Top Project Management Trends 2012

January 18 2012

Posted by Manfredi Bargioni

A panel of experts at ESI has put together an interesting list of the top project management trends they forecast for 2012.

The list is interesting and quite relevant but we think it misses one key point, or at least it does only "imply" the issue without spelling it out.

Most of the trends in the list deal either with the scarcity of resources, given the increased importance of project management in any organisation, or with the need to allocate and use these scarce resources in a smart way.

Basically the most important challenge that project management faces today is an increase in demand while dealing with a resources constraint. In the longer term more people will increase their qualifications and more resources will become available but, as Keynes famously noted "in the long term we'll all be dead".

Dealing with this problem here and now, and certainly in 2012, requires one thing: efficiency.

In any project there is a standard over-run of about 30%, meaning delays, over-budget, errors, re-work, requirement creep etc. An immense amount of resources is then literally wasted. Every three projects there is one project worth of time and people that is lost! Reducing this waste is the key to facing the challenge of optimal utilisation of resources, it also has the non-trivial benefit of reducing costs significantly.

Clear, but not necessarily easy to achieve. We believe that the trick lies in using tools that help not only to manage a project but that make sure that all projects run on time, on budget and following best practices. Only by using these tools an organisation will more to a more mature stage and improve efficiency and utilise its resources in the optimal way.