Voices on Project Management

by Dave Wakeman

As a project manager, it is easy to get caught up in handling the situation right in front of you.

Do the tasks needed to complete the current project.

Put out the fire that is consuming all your time. (“Oh crap, I need this stakeholder report…”)

But what if we moved our gaze ahead a little bit and thought about the skills needed to be a successful PM in 2030? What would that look like?

From my vantage point, the 2030 PM will need to focus on three key ideas:

• Being a strategic leader and not just a project facilitator
• Having master communicator vibes.
• Acting as a tech conductor and not just a tech user

1. From Facilitation to Strategy

This is probably one of my key themes in these posts: the importance of always having an eye on the big picture.

The rise of concern about AI stealing “everyone’s” jobs has given this idea a new moment of urgency. Why? Because jobs that can be outsourced to computers and machines are likely to remain in danger.

We are seeing that already. Businesses are trying to offload things like customer service to chatbots. Sometimes, this works. Other times, it doesn’t. The failures will be swept under the rug. The successes will be used to increase the “need” for automation.

This is why keeping an eye on the big picture is key. You can anticipate what is going to matter to your organization. You can be the leader of what comes next.

You can focus on value. Strategy.

2. Communication Mastery
Here’s another topic I return to. Why? It matters a lot.

I have always had a few rules about communications that I’ve taught:

• It isn’t what you say, but what the other person hears that matters.
• If the person you are communicating with is confused, that’s on you.
• If you aren’t the one communicating, someone else will fill the void in your absence…and you won’t like the results.

Effective communications isn’t a skill that’s going to go away. Not even close.

In fact, the more that technology takes over the role or the task of communicating with people, the more important it is to be an effective communicator.

Just think about the frustrations you have dealing with customer service menus if you must call a company for support. How about when you deal with an AI service chatbot online? Sometimes, they work great. Other times, you just want to talk to a person. Then when you get to the person, you are so frustrated that you can’t even put together your thoughts.

Think about that in terms of managing complex projects.

• Your team may be getting instructions from AI.
• Your stakeholders may be frustrated because of a challenge finding the information they need in your tech stack.
• Or you could just encounter a situation where your tech or team isn’t dealing with the right tasks.

All of these will stress test communication skills.

Because of situations like this, the 2030 PM is going to need to be a master communicator.

3. Tech Orchestrator

I wrote about whether AI was taking everyone’s jobs a few months back. I’ve offered you a warning in this piece.

The honest answer about AI and jobs is that none of us know the answer, but we know that technology can be disruptive. I would never advocate ignoring a tool or idea that has gained purchase in your business. I would always advocate taking a contrary viewpoint.

That’s led me to believe that the 2030 PM is going to need to be an orchestrator of technology and not just an implementor. This goes beyond knowing how to input prompts for AI. It goes beyond being good at spreadsheets or whatever other technology your team is using for tasks and tracking.

Being an orchestrator means conducting the business of your projects by understanding what tools you need, how they can amplify and assist your team, and checking the quality of the work being created.

This idea of a “tech orchestrator” feels like the ultimate outcome of the marriage among strategy, communication and tech. Because the PM of 2030 will have demands that are different than today. How different, none of us can say with certainty.

But using these three skill ideas, I think you can be better prepared than a lot of your contemporaries.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

By Sree Rao, PMP, PgMP, PMI-ACP

Over the past 18 months, Big Tech companies have let go of several program- and product-adjacent roles, as companies double-down on AI efficiency. One of the roles that is heavily impacted is the TPM (technical program manager) role.

To stay relevant in this changing landscape, here are some do’s and don’ts based on my experience—and my mentors’ suggestions. While I specifically talk about TPMs in this blog post, most of these are relevant to program managers, as well.

