3 potential future scenarios facing the effectiveness of P3M in the future

 

Introduction: The risk for P3M and the industrial revolution

With the rapid industrial revolution and urbanization, the competition in the market regarding the efficiency of systems also increasing. The current trends and future are heading towards the great industrial revolution which will incorporate more and more technology to not only bring ease to human life but also speed up the processes. With the concept of industry 4.0, we are now certain that the future will be more AI (Artificial Intelligence) based and we will see less and less human interaction. Then the question arises: will it replace the Project Management models or the P3M will mature with the system?

Companies are facing substantial issues regarding this industrial revolution. Consequently, the complexities of systems are also increasing, which is creating a level of uncertainty about technological and organizational capabilities and sufficient strategies for project development. To cater to the problems arising due to advancements in technology and future trends, companies are also revolutionizing their management strategies. Now they are more inclined toward the project-driven businesses than the operation centred approach of business. To make sure that this change competes with the future problems that may arise, evolution in project management is also required (Garzon, 2020).  Researchers and practitioners have been working on maturity models and they also successfully created many to improve and evaluate the project’s organization. But the critical part, which is also the main rationale of our study is; that they did not specify any method to adapt models to face the technological transformation (Garzon, 2020).

Given the advancement in technology and the future inclination of industry, it is very tough to predict how P3M and business will be structured for the next few years. However, it will be too early to put the nail in the coffin of P3M just by looking at the technological advancement graph. Management has passed through many stages and has always been there, practiced until the advanced scientific understanding. This industrial development was inevitable as the need for industrial evolution has increased for social, economic, and environmental activities due to more and more urbanization and a rapid increase in population (Taner, 2020). It put the P3M at risk because, with the technological development, it becomes essential for the good management to make sure of meeting the industrial expectation of flexible and faster production of goods. The responsibility of project management and P3M models are not confined to only speeding up the product manufacturing processes but with more industrialization, it is also responsible for the reduction of social, economical, and environmental problems (Berkhout, 2001). This increase the importance of project management because every project in this new building industry is somehow unique. Regarding this, it is very crucial to evaluate the possible risks that P3M and its stakeholders will face due to these 4 generations of industrial revolution commonly known as industry 4.0. This new era is going to be groundbreaking in several different fields. The following literature review covers three future scenarios that may affect the effectiveness of P3M.

Objectives Of Study

The study is intended to conduct a literature review that evaluates critically the 3 potential future scenarios facing the effectiveness of P3M in the future:

    1)    Scenario 1 - “Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there” - John P. Kotter
2)    Scenario 2 - Industry 4.0
3)    Scenario 3 - The Future of Work: Jobs and Skills in 2030

We live in an ever-changing and complex world that impact every aspect of life and business area, most important project management. Due to this rapidly changing environment, companies are constantly trying to adapt to the changes and then respond to the market demands is an essential criterion of P3M (project, portfolio, and program) success. The digital modern world necessitates the work to be done in the shortest period to accomplish the defined targets of the business and to meet the time pressure to ensure business expansion.

Today more managers and stakeholders of P3M have inclined to the IT (Information Technology) tools for P3M. With the advancement in information technology and the emergence of Industry 4.0, the software seems to be the only and best solution for managing and optimizing projects. Will it put P3M on the verge of risk? This is what we are going to investigate in light of the above rationales in this paper.

Definition of a Project:

It is essential to define a project first in order to get a depth analysis of the potential risks it is going to face. It is also important to see why the project is so important and handled as a priority.

An organization is a business in which several projects are handled at the same time. Many writers tried to pen down the definition of the project and they attempted several ways to describe it. A project, as per the definition of the PMBOK guide (4th edition) is a temporary journey taken to produce a certain result, service, or product. Butterick et al (2000) provide us with a similar understanding of a project, he defined it as a piece of work, which is for a short time, and it has a beginning as well as an ending ( Association for Project Management,, 2012).

The project, Program, and Portfolio Management:

PMBOK (2017) explained Project Program and Portfolio Management as a set of tools, governance, and policy models that are designed to equip the organization in a way to achieve its strategic aims and objectives. The P3 term is utilized to signify program, portfolio, and project as described in the definition given in the APM knowledge body. APM body of knowledge (2019) explained a project as a “Single” certain endeavor that is to achieve a specific output and a tangible result. Furthering the P3M definition by breaking it into the acronym, then it explained the program as a “ several objects that are destined to achieve a single output”. If we link it to the definition of the APM book of knowledge (2012) then we see that a project is similar to a journey taken by an organization. A program, on the other hand, is related to a group. APM book of knowledge (2019) said that a project is a sole endeavor in comparison to the APM book of knowledge (2012) definition that does not consider a project as singular. Portfolio management is, on the other hand, the science and art of overseeing and selecting an investment that imposes long-term benefits that strengthen the company’s policies and help It achieve the final objectives. It also helps in mitigating risk, creating tolerance of the company, an institution, and or client (HAYES, 2021).

