Top 3 Trends in The Development of Project Management: Comparison of World and Domestic Realities

The article presents an analysis of three main trends in the development of project management in the world, noted in the PMI® HQ report ” Pulse of the Profession” for 2018: the development of active involvement in projects of sponsors – top managers, control of the boundaries of project scope, and the growth of the value of project results. The features of project management development in the conditions of the domestic market are noted. Recommendations are given for timely response to market dynamics and adaptation of project management strategies to real circumstances.

The PMI® HQ “Pulse of the Profession” report for 2018 shows the results of a survey of more than 4,500 project managers, 440 top managers and 800 project office employees from the United States, Europe and Asia, and highlights three main trends in project management development in the world /1/:

• development of active involvement of sponsors-top managers in projects (investing in actively engaged executive sponsors)
• control of project scope boundaries (controlling project scope)
• increasing the value of project results (growing value delivery capabilities)

Since 2013, organizations’ losses due to poor project management have fallen by 27 %.

Only 10% of each dollar’s investment is lost due to poor project management.

But only 58 % of the organizations surveyed understand the value of professional project management.

Only 41% of the surveyed organizations are aware of project offices’ support for achieving the company’s strategic goals.

Trend 1: Development of active involvement of sponsors-top managers in projects

The support of sponsors-top managers is invaluable for projects and allows you to:

• establish contacts between project managers and decision makers
• to improve the success of projects
• reduce the risk

In Russian practice, project sponsors are not defined in all projects, and even if they are defined, they are not always top managers (!).

The main task of the project sponsor is to provide support to the project in case of problems that the project manager cannot cope with. Often problematic situations of projects are associated with a lack of resources – monetary, temporary, human or material. The project manager cannot decide to allocate additional resources to the project. In this case, the project manager escalates the problem to the sponsor with a request to provide support in solving the problem. If the sponsor is not a top, but a middle manager, then the sponsor simply do not have the necessary level of power and authority to order the allocation the necessary additional resources to the project. The project is not supported and there is a risk in the project. The source of risk is a weak sponsor who does not have the necessary power and authority (!)

Critical problem situations may lead to the sponsor’s decision to continue, freeze, or stop the project. The decision of the sponsor to continue the project may be related to the strategic importance of the project (or the project customer) for the implementing organization, despite the loss of resources – time, money, and unsatisfactory quality of results. The sponsor’s decision to “freeze” the project may be related, for example, to the need to suspend work on the project for a while – before moving resources released from other projects to the project. The sponsor’s decision to stop the project may be due to the inability to continue working on the project due to significant losses of time, money, and quality during the intermediate stages of the project. At the same time, the reasons for the emergency closure of the project before its completion must be documented /2/.

Effective sponsors support the project using their influence in the organization.

Influence and power – do not always find a combination in the person of the sponsor.

Even a powerful sponsor who does not have sufficient influence in the organization may not be able to provide the necessary political support for the project in communication with business owners and decision makers.

Influence is an important personal quality of a project manager. Influence occurs when the project manager has personal connections with the company’s top management or business owners. A project manager who does not have such connections does not have any influence in the organization. He is not known to anyone “on top”. If this is the case, he will never be assigned as strategic project manager. He will spend his entire life doing “small things”. Therefore, an important aspect of self-improvement in the development of the project manager is his desire (or at least an attempt!) – become a well-known person in the organization and acquire certain connections and influence.

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