The True Value of Project Management

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.

  Talent Management  

“The talent crisis is real. Projects are at risk. It’s time to make talent a strategic priority.”

Not my words, but the opening sentences of PMI’s recent report Narrowing the Talent Gap. That report builds on PMI’s most recent Talent Gap report from earlier in 2021, and together those two reports make it clear that organizations are rapidly reaching the point where they simply won’t be able to secure the project management talent they need.

The increasing amount of project work is driving demand—while demographics will see a significant number of PMs leaving the profession during this decade. As a result, PMI is projecting a shortfall of 25 million project professionals by 2030. And that forecast was before the impact of the “Great Resignation” was fully understood—where people are leaving the workforce in record numbers in many countries. There simply won’t be enough project management talent to go round unless something happens right now.

It’s easy to say that a lot of the responsibility for developing and supplying that talent lies with schools, colleges and corporate training in its various forms. That’s true when it comes to the logistics of providing people with the skills required to become project professionals, but it doesn’t do anything to address the demand side of the …

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