Trends and observations in project management for 2011

This was yet another busy year for project practitioners, service providers, policy-makers, standards developers, commentators, trainers and educators. As 2011 draws to a close, it is incumbent on a representative of Project Management South Africa (PMSA) – as the autonomous professional body for project managers – to reflect on the trends and developments observed locally and globally in the project management field throughout the year.

These are not merely observations, but conclusions drawn from several things including formal and informal research reports, conference programmes, interviews with project people, and the discussion points emerging from project management forums of various descriptions as well as non-project management commentators.

As high-level observations, the categories below do not take into account the detailed content of work done toward – among other collective projects – producing new or new editions of global project management standards, or developing specific tools for project people in response to demand. These will emerge in the relevant publications as they are released.

The public as a key project stakeholder

In 2011, a number of conference presentations highlighted a renewed appreciation for the power of the ‘public’. For example, at the PMSA KwaZulu-Natal regional “Good in Green” conference in September, Korean presenter Young Min Park impressed the audience with a detailed explanation of how his country’s government approached a public project in order to secure the buy-in – not only of the role-players in project delivery, but of communities affected by the project.

The Four Major Rivers Restoration Project is a massive construction undertaking – considered a green growth project – on the Han, Nakdong, Geum and Yeongsan rivers in South Korea to improve water security, flood control and ecosystem vitality; and create multipurpose recreational spaces for local residents and regional development centred on the rivers.

A comprehensive, real-time online management information system was developed to assist communication and co-ordination of schedules and reporting across the various service providers. This in itself is not unique, but what stood out – particularly for a part of the world that may be perceived as conservative in its approach to classified information involving government sharing – was that every citizen had access to the information system, and could easily identify when and how they would be affected by construction activities. They were able to see and buy in to the envisaged end result.

Chief executive officer for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, John Furlong, spoke at the Project Management Institute (PMI) Congress in Dallas in October, in a manner that would have resonated with South Africans in terms of the Fifa Soccer World Cup.

He spoke about this 14-year project “with a million moving parts”, and his personal belief that it could materially change the country and affect every person in Canada.

Furlong believed the project could be a nation-builder if it could become important to people and be seen primarily as a human adventure, where every contribution made by the citizens could make a difference to the country and the world.

He described various examples of engagement in his emotive account, but the one that stood out was the example of how he committed to bringing the Olympic flame within one hour’s access of every Canadian citizen. It presented a logistical nightmare, considering the vast and remote landscape of Canada (which covers six time zones), but was a massive statement that it was ‘their’ Olympics.

The record number of medals won by Canada (including the all-important gold in the ice hockey showdown against the United States), may be a measure of the benefits of such public engagement; but other project successes are indicators of collective positive sentiment and accountability by the average citizen as volunteer, spectator or participant.

Applying PM to the greater good

There is nothing like a natural disaster to bring people back to the basics of life, survival and fundamental needs. Much of the focus of the keynote presentations of the International Project Management Association (IPMA) Congress (Brisbane, in October) was around disaster management and rebuilding efforts, following the Brisbane floods and Christchurch earthquakes. A broad spectrum of agencies reflected on how project management principles are driving rescue and reconstruction efforts.

Closer to home, Gift of the Givers CEO Imtiaz Sulieman is becoming a regular feature at PMSA’s KZN branch events as he shares the astounding efforts made by this organisation as it launches projects to respond to crises around the world.

Similarly, World Vision International – the global organisation serving the world’s most vulnerable victims of natural disasters and socio-economic conditions – is refining and entrenching a project management methodology for its various operations, and requesting participation from PMSA and its members in this regard.

It is becoming clear that when it comes to funding, support and essentially success, such agencies benefit from the credibility and structure that project management practices bring.

Further to the greater good, the matters of global warming, green practices and sustainability are raising issues of accountability for individual project managers as dictated by unfolding legislation, company targets and good practices, for example. The following terms and principles are being added to the language of project management: biodiversity offsets (like-for-like or better); environmental licences; project management accountability in terms of principle-based legislature; Green Star design ratings in construction; waste as a design defect; and reduce, reuse, recycle and recover as an approach to everything we do.

