Modern Project Management: Beyond Tools and Methodologies

[MichaelDortch]

Every business task is supported by one or more technology or business services. And increasingly, every business request for new or improved tools or resources involves one or more projects that require management. And that management often requires new thinking, new tools, or both.

How convoluted is the current state of enterprise project management (PM)? Well, on June 15, 2015, CIO.com published an opinion piece by IT/PM consultant and "Business Solution Designer" Brad Egeland, entitled "5 signs you probably don't want that project management job." (Two of my favorites: "The hiring organization seems overly needy" and "The company seems to think they are overly important.)

On the very same date, sibling site CIO Australia published another opinion piece, this one entitled "5 signs that you have a great project manager." Here's the lede (opening) paragraph of that article in its entirety.

" When I ask CIOs or senior managers to name two great project managers, most struggle to do so. That's worrying when you consider that, according to Gartner, almost $4 trillion is spent on projects around the world."

The author of the latter article is Colin Ellis, who champions what he calls a "Conscious Project Management approach" that focuses on "people and culture not method and task." Colin says that superior project managers are well-liked, inclusive builders of teams and consensus who share credit with colleagues and protect them from blame.

Please note that none of this is about Agile versus Waterfall development methodologies, or any specific PM tools. That's because PM, like service management itself, is evolving and expanding beyond its traditional roots. And as IT gains greater responsibility for delivering and managing enterprise services, the responsibilities of PM leaders and teams are evolving and expanding as well.

What's it all mean? It means that if you're a PM leader or team member, you need to think beyond tool and methodologies. You need to think more about processes, and collaboration, and even some marketing basics. Because you're going to be increasingly called upon to interact with and support users who are not PM experts, but who are trying to get work done better and/or faster. And they're going to depend upon you and your teammates to explain how PM will help them to achieve those goals.

Like your colleagues responsible for service delivery and management, your job is becoming more and more directly linked to business operations and tasks. The sooner you and your colleagues get better at framing everything you do in business-centric terms, the sooner your actual and perceived business value will increase.

Or, as ServiceNow puts it, the modern PM office is evolving from "enforcer" to "enabler." The company is conducting a Webinar on this very subject on June 17, 2015, the very publication date of this very post. You should register and attend, or consume the Webinar on demand later. Then, engage with other PM leaders and team members via the ServiceNow Community, LinkedIn, or wherever you spend quality time online. You, your team, and your enterprise will all benefit from your new, improved, expanded view of project management.