As we enter the Teens (if that what this decade is called?), what will future hold for project management? Take a look at what history has to reveal to us to try and predict the trends for the future and then vote in our poll at Parallel Project Training. Vote Now
50’s Conception
The 1950’s were the start of project management with the application of Taylor’s scientific management. Project management was based on the marriage of the Henry Gantt time based chart and Fayol’s five principles of management planning organising, commanding, coordinating and controlling. These principles still form the foundation of our modern bodies of knowledge.
60’s Learning to Walk
The value of project management was demonstrated on major projects. Many of these projects have attained mythical status in project management including the Polaris missile programme, the DuPont Corporation and Remington Rand Corporation development of the critical path (I bet they wish they had patented that!) The decade finished with the formation of the International Project Management Association (IPMA) in 1967, the PMI in 1969, forerunner of the APM, called Internet (another good name) in 1972.
70’s Slow Growth of Early Adopters.
Project Management saw slow growth in recognition during the 1970’s, along with the birth of IT systems, Apollo space programme project management and the application of project management to the development of cold war defence systems. The membership of the APM reached 1000 by the end of the decade.
80’s Gantt chart for the masses and a decade of unconscious incompetence.
The development of microcomputers in the 1980 saw the explosion of the project management for all, with its ubiquitous symbol – the Gantt chart. Some adventurous people even implemented earned value management. During the 80’s every organisation and government department had its own approach to project management, with the associated not surprising chaos.
90’s Codification and certification
1989 saw the launch of PRINCE (followed by PRINCE2 in 1996) following the PMI PMP certification launched in 1984. The 1990’s became the decade of codification, standardisation and with growing acceptance that a common approach to project management was beneficial.
‘Noughties’ the decade of embedment, globalisation and information overload (and the credit crunch).
For project management the Noughties were a decade of globalisation for project management with the connectivity of the internet leading to teams outsourced across the world and increasing recognition for project management certification across the globe be it PRINCE2 or the PMI’s PMP. Towards the end of the decade, management in general including project management discovered the Blackberry and all of a sudden we struggled with information overload. What had been manageable communication channels became frenetic with ongoing 24 hour activity to suit the new global projects.
What will be the project management trends in the teens?
They say the past is no predictor of the future but what will be the up and coming trends for the teens. Will;
- The fallout from the credit crunch and severely reduced public spending lead to a severe reduction in the demand for project management and a decade of cost cutting and cancelled projects?
- Will the increasing pressure for change lead to an increasing demand for truly professional project managers, maybe (or maybe not) linked to chartered status?
- Will pressure for consistency continue with consolidation between the different methodologies (PRINCE2, APM, PMP)?
- Will new social media tools such as Google Wave help us organise the mass of information generated by projects using meta tags and search tool in the same way Google Search Engine made sense of the web?
- Or, all of the above?
Paul is an experienced project management practitioner and has particular expertise in change programme management, risk management, earned value management and project management training development and delivery. Paul has managed the delivery of multi-million pound training and development programmes for clients such as Network Rail and Transport for London. These programmes have involved sourcing project, risk, planning and commercial management training from a wide range of suppliers and partners. Paul has also delivered training for clients in many sectors including Telecommunications (Orange and Concert), Financial Services (American Express, TD Waterhouse and Abbey National), Engineering (British Nuclear Fuels, Network Rail, TfL, Infraco SSL, and Strachan and Henshaw) and Construction (Carillion, Lend Lease Consulting, Halcrow, Parsons Birinckerhoff and Wilson Bowden). Paul is passionate about the move towards professional standards in project management. Paul is currently the Business Development Manager for Parallel Projects.