Advocates for paying more specific attention to these issues in industry standards are actively driving their point home through petitions, discussion forums, publications and debate.

Says Rich Maltzman, co-author of Green Project Management and guest speaker at PMSA’s KZN conference: “Right now, we are pushing for sustainability thinking to be included in the upcoming 5th Edition PMBoK® Guide (Project Management Book of Knowledge); and for sustainability to be a consideration in any editing of the PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct. We’re trying to demonstrate to PMI that there is a groundswell in the PM population for sustainability thinking in projects”.

His rationale: firstly, efforts to improve sustainability (ecological, social and economic) are done via projects; and secondly, the belief that all projects (and all project managers) can benefit from sustainability thinking.

Technology and PM

Social media channels and policy have been popular discussion points over the past few years, and it seems that in 2011 – at least in the project management space – the focus is on going beyond the hype to identify where and how social media can benefit project management.

Social Media for Project Managers by Elizabeth Harrin (published in 2010) provides excellent guidelines for not falling victim to the social media hype and potential influence of the Generation Y-ers (under-35s consistently emerge as the biggest supporters of social media in the workplace) in our project teams; but emphasises its value in terms of communication and collaboration from a business perspective, and networking with peers from an individual professional perspective.

The “Project Management Benchmark Report” for 2011, produced by United Kingsom-based recruitment company Arras People, included survey questions on social media and shows that when people were asked about social media tools used in their current job role and not for personal use, 45% use LinkedIn, 20% use Internet forums, 20% make use of instant messaging, 19% access webinars and 33% use none at all.

The same study asked respondents what they saw as the role of social media in the workplace, with the following feedback: 42% acknowledged its role in networking with other professionals; 32% saw it as useful for communicating with the project team; 25% saw it as useful for communicating with external stakeholders; but 34% claimed to not yet have found a role for social media in the workplace.

PMSA ran a social media survey with its membership, and findings are consistent with the aforementioned results, in that the majority support professional networks such as LinkedIn and instant messaging as channels appropriate to professional use.

Underutilised channels from a business perspective include podcasts (59% do not use these at all), chat rooms (69% do not use these at all) and blogs (52% do not use these at all). Webinars seem to be popular, with 40% of respondents using them professionally and 17% for work and personal.

The Arras People survey showed that only 37% of respondents’ organisations have a known social media policy in place, while 27% were unsure if there was or not.

With the excitement around the release of new versions of smart phones and tablets comes the expectation that users would be snapping up applications that made their working life easier. Indeed, there are a number of apps that bring project management tools to the devices, and the IPMA and PMI congresses had apps for their conference programmes.

Despite seeing iPads in many hands at these events, few users could name specific apps they used as project managers. Upon enquiry, it seems the most popular use for tablets is to keep the children entertained.

The iPad app store website shows the five most popular apps in a given month. In November 2011, only two out of five paid apps and one out of five free apps are deemed productivity- or business-related, with the other 12 being games.

Once again, the South Korean example comes to the rescue, this time to illustrate how tablets can be put to use on projects: management consulting company, Sangh-Ah, has developed siPADPMIS – an app for the project management information system for the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, which delivers the project tools in a very portable manner.

The value of new knowledge, experience and innovation

At the PMI Congress, keynote speaker, author, journalist and columnist Malcolm Gladwell put forward the concept of borrowing and following versus innovation.

He suggested that often in projects, there is more to be gained from being the ones to engage in “fruitful borrowing” of concepts and lessons learnt, rather than being the originators of ideas. He cited various examples, including that of late Apple founder Steve Jobs, who learnt of the possibilities surrounding the graphical user interface while visiting Xerox Park in Silicon Valley in the 1980s, and went on to apply the concept more cheaply – thus foregoing much of the research and development expense, but being the first to bring the concept to market.