Literature Review

Scenario 1: Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there

The whole world is facing the biggest change in its modern history, with the global pandemic hit the world is getting more and more artificial intelligence oriented. Perhaps Kotter is correct in suggesting that there is a need now, for “Leaders to establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there”. 

If businesses and projects (large, medium, and small) have been struggling with the rate of change, then things are not likely to improve anytime soon, or perhaps we will soon see a revolution in project management and organizational leadership.

Change is everywhere and with all the intellectual energy that has gone into change management over the last 2,000 years, it is not going to be mastered any time soon. Let's conduct a literature review to analyze the possible responsibilities towards leadership on the organizational level to incorporate with the rapidly changing world.

Dr. Thomas Danborg et al (2011) (Danborg, 2011)uncover and explore the relationship between the competencies of leadership and its productive performance in the domain of project management. The main concern of this paper was to shed light on the key attributes of leadership that are crucial for the success of a project and to highlight the importance of implementing these skills in project management. He started the paper by emphasizing the effectiveness of a leadership style and he generally highlighted the importance of leadership for an organization’s success. He further added that in today’s world of change, constant development, and multitasking leaders are the key component for any company to succeed. There is a huge responsibility that comes on a leader’s shoulders to adapt himself and then his organization to changing world and technology. This demand and a unique need for project integration create a requirement for qualified and updated project leaders. In general, he named leaders as those who can provide a positive change to the organization and company by handling the project effectively under any circumstances. Dr. Thomas also presented a very philosophical and reflective view of ideal attributes of leadership that are essential for a project manager to have (Danborg, 2011).  

Jennifer Whyte et al (2022) (Whyte, 2022) explained project leadership in the changing technological context. She investigated that the project leadership is more crucial in the context of risks related to ecology either from a climate change or a viral pandemic. Leadership must be adaptive to the change. It becomes more important when the project needs to grow or the technological advancements are enhancing the complexity of a project. The project leader must see interventions in wider systems. Jennifer takes a social perspective, analyzing the previous literature and proposing a new agenda of research. She proposed this new agenda in three areas. 1) technological advancement: unraveling the values that technology proposes to get desired outcomes. 2) organizational complexity: addressing the emerging uncertainty and complexity due to industry trends. 3) ecological concerns: Addressing the responsibilities of a project leader to intervene in a manner to execute his project to be more sustainable, resilient, and futuristic (Whyte, 2022).

Hussain Ali et al (2021) look into the impact of revolutionized leadership style on the success of the project. It researches the leadership style and its indirect effect on teamwork quality and team-building. He used a quantitative research approach to conduct this study. Data was collected from 374 professional ISD (information system development) project managers. He finds that transformational leadership is linked with project success via serial mediation of teamwork and teambuilding (Ali, 2021).

Riaz Ahmed et al (2013) investigated what is currently the key topic of our discussion that what is the significance of leader and leadership skills to manage the project efficiently and effectively and how they are important for the project managers. In the developing world, it becomes more important to adopt and understand leadership competence and leadership skills to cope with the uprising modern challenges of projects. This defines the success and failure of an organization and project. With the more technological-dependent system, the function of an effective project manager is to rapidly evolve from merely directing and managing to leading the projects with skills, knowledge, and newly introduced concepts of leadership. This will become more challenging in the coming years (Ahmed, 2013).

Scenario 2 - Industry 4.0

With the rapidly advancing technology, the question arises of how P3M must change or what sort of changes it needed to be implemented to become more future-ready and align with the technological change (ASSOCIATION, 2019).

Zafer Tarık Taner et al (2020) wrote a conference paper that explains the possible risks project management and project management systems are most likely to face in the coming years due to the revolution of industry 4.0. He performed an analysis on the industry 4.0 return and see the management factors in its context. He explained that, with the use of new modern technologies associated with industry 4.0 in the systems of project management, the successful map of project management can be sketched. It can only be ensured if we utilize the resources correctly for the upcoming years. By using the machine and workforce a successful project management system can be achieved even in this evolving world (Taner, 2021).

Martin Hirman et al (2019) analyzed the processes involved in the implementation of industry 4.0 in organizations. The main aspect of this paper was to see the framework of project management for the implementation of the concept of Industry 4.0. The paper is divided into two parts, the first part describes the basic concept of industry 4.0 and its implementation process In industry. The second part is what is of our concern, it deals with the status of project management in an organization along with industry 4.0. Martin also covers different aspects of industry 4.0 by dividing the paper into more parts (Hirman, 2019).      

