Trends in Project Management

In addition to the focus on organizational process improvements, there are other trends in business and project management that a first-time project manager is likely to encounter (that they may not have just a decade or less ago).

• Managing Vendors With the increased outsourcing of non-core activities, more projects leverage one or more vendors (suppliers) to get work done. More on this in Chapter 21, "Managing Vendors."
• Risk Management Coinciding with the focus on enterprisewide process improvements and in response to past project experiences, more organizations are placing additional emphasis and formality on their project risk management processes. More on this in Chapter 14, "Managing Project Risks."
• Quality Management Much like the factors driving the emphasis on risk management, the link between rigorous quality management procedures and improved project management practices continues to strengthen. More on this in Chapter 15, "Managing Project Quality."
• Managing Virtual, Cross-Functional and Multi-Cultural Teams With the continuous advancements in workgroup and communications tools, the increased integration of processes within an organization, and the continuous drive for increased organizational efficiencies, it is very likely that your project team will consist of members from different physical locations (virtual), different functional departments (cross-functional), or different cultures (multi-cultural, global). More on this in Chapter 20, "Managing Differences."
• Change Agent Since most projects represent a "change" to business as usual, the project manager is expected to play a key role in leading the stakeholders through the change and acceptance process. More on this in Chapter 16, "Leading a Project," and Chapter 18, "Managing Expectations."
• Servant Leadership Due to a lack of formal authority; the need to understand the requirements of all stakeholders; and the importance of facilitation, collaboration, and managing expectations; there is a growing awareness that a servant leadership style is paramount for effective project management. More on this in Chapter 16.

The Absolute Minimum

At this point, you should have a high-level understanding of the following:

• The elements of project management.
• The common challenges of managing projects.
• The value of effective project management to an organization.
• The merits of project management as a career choice.
• The latest business and project management trends that may impact your first opportunity.

In addition, I recommend the following online resources for insightful articles on project management:

• www.pmi.org
• www.gannthead.com
• http://www.niwotridge.com/
• http://www.maxwideman.com/pmglossary/
• http://projectmanagement.ittoolbox.com/
• www.pmforum.org
• www.pmousa.com
• www.cio.com

The map in Figure 1.4 summarizes the main points we reviewed in this chapter.

Figure 1.4. Project management overview.