A later keynote speaker at the same event, Heather Rarick from NASA, echoed this sentiment, saying that the space programme and International Space Station project had been the result of American, Canadian, Russian, Japanese and European innovation and investment, but was now available to entrepreneurs to apply the technology to create new things and push the boundaries even further.

This “fruitful borrowing” concept has been evident in our own environment. Corporates are increasingly developing project management forums in-house to bring together project people to share lessons learnt and uncover best practices. By opening these forums to people outside the corporate from similar and even vastly different industries, and inviting knowledgeable speakers, there is more opportunity for learning from each other and avoiding reinventing the wheel.

The project management office (PMO) is often the custodian of the project management forum, and linked to this role is its growing involvement in preparing project managers for the future.

In An Inside Look at High-Performing PMOs, American consulting firm, PM Solutions, documents the findings of a study based on best practices of winners and finalists of the PMO of the Year Awards programme it runs. It has found that PMOs are demonstrating improved capability, with an enhanced role in training and development functions, in that:

• 75% are responsible for project management coaching and mentoring;
• 64% manage project managers;
• 63% are responsible for project management training curriculum development and co-ordination; and
• 58% are responsible for training.

Like any other year, one of the biggest questions posed to the PMSA National Office is: Which accreditation or certification should I pursue?

The Arras People study; as well as the local collaboration between Unisa, University of Johannesburg, University of Pretoria and Gordon Institute of Business Science – the “Prosperus Report” – highlight the most popular accreditations and certifications in the UK and South Africa, respectively.

In the Arras People study, 69% of respondents see project management qualifications and accreditations as an important part of their ongoing professional development; and 63% agree they help secure new roles.

Bearing in mind it focuses on project managers in the UK, in the Arras People study the most commonly held accreditations and qualifications are UK products: PRINCE2 (51.7%), Managing Successful Programmes (13.5%) and the APMP (9.4%).

Despite the fact that presentations with an Agile theme were almost as prevalent on the PMI Congress programme as in the previous two years, less than 1% of respondents held such accreditations.

The “Prosperus Report” shows that of the 733 people who responded to the particular question, 211 held no project management accreditation or qualification at all; 143 held a PMP; 73 held one of the IPMA certifications; and 71 held PRINCE2.

The high number of non-certified or unqualified practitioners does not assist in the drive to have the practice of project management recognised as a profession, even if we argue that it is the combination of education, accreditation as well as experience that makes a competent practitioner.

Representation in PM

Industry portal PM4Girls (www.pm4girls.com) recently carried an article about gender issues in project management. The article referred to research by Lisa Henderson and Richard Stackman (“An Exploratory Study of Gender in Project Management: Interrelationships with Role, Location, Technology, and Project Cost”. Project Management Journal, Vol. 41, No. 5, 37-55) into the role that gender plays in project management.

From 563 project team members surveyed, they discovered the following:

• Female project managers are almost twice as likely to be on projects costing $1 million or less;
• Female project team members are less likely to work at the same location as their project managers; and
• Female project team members are nine times more likely to work with female project managers than male project team members.

Simple observation will tell us that project management remains a male-dominated environment. The number of female practitioners is on the rise, but the level of female participation as conference speakers is not.

As an industry, we cannot seem to crack the 35% mark on the gender theme. PMI’s membership is currently 30% female; respondents to the Arras People survey were 30% female; and PMSA’s membership currently stands at 32% female.

An analysis of gender in the “Prosperus Report” survey, however, highlighted an interesting trend: of the major industry sectors surveyed, male dominance was evident in information technology and construction (75% and 86% respectively), but not in finance and banking – where 60% of respondents were female.

There is always something new going on in project management. These observations are intended to provide food for thought as we look back at 2011 and brace ourselves for a new year, rather than present any kind of definitive view of our dynamic and interesting environment. ☑

Taryn van Olden

Van Olden is the chief executive officer of Project Management South Africa