Gabriel Gheorghiu (2020) explained that the project management software are in use for more than 50 years but the industry 4.0, the Internet of things (IoT) and IIOT, and artificial intelligence (AI) changed everything by providing a new approach to see things and giving a guideline ton automate even the project management processes. He also debated the point of whether will this new industrial evolution make the existing software of project management; obsolete? He explained that to find these answers in depth we need to understand that the project management and processes are defined for humans and made to fit in software by adapting the changes. The same can be expected of automation. It is very unlikely that Artificial intelligence and robots will be programmed in a way to adapt to ourselves, on the other hand, we can conveniently change our working ways. Humans can be easily adapted to the change unlike robots and artificial intelligence. Hence, if we ask about the risks the P3M can face in the future due to industry 4.0 is unlikely that the automation will be able to take over the project and program management if humans try to focus on modern level strategies and project optimization (Gheorghiu, 2020).

Scenario 3 - The Future of Work: Jobs and Skills in 2030

The job market has got much more diverse and equally saturated. Now the always changing priorities, multidimensional methodologies, high pressure to deliver, increased turnover in an employee, and ethical dilemmas are making the workplaces go through massive transformations. There is a lot of information now for humans to handle so more and more machines and software and replacing humans. But it is to keep in mind that, those are the humans that operate them but will those machines be able to replace humans even for operating? From learning how to integrate and manage generation Y and Generation X, using social media, deal with the economy, and much more hitting at once the project managers cause new risks, challenges as well as opportunities to the companies (Fournet, 2011)

Eckhard Störmer et al (2014) put a lot of details in the “UK Commission for Employment and Skills” journal about the future of jobs and market trends. He explained the uncertainty of the future and that it is unpredictable. What was our firm belief 20 years ago is now a myth, similarly we cannot predict the labor market just by looking at the previous market trends. He did analyze the past trends and concluded that there has been a sort of stable trend in the jobs and skills market of the UK. But these trends are most likely to be disrupted In the coming 10-20 years depending on various factors (Störmer, 2014) .

James Manyika et al (2017) analyzed the possible risks the job market will face due to the rapid advancement in artificial intelligence and automation. He explained it by providing examples that how technology is taking over all things. Now where the world is filled with promises, in the meantime, it is welcoming us with many challenges also, especially in the job market. Cars now drive themselves, machines can themselves analyze the X-Rays, and algorithms are there to replace the customer services. These technologies are improving our lives and save out time but they are also taking over many human activities which are making the job market very saturated. McKinsey Global Institute’s latest report, “Jobs lost, jobs gained: Workforce transitions in a time of automation” enlisted a detail of what jobs are substituted by the machines and what other opportunities they have created for humans. The new jobs that are generated by this machine evolution are less visible and spread to various geographies and sectors. But there is a great chance of a spur of job creation in the future (Institute, McKinsey Global, 2017).

Conclusion:

The future is always uncertain but with the rapid shift in artificial intelligence and industrial automation, it becomes more uncertain. Still, if we talk about P3M, then it is not new in this game. It is the fourth decade of project management which is also now evolved beyond cost objectives and meeting quality and technical standards. Today we see many important changes organizations are making to manage projects, they are utilizing more and more tools to increase efficiency. Although, we cannot cast aside the risks it has to face and currently facing in any organization which is the influence of changing automation environment.

After scrutinizing the literature review on different scenarios we can easily see a battle between technology and project management. However, we also examined that if the current trends are incorporated and adapted in a timely then not only we be able to create effective leadership but also we can diversify the job market. Industrial advancement has undoubtedly many advantages like improved efficiency, increased customer satisfaction, enhanced product value, increase in productivity, faster response, and reduction in prices. But, it is to be kept in mind that behind every machine there is a human brain that can not be replaced.   

 

 

 

Bibliography

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Ahmed, R., 2013. Leadership is Vital for Project Managers to Achieve Project Efficacy.. research gate.

Ali, H., 2021. Transformational Leadership and Project Success: Serial Mediation of Team-Building and Teamwork. PMC.

ASSOCIATION, I. P. M., 2019. Project management change path 2020 to 2025. [Online]
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Berkhout, F., 2001. Impacts of Information and Communication Technologies on Environmental Sustainability: speculations and evidence. SPEU.

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Taner, Z. T., 2021. Industry 4.0 Impact on Project Management Factors. Research gate.

Whyte, J., 2022. Project leadership: A research agenda for a changing world. ELSEVIER.

 

 

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