Do’s:

• 1. Run a pre-mortem for your career. Yes, you heard that right. Similar to how we run pre-mortem for our programs to identify failure points, do a pre-mortem for your career. Analyze how big of a risk it is for your role to be replaced. Identify what you can do if that happens. Do you have an option to pursue a different career? Are there any skillsets that you can acquire to stay ahead of the competition?
• 2. Become product-fluent, not just process-fluent. Earlier in my career as a TPM, I used to get consistent feedback that I should understand all the requirements. Based on that feedback, I started focusing a lot more on product requirements. That made a lot of difference in how I managed the programs. I spent a lot more time not only understanding the requirements, but also playtesting the product, identifying bugs and making suggestions. As you become more senior, building that product knowledge is a must. Dedicate time to build that knowledge.
• 3. Dig into the technical stack. One of my mentors said that he spends four hours every weekend reading up on the technical documents so that he can keep up with the team’s work. While not everyone can spend time over weekends for this, it is important to carve out the time to understand the architecture, the trade-offs, and the technical debt lurking under the hood. This will help you gain more credibility with your team.
• 4. Leverage AI tools to automate the busywork. Status reporting, risk tracking, analyzing data and even meeting notes…use artificial intelligence to help. Free up your time for higher-value work, and show your team you’re always looking for ways to work smarter.
• 5. Be proactive and stay ahead of risks. TPMs who thrive are those who bring order to chaos. Proactively surface ambiguities, clarify priorities, and communicate relentlessly. Anticipate blockers, dependencies, and resource gaps before they become emergencies. Your ability to foresee and mitigate risks is what sets you apart.

Dont’s:

• 1. Don’t just be a meeting scheduler. I have heard that “TPMs are glorified admins.” If you’re only booking rooms and sending invites, you’re not adding strategic value. There have been several times where people ask me to schedule meetings even though I don’t even need to be in that meeting. I have politely started pushing back on this. When asked to schedule a meeting, you can say: “I typically schedule meetings where I drive the agenda. In this case, I am not driving the agenda. Happy to do it this time.”
• 2. Don’t just be a paper pusher. Status reports and documentation are important, but they’re not your whole job. Focus on driving outcomes, not just tracking them. Additionally, ensure that status docs drive decisions.
• 3. Don’t just be a reminder service. Following up on action items, tasks and tickets is one of our job responsibilities. However, that should not be our biggest contribution. Figure out ways to reduce the number of manual follow-ups. Example: Create a tracker with all the action items and set up a recurring placeholder calendar invite (daily, weekly, etc., depending on the need) with a link to the tracker.
• 4. Don’t just be an event organizer. Planning offsites and other team events is fine, but it’s not your core value. Be the person who drives programs forward, not just the one who plans the party.
• 5. Don’t wait for direction. TPMs who sit back and wait for other people to tell them what they need to do are the first to go. As mentioned in the Do’s section above, be proactive!

Key takeaways

We should prioritize deepening our technical skills, understanding our product, and relentlessly demonstrating our impact—or risk being left behind. The best TPMs are those who bring clarity, leadership, and technical insight to the table every single day.

In the comments let me know the Do’s and Don’ts that resonated with you. Also let the community know your suggestions!

By Soma Bhattacharya

Have you ever noticed how a simple operational plan can improve the alignment of teams, especially if they are multi-located or working across departments? If you have thought about implementing one, try it. It does bring in clarity and positive reinforcement.
This of course means you need to come up with a plan and present it to the affected team—and then based on the feedback, incorporate some of the ideas in the plan as well. Once done and implemented, things are easier to manage. An occasional review of the ops plan should be enough to keep it in place.  

Here are few items that could help you start with the plan:
1. Align across locations — One of the best ways to look into this is to create a common
space that’s available for all team members for reference. From access to deployment plans, splitting responsibility is everything that can make understanding how to operate easier. This is especially applicable for a fast-moving agile team.

2. Support practices — Setting up a process initially can help reduce guess work later. From stakeholder expectations to scrum teams supporting along the way can help the team move forward. Team ceremonies—from big room planning to sprint demos to product management and development team sync-ups—become easier to track with the expected outputs. Setting up calendars and invites, and announcing the cadence of the ceremonies, can help the teams prepare in advance.

