment have always been important, the speed of change in business is shrinking the benefit stream for many projects,” Sheen continues, “This means the project must be completed as quickly as possible to take advantage of the smaller window of benefits.”
Fortunately, this is where Agile and Scrum methodologies really shine. As Ekaterina Novoseltseva highlights in an article for Apiumhub, there are numerous benefits to these approaches, including:
Increased project control
Reduced risks
Faster ROI
For those reasons (among many others), Agile and Scrum will experience increasing popularity in the coming years.
In the future
Business is becoming more complex, but, at the same time, interesting.
Companies that are not afraid of challenges and are having the right tools get every chance of being successful in their industriesuse. Companies need to use an easy and flexible project management tools to get the right results.
