5 Emerging Project Management Trends Of 2020
These project management trends will impact your teams, your clients, and your approach. Take these steps to stay relevant in changing times.
The world itself is changing by way of our evolving technologies, social organization, and business environment.
But we’re not here to talk about that.
We’ve all heard the spiel: content is king, context is king, data is king, (insert here) is king. Identifying the trend only helps us so much, and simply spouting buzzwords helps us even less. Here, we dig into exactly how this trend affects the project management realm—along with specific actions you can take to swiftly respond to big shifts in our tech, work culture, and society at large.
Whether you’re a trend junkie (you joined TikTok last year) or a bit old-school (you bought a wall clock last year), you need to be aware of new project management trends and how they may influence your teams, clients, and approach.
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams…
…and to those who identify the trends and act swiftly. Good timing doesn’t hurt, either.
The technological, social, and market evolutions currently in play will continue to transform the field of project management. Are you on top of the project management trends that are going to change how you work, manage your teams, and envision your career? What does the project manager of the future look like? That’s you, friend, in a few years. In fact, you may become a catalyst for change in your organization as you champion the innovations that will help your teams best meet the needs of customers, stay within budget, and achieve business goals.
Emerging Project Management Trends To Prepare For In 2020
1.Constantly Changing Digital Technologies
The latest and greatest is never actually the latest and greatest anymore.
What’s Happening?
This is nothing new to project managers, but this project management trend is ramping up as we head into 2020 and beyond. By the time a piece of tech or software has launched, there’s something new to take its place. Companies are putting more and more emphasis on their employees’ Technology Quotient, defined by the PMI as “a person’s ability to adapt, manage and integrate technology based on the needs of the organization or the project at hand.”
In other words, how well (and quickly) you can adapt to new tech, like AI and automation, and successfully integrate it into your project management process.
What’s The Impact?
Digital project managers should develop their technology quotient, but it’s not just about who can implement technology X, Y, or Z the fastest. It’s also about discerning which digital technologies to use when, and whether a certain technology should be used at all. Using the wrong project management or automation software can have disastrous effects on your projects, costing you time and budget.
Automation and AI technologies remain prominent and are increasingly so, consistent with our project management trends from 2019. Knowing how to use them to optimize your projects will have a positive impact on your projects, like streamlining resource management, reducing and mitigating project risks and threats, and prioritizing tasks and projects. This will free up time for your other project management activities like leading team meetings, interpreting client or organizational requests, and driving timelines.
Your technology quotient can’t stand on its own. It is useless when not used in combination with project management skills. Recent data from the PMI shows that organizations that implement a combination of the technology quotient and project management skills are 76% more likely to hit project objectives than those that don’t (61%). Also, those that do are more likely to complete projects without going over budget or exceeding timeline.
What You Should Do About It?
Exercise your technology quotient muscle and keep it in shape. Make use of the technology that benefits you, and ignore the hype on the rest. After all, there is only so much technology you can use in a day. Balance your technology quotient and project management skills by:
- Doing your research. Read ‘best of’ lists, customer reviews, testimonials, subject matter expert blogs, whatever you can get your hands on before committing to any software.
- Riding the automation wave. Set up email filters, automatic reminders, follow-ups, analytics reports, and other tasks that will save you time.
- Building your PM skills. Take The DPM School course, and read PM books, blogs, and other informational resources to keep progressing in project management.
2.Importance of Change Management to Project Success
Stay flexible—bending over backwards is a daily project management activity.
What’s Happening?
Change management is a hot topic among project management trends—whether it’s mitigating change, reducing change, embracing change, or accelerating change. In 2020, increasing competition and smaller profit margins mean organizations must always adapt and adjust their processes, workflows, and competencies. Digital project managers must manage change effectively to complete projects and boost their organizations.
What’s The Impact?
Change management is becoming a daily routine. According to recent data from the IPMA, 63% of companies are carrying out projects that involve change management in some capacity. This will help them complete more complex projects while streamlining and standardizing processes. Project managers will be involved in this standardization and applying it to their own projects, as well as supporting change management initiatives.
Even though more and more companies are implementing change management, only 30% of companies agreed that their internal competencies in change management were either “very or extremely effective,” according to the IPMA.
As a PM, you can strengthen your organization’s ability to conduct change management by setting the standards or processes that your team members should follow, and being an agent of change by noting areas or processes that are worth changing. This may lead to a balancing act (at least in the beginning) between ensuring processes are being followed and keeping projects running smoothly. Eventually, these tasks will be one and the same.
