Communication

• Conferencing will be made using holograms.
• Every machine (PC) will have an integrated environment showing the progress of the project, the person’s tasks, and other related information.
• Communicating with people in different languages will be a breeze due to instant, nearly perfect automatic translation from one language to any other language.

Multicultural Projects

• Project teams will be less distributed, the trend of having multicultural teams across two or several countries will be reversed (although there will be no language barrier anymore, check the 3rd reason from the “Communication” list above). The reason for that is that the gap between currently weatlthy countries and poor countries will narrow so much that it will not make an economical sense to outsource fully or partially anymore.

Education and Certification

• Experience will still help Project Managers in getting a job but there will be no need to get it to become one: universities will offer strengthened education programs for Project Management, truly preparing people to become Project Managers from day one on the job.
• Private organizations offering certifications will become abundant until then, when they will be nearly completely overtaken by formal education (offered by universities).
• The Project Manager’s worthiness in the market will be valued depending on the prestige of the school he graduated from.

Organizational Structures

• Projectized organizational structures will flourish, while functional organizations will diminish greatly.
• Program Managers will replace functional managers in most organizations due to projectized environments.
• Project Managers will have substantially increased authority over their resources, that authority once belonged to functional managers.

Software Projects

• The software industry will reach a certain maturity that will make managing (software) projects standardized. Software development projects will have less unknowns, more educated customers, and hence less risks and change requests, and consequently a higher percentage of success.

Overall

• There will be a substantial increase in project success (much higher than the current 32% according to the Standish CHAOS Report). This is due to the formalization of all the processes, the enhancement of the communication means, and the perfected quality of Project Management taught at school.
• Project Management will be eventually recognized by everyone as a profession, due to the complete adoption at schools, where it will be considered a science (like Math).
• Program Management will infiltrate and influence governments, and a supreme Program Manager assigned by the government will oversee all the programs in all the governmental bodies.

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• Anticipating risks/uncertainties in the project execution phase by accounting for them in the project plan
• Creating realistic cost and schedule estimates, leading to an increased confidence in the Project Manager by the different stakeholders
• Responding calmly and rationally to project risks as they occur
• Adding a touch of professionalism to the Project Management culture in the company, positively affecting the image of the Project Manager
• Minimizing the possibility and/or impact of scope creeps
• Managing stakeholders’ expectations since the Project Manager is able to accurately assess their requirements and the real impact those requirements may have on the project
• Documenting risks and their associated responses to be used as a reference in future projects. This will improve the reliability of Project Management with every project the company executes.

The most important benefit is, of course, managing a project that is more likely to succeed.

It should be noted that there’s a cost of the above benefits: Project Risk Management creates a considerable overhead on the project (especially during Project Planning). To be able to perceive its real value, one should compare it to any kind of insurance: it has high costs, and many never be used, but it adds confidence, and once needed, it does make all the difference.

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The main difference between Project Success and Project Management Success is that success from a project perspective (Project Success) means that the project resulted in a product or a service that was viable and beneficial to the business. On the other hand, success from a Project Management perspective, means that the Project was on scope, on schedule, and on budget.

Project Success does not necessarily mean Project Management Success and vice versa. A Project can be finished on scope, on schedule, and on budget, but still deliver little or no value to the company/stakeholders (for example the Iridium Project). On the other hand, a Project can be finished with costs greatly exceeding the original budget, and years after the initial deadline, and yet deliver a great service/product that is beneficial to both the company and the stakeholders (whether internal or external stakeholders). An example of such a project is the Sydney Opera House.

© 2009 Project Management Learning – Reproduction of this material is strictly prohibited without the written consent of Project Management Learning.