Top 10 trends in Project & Portfolio management for 2024

The field of project management is constantly changing. In the good old days, when more than half of projects used some form of Prince2, it might have been a bit dusty and dry, but these days so much is happening that developments are hard to keep up with. Fortunately, IMPROVEN's consultants produce an annual overview of the main trends and developments in project & portfolio management

1. Artificial intelligence (AI) and data

Artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to play an important role in project management by automating tasks, analysing large amounts of data, generating status reports, anticipating and making predictions. This can help project managers work more efficiently and spend more time on core activities. AI systems can also help prioritise tasks, assess risks, prepare communications and presentations and even support certain aspects of leadership. Moreover, AI systems can enable project managers to make decisions based on large amounts of factual information, improve efficiency, automate processes and drive innovation. (P.S.: this paragraph was written by AI, but managing projects remains very much human work, which AI still lags behind in).

2. Remote project management

Remote working is becoming increasingly common in project management, and project managers will adapt to effectively managing remote teams. The bulk of companies only became acquainted with it during the corona period, but it has since become here to stay. In times without pandemics, it also offers opportunities. Think of cost savings, the contribution to sustainability and the ability to find and retain suitable and affordable staff. Scarcity in the labour market can be covered by highly skilled professionals abroad on the one hand, and some home-grown employees remain tied to their employer longer in the event of opportunities to work temporarily from abroad. In recent years, obstacles to remote project management have been removed by technological developments. Just think of how multiple team members, while video calling, work in the cloud on the same file. Admittedly, remote project management brings new challenges and by no means every project or organisation is going to lend itself to it. Nevertheless, remote project management will continue to grow in the coming years.

3. Project management from connection

Driven by a world of increasing digitalisation and individualisation (especially the younger generation), there is a growing need among employees for a balanced work-life balance, where valuable work and a strong connection to their professional life are central. The successful execution of a project hinges on the cooperation of employees and is coming under pressure due to this shift. An increasing focus on soft skills and emotional intelligence is central to the modern approach to project management. Increasingly, the emphasis is on effective communication, leadership, resistance management and empathy, with connecting leadership and strong social skills being key.

4. Sustainability in project management

A related trend: sustainability is more important than ever and will play an increasing role in our projects. It is the responsibility of every organisation to ensure that projects are carried out in a sustainable manner. Due to the broad interpretation of the word sustainability, it is advisable for project managers to first establish what sustainability means for your project. For example, a sustainable project ensures that the outcomes and results of a project are sustainable, but even during project realisation, an economically viable, environmentally friendly and socially responsible approach can be chosen. A project manager must find the balance between what stakeholders (people) want and are able to do, what the earth (planet) makes available and what is financially profitable (profit).

5. Hybrid methodologies

Our regular followers know that hybrid project management has been on this list for about 10 years, making it no longer really a trend, but a movement. But we strongly support using a pragmatic combination of proven elements from traditional project management and valuable additions from agile to achieve change. In the coming years, awareness will continue to grow that choosing a single approach - either agile or waterfall - is too limiting for many projects. We are already seeing a decline in large-scale agile implementations. Hybrid project managers create tailor-made approaches that fit the specific needs of the project or organisation. This also means that the project managers of the future are all-rounders and will not be limited by an approach they are certified in.

6. The rise of the project economy & CPO

There is a shift towards a project economy. Where previously most time was spent on traditional operational activities, organisations today spend most of their time on project-based work. This is expected to account for over EUR 18 trillion by 2027. Looking at the fact that most projects are unsuccessful, an inordinate amount of time and money is spent without delivering anything. Therefore, more and more organisations are looking for an appropriate -project-based- organisational structure. An additional trend is that organisations are filling a new position at board level; the Chief Project Officer (CPO). This plays a crucial role in translating organisational strategy into execution, choosing a limited number of strategic projects, establishing governance and optimising capacity and resource management.

7. Major transformations through disruption

So the world around organisations is changing rapidly and significantly. Themes such as energy transition and digitalisation are disruptive in nature and require major transformations in many organisations. It is important to approach these transformations with the right project management methodology. A crucial aspect here is finding the right balance between agile and waterfall methodologies. Remarkably, large transformation programmes often prefer a more traditional waterfall or hybrid approach to manage the complexity of the transformation. In this, leaders play a key role: active involvement, good sponsorship and effective coaching by people managers are essential for the success of such radical changes. Taking the lead is not only a necessity but also a driver of successful transformations.

8. Time for capacity

With all these major transformations, we increasingly find that when realising the projects in the project portfolio, the chosen priorities cannot be maintained because the right people are not available. Causes are diverse, such as overruns from other projects, excessive workloads, personal agendas, change fatigue and not being able to say 'no' to new requests. Setting up good capacity management leads to resolution of these causes. Good capacity management includes:

A (central) capacity or resource planning, at tactical level (6 to 24 months ahead) and at operational level (1 to 6 months ahead).
Integrally budgeting the use of own staff for projects, rather than just budgeting the out-of-pocket costs of projects - the latter reinforces the reasoning that own people 'just do projects on the side'.
Working with fixed project teams, so that portfolio deployment planning is then done by team and not by role or individual. This also increases the learning capacity of the team, increasing the likelihood of added value for the organisation.
Addressing each other and giving feedback on undesirable behaviour, when employees are asked for commitment to jobs or projects, for example, outside the official process.

Or even simpler: if the workload in the organisation is so high that the water runs over the shoes, one can also decide to stop some projects, or at least stop starting new ones.

9. Benefits management - new life for the business case

With money and available resources getting tighter in many organisations and many complex changes requiring budget for realisation, there is a growing need to start calculating again; what will it cost and what will it deliver? The good-old business case, which had disappeared in agile working, is pulled out of the drawer again. The business case contains not only a financial calculation of benefits and costs, but also qualitative and quantitative arguments that lead to a responsible choice. And the business case offers the opportunity to better deal with uncertainties - such as margins in connection with project phases or working with best- and worst-case scenarios. By monitoring the business case during project implementation, we can stop projects earlier if the value expectation suddenly declines, thus preventing money and energy from being wasted - and making room again for projects that do contribute value. The benefits side of the business case is more relevant than ever after project delivery and will have to be monitored properly by a benefit owner.

10. The power of project portfolio management

Achieving change is also about making choices: there are usually too few people and resources available to do all the intended changes at once. Well-designed project portfolio management helps the organisation to make conscious choices about which project to start, stop or postpone. Fully in line with the above trends about major transformations, the need for good capacity management and benefit management, more and more organisations are starting to actively manage the project portfolio. After the big banks and corporates changed tack much earlier, we now also see healthcare organisations, educational institutions and many governments making the move to project portfolio management.

It is important to keep working on the change capacity of your organisation. If you would like more information on any of the mentioned trends or are curious how Improven can help your organisation in a different way, please contact Maarten van Weeghel (maarten.van.weeghel@improven.nl or 06-12 999 575)