3. Optimize communication and collaboration — Standardizing meetings and modes of
communication can come in very handy when working with larger teams located at multiple locations and from different teams or departments. While platforms like Webex or shared spaces are extremely useful, formalizing some of the communication with timelines might also help. This can be communication to the product or sales team. Something like the finalization of features going into production with the release calendar dates can have multiple stakeholders and departments impacted.

4. Clarify role and responsibility — Clarification could go a step further, where you can plan about who are the first responders for production issues and segregate it by time zones and country. You can even take the team of stakeholders and clarify which communication goes to whom first, and perhaps even create group distribution lists to keep things easier to remember.

5. Support governance and compliance — To run the governance of any project, teams being aligned along with goals and stakeholders are a must. The ops plan should bring up compliance issues and continue to work toward good governance as part of its agenda.

What has been most challenging for you building a ops plan?

by Peter Tarhanidis, Ph.D.

Today’s hybrid work environments, ethical demands, stakeholder complexity, and organizational pace require new success criteria. According to PMI’s 2024 Pulse of the Profession report, only 34% of projects are considered successful by traditional measures of scope, time and cost. For leaders to thrive in this new reality, project guardrails must be modernized to inspire autonomy while aligning purpose, ethics, and sustainable outcomes.

Rethinking Guardrails: From Control to Catalysis
Traditional project governance structures emphasize compliance, change control, and rigid escalation paths. But in environments characterized by complexity, ambiguity, and constant change, rigid control can undermine innovation and engagement.

McKinsey & Co.’s research shows that projects with adaptive governance outperform peers by 25% in delivery of value and 30% in stakeholder satisfaction. Leaders must introduce guardrails that promote empowered decision-making within clearly communicated boundaries, and encourage distributed leadership and agility without sacrificing accountability.

5 New Guardrails for Today’s Project Leaders

1. Value Over Output: PMI’s 2023 Global Megatrends shows organizations that prioritize value over delivery metrics achieve a 42% higher rate of strategic goals. Teams that connect features to customer outcomes develop deeper alignment with mission and increase stakeholder confidence. These leaders define value-centric KPIs rather than milestone attainment.
2. Ethics Over Expediency: Edelman’s 2024 Trust Barometer indicates 71% of employees expect their companies to take a public stand on ethical issues, expect their leaders to anticipate unintended consequences, and apply ethical analysis into key decisions. Ethically governed projects report 30% fewer incidents of rework and stakeholder backlash (MIT Sloan Management Review, 2023). Empowered teams build a culture of integrity and long-term resilience. These leaders add ethical risk as part of project risk registers, ethical checklists and stakeholder impact maps.
3. Psychological Safety Over Hierarchical Control: Harvard Business School’s Amy Edmondson shares teams with high psychological safety are 27% more effective in cross-functional collaboration while enabling openness, faster error detection, and greater innovation. Projects with psychologically safe environments complete 18% faster and report 35% greater team engagement (Google’s Project Aristotle). Team members are more likely to raise early red flags and offer solutions without fear of reprisal. These leaders model curiosity, not criticism. Shifting to questions such as “What can we learn?” versus “Who’s accountable?”
4. Agility Over Certainty: Only 16% of organizations report that traditional planning methods are effective in today’s fast-paced environment (PMI, 2024). Agile projects are 2.5 times more likely to succeed than waterfall counterparts in dynamic sectors like tech, finance and healthcare (Standish Group CHAOS Report, 2023). Teams working in short feedback loops are more responsive to customer needs and regulatory changes, resulting in better user adoption. These leaders use rolling-wave planning and commit to decision-making during sprint steering reviews.
5. Stakeholder Integration Over Stakeholder Management: The modern stakeholder is no longer a passive recipient but an active participant. Projects that actively engage stakeholders experience 29% fewer change requests and 41% greater satisfaction scores (IBM Business Value Institute, 2023). When stakeholders are engaged early, then resistance turns into advocacy. These leaders manage stakeholders by listening and integrating their inputs. Use stakeholder empathy interviews and involve them in prototype testing or solution design.

