10 project management trends for 2012
6. Internal project management certifications will come to the fore
With roughly 470,000 Project Management Professional (PMP) credentials having been awarded worldwide thus far, the PMP remains the most popular and ubiquitous credential on the planet. However, it is not the prominent credential everywhere. In the government sectors, as well as Fortune Global 500 corporations, a hierarchy of internal credentials has overshadowed the PMP in terms of prominence. The PMP remains important, but it is now just one rung on the career ladder to get to the top.
7. PMOs to measure effectiveness on business results
While introducing tools, using methodologies, mapping project management practices, sending project managers to training, and increasing the number of PMPs in the organisation are important metrics for a PMO head to collect and report on, they do not speak to the effectiveness of the PMO from a business perspective.
To judge business effectiveness, PMO heads need to determine if their work has had a positive, quantifiable effect on the business in terms of troubled project reduction, lower project manager attrition, and faster time to market. In 2012, the practice of measuring the outputs, not the inputs, of project management will gain traction.
8. Sound employment for project managers
Even though unemployment is at record levels in many countries, good project managers are hard to find. Recruiting continues even in tough economies and organisations need individuals who can perform the basics flawlessly. The hunger for project management basics, in particular risk management, will continue to surge in 2012, especially in such countries as India and China where project manager attrition rates are disturbingly high and continuous training of new staff is critical.
9. Client-centric project management will outpace the triple constraint
For years, time, cost and quality were the metrics upon which the success of all projects and their managers were judged. While the triple constraints remain important, they are no longer the be-all-and-end-all for project success. While risk and quality have also been cited as additional constraints, the clear trend in 2012 is the value the project delivers to the organisation.
The new definition of project success is that a project can exceed its time and cost estimates so long as the client determines that it is successful by whatever criteria they use. In today’s environment, project value is determined by the recipient or client, not the provider.
10. HR to recognise what makes a good project manager
Because project management is such an important function, human resources professionals will be tasked more intensely with identifying high-potential project managers in 2012. The challenge HR professionals will face is that there is no ‘silver bullet’ assessment for identifying great project managers. Existing knowledge and skills assessments are of little use since they are not designed for entry-level project manager positions.
Nonetheless, candidates must be measured not only on their technical abilities, but also on the all-important business and interpersonal skills. To the best of our knowledge, no one has yet developed such an assessment, but HR professionals will continue, and intensify, their assessment search this year.
What now?
From the ascendancy of social media to the structured implementation of collaboration tools by the PMO and the steady rise of communities of practice, we are fast approaching a tipping point. Those project organisations that do not exploit such collaborative channels and technology will risk missing the most promising combination of force multipliers of the decade.
