As per the annual report from Wellington, titled, “The State of Project Management in 2020,” only 29% of the organizations are mostly able to complete their projects within the given deadline. This presents the grim reality of the challenges that project managers are facing on a day-to-day basis. Hence, it is critical for them to add some skills to their portfolio along with technical and leadership skills to become an excellent project manager.
The uncertainty in the enterprise landscape is not new to the IT and business world. However, the constant upheaval due to changing circumstances has made it difficult to effectively execute their business operations. For project managers, who are directly involved in the execution of the project, the uncertainty of the IT projects has severely affected them.
Today, most organizations operate on a remote work model or a hybrid workforce strategy that is heavily dependent on technology. They are stressing diversity and inclusion initiatives to capitalize on the advantages of diverse teams. Such initiatives, along with technological advancements, will jumpstart the evolution of the project manager role that is also required to contend with supply chain shortages as well as other disruptions that risk upending project plans and deliverables.
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Thus to be considered an exceptional project manager in these times, they will need to supplement their technical, leadership and communication with the following essential skills:
Since the onset of the pandemic, both adaptability and resilience have become highly sought-after skills not only for project managers to keep the projects within scope but also to help team members to embrace the changing times. While many project managers are already accustomed to dealing with changes, the COVID-19 has pushed them to their limits. This results in challenging the resolve of project managers as well as teams in the face of the lengthy or ongoing crisis and burnout. Without the traits such as adaptability and resilience, project managers will risk both their productivity and morale.
As per industry experts, most of the project work is deeply ingrained in human aspects. Meaning, behavioral methods and neuroscience play a crucial role in helping to predict and deliver projects more effectively. This advancing discipline behavioral project management (BPM) that integrates the findings of behavioral science and traditional project management enhances the present technical-only project management practice by recognizing human beings’ irrational behavior. It then mitigates those behaviors across all processes and phases of the project lifecycle.
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Traditionally, organizations employed change management specialists to play the leading role in organizational transformation. However, it does not mean that project managers cannot actively become a part of the change process. Project managers should become the backbone behind the success of enabling large-scale change. They should focus on setting and communicating the strategic project plan and its goal as it contributes towards transformation.
Most organizations have found it difficult to juggle resource management challenges even before the pandemic. However, with time, it is only getting worse. Project managers that can resource projects with a novel approach have a better probability of meeting their project schedules and deadlines. They understand their workforce has changed dramatically and adapted their strategies to address the resourcing scarceness.
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Vishal Muktewar is a Senior Correspondent at On Dot Media. He reports news that focuses on the latest trends and innovations happening in the B2B industry. An IT engineer by profession, Vishal has worked at Insights Success before joining Ondot. His love for stories has driven him to take up a career in enterprise journalism. He effectively uses his knowledge of technology and flair for writing, for crafting features, articles and interactions for technology enterprise media platforms.