Making Guardrails Operational
Putting these principles into action requires a shift in mindset and structure. Here are five ways to support your practice:

1. Formalize guardrails. Document in project charters and playbooks the team norms, governance models, and onboarding practices.
2. Measure guardrails. Use KPIs like Net Promoter Score, stakeholder sentiment, innovation speed, and compliance metrics.
3. Empower coaches and champions. Appoint internal coaches or culture champions to reinforce these behaviors during stand-ups, reviews, and retrospectives.
4. Build guardrails into decision trees. Create frameworks where teams can operate with autonomy while escalating only when critical guardrails are approached.
5. Conduct quarterly guardrail health checks. Conduct quarterly “guardrail health checks” to audit, reflect and adapt. Use team surveys and external facilitators to refine policies and culture.

Conclusion
Now more than ever, project success requires leaders who can lead with precision and principle. This requires one to balance execution with empathy, speed with substance, and strategy with stewardship. The new project guardrails of value, ethics, safety, agility and integration do not constrain; rather they are cultural enablers that empower high-performance delivery within purpose-driven boundaries. These guardrails provide structure for leaders where trust replaces control, adaptability replaces rigidity, and purpose becomes the new metric of success.

What actions will you take to ensure guardrails turn from control to catalysis?

References

1. Pulse of the Profession: The Future of Project Work, PMI (2024)
2. Unlocking the Power of Agile Governance, McKinsey & Company (2023)
3. Creating a Culture of Psychological Safety, Harvard Business Review (2023)
4. CHAOS Report: Project Success Rates, Standish Group (2023)
5. The Stakeholder Experience Advantage; IBM Business Value Institute (2023)
6. Trust Barometer: Expectations of Ethical Leadership, Edelman (2024)
7. Ethical Decision-Making in Fast-Paced Projects, MIT Sloan (2023)

By Yasmina Khelifi, PMP, PMI-PBA, PMI-ACP

A few weeks ago, I lost my voice entirely for two days. It finally came back, but I had to wait a few weeks for it to regain its strength.

It was an unpleasant experience on a personal level. I had to use an old slate, a pen, and an eraser to communicate with my family and other contacts. I became aware that my daily environment was not suitable for people who did not speak.

However, it was also an enlightening experience at the professional level. I had to take sick leave for two days because I was not able to work without a voice.

I wrote emails, messages and texts to move projects forward, but I missed being able to use the power of my voice. Electronic communication methods are not enough.

As a project leader, you need to connect, explain, help, negotiate, organize, collaborate and brainstorm. But you also need to listen. I also realized that I spoke too much during conference calls and sometimes had to repeat myself.

The voice translates our inner state, even if we are not conscious about it. We have all experienced team members saying, “I’m fine” with a big smile, but we felt it was not true.

I work most of the time with no videos, and thanks to the international background I work in, I have learned to listen to the hesitations, the “yes” that means “no,” the pauses that indicate a need for help. Smiles can also be “heard” through the phones even if there is no video.

Having a voice is also about learning how to use it. We are so familiar with the sound of our own voices that, for most people, it’s hard to listen to their own voice. But I encourage you to do it. When I began producing podcasts, I had to listen to each entire episode several times to edit it. I heard my voice, and I was surprised—I had spoken too fast, with too much energy, and sounded like I was giving orders. This also explained why, at the beginning of my career, a colleague (politely) told me, “Don't give me any orders.”

My next step is to take vocal training with a coach to learn more about it.

The voice is a fragile muscle: you need to respect it and protect it.

When you have a voice, activate it! Don't shut up, but listen.

How do you use your voice as a project leader?