Project Management in the Year 2020

Bill is President, Project Management Partners in Lexington, Mass., and is a consultant and trainer.

  Career Development   Work Breakdown Structures (WBS)   ProjectsAtWork  

There have always been projects. There will always be projects. And they will always be difficult to do. But the profession of project management continues to evolve. Here’s one longtime practitioner’s take of the current state of project management, and how it could change in 10 years.

To begin, I should note that I have no special knowledge, skills, or experience that would qualify me to predict the future. I have never won the lottery. The stocks I buy go down. My favorite sports teams only win when I don’t bet on them. As a result, I placed bets on Brazil, Spain, Italy, Argentina and Portugal to win the World Cup in hopes that this strategy will allow the USA to sneak through … still to no avail.

On the other hand, my oldest son was wise enough at the age of eight to suggest that we plan on rain any time the meteorologist predicted sunshine. And there are a great many economists, politicians, and central bankers who make a good living without ever being right. So if we view the glass as “half full,” then I can assure you that my predictions should be treated with the same reverence as those of Alan Greenspan or Nariman Behravesh.

Why Try to Predict the Future?

There is one major reason: to make better decisions. If you knew that the iPad was going to be such a huge success, you would have bought Apple stock. If …

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