A (Possible) Day in the Life of a Future PM

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

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During the course of my career, project management has changed dramatically. When I first started managing projects, I was sent on a five-day training course to cover the basics. I don’t think any of the skills that they taught on that course are part of a PM’s arsenal today. They have been replaced by software, by different ways of operating, or by a shift in how project management is perceived.

And that makes me wonder, what will project management be like in the future? Are we at the point where most of the changes have already happened, or will there be ongoing reimagining of what project management is all about?

I’m sure that you all have your own thoughts, and I suspect that most of you think that we are going to continue to see a fair amount of change in how projects are managed. I believe that to be the case as well, but what does that mean? What will project management actually be like in the future?

The obvious first thing to determine is when exactly in the future we are talking about. I could cheat and say 100 years, and I could be as farfetched as possible. That might be a fun article to write, but I’m not sure that it would be particularly helpful. I could consider the length of my own project management career—30 years, give or take—and look that far into the future. But again, I’m not sure that would really be …

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