Episode 175 Premium: The Pulse of Project Management - PM Trends

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This episode is sponsored by The PMP Exam Simulator:

Last week we welcomed 5 bloggers on the program to take a look back at what's been going on in PM over the past few months. So let's turn around and look into the future.

I wanted to know from our group what they think is the cutting edge of PM today, what trends they see, what trends they would like to write about, what they feel is missing from the PMBOK® Guide and if they see anything in the horizon that will come after Kanban, Scrum and Agile.

The bloggers that you will hear from today are:

• Peter Taylor: www.thelazyprojectmanager.com
• Josh Nankivel: www.pmstudent.com
• Terry Doerscher: www.planview.com/enterprise-navigator-blog
• Elizabeth Harrin: rebelsguidetopm.com
• Soma Bhattacharya: www.steppingintopm.com

If you yourself have a blog and would like to be part of The Pulse then let us know to be included.

Episode Transcript

Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only.

Podcast Introduction

Cornelius Fichtner: This is The Project Management Podcast™. We bring project management to beginners and experts. Find us on the web at www.pm‑podcast.com or send your emails to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Cornelius Fichtner: Hello and welcome to this Premium Episode #175. I am Cornelius Fichtner. This is The Project Management Podcast™, nice to have you with us.

You are listening to a premium episode. This means that only you, our paying premium subscribers get to hear it. Thank you very much for your financial support of The Project Management Podcast™.

Last week, we welcomed 5 bloggers on the program to take a look back at what's been going on in project management over the past few months. So now, let's turn around and look into the future.

I wanted to know from our group what they think is currently the cutting edge of project management, what trends they see, what trends they would also like to write about, what they feel is missing from the PMBOK® Guide and if there anything that they see on the horizon that will come after Kanban, Scrum and Agile.

The bloggers that you will hear from today are:

Peter Taylor

Josh Nankivel

Terry Doerscher

Elizabeth Harrin

Soma Bhattacharya

And now, here is a crystal ball and a few predictions for you. Enjoy The Pulse.

Podcast Interview

[Pulse beat music]

Cornelius Fichtner: Hello Terry and once again, welcome back to The Project Management Podcast™.

Terry Doerscher: Thanks for having me, Cornelius. Always a pleasure.

Cornelius Fichtner: Let’s begin with the most important question once more. Let’s remind our listeners of what the name of your blog is and where they can find it?

Terry Doerscher: Sure! The name of my blog is the “Enterprise Navigator”. And it can be found at the Planview homepage and select Blogs from the Resources menu.

Cornelius Fichtner: Okay! The topic of this interview here is towards Project Management Trends and I know that Planview, I believe once a year, you do a PMO Survey and based on that survey, you come out with lots of trends and interesting findings. So what have you discussed on your blog in regards to the trends that you found in that survey?

Terry Doerscher: Sure. We do a PMO 2.0 Survey actually every 2 years and we finished up our trending survey in December 2010, published a report in January. That survey was very interesting compared with the 2008 data in that it was really taken a look at what the impact of the recession and the economy had been on PMOs particularly corporate PMOs. I think probably the most important incite we’ve got is that unlike so many past cycles in the economy, the corporate PMO seem to have survived a little bit better than historically it has in the past. So we didn’t see nearly the amount of carnage that we suspected might occur as people reduce staff and really ran more lean. There was a lot of comments that were included by, we had 565 respondents so it was a pretty large survey and a couple of hundred comments that were anecdotally provided as well. And there was a lot of incite there around how the corporate PMO was really being repurposed and refocused to help the organization get as lean as it could in terms of how it could operate more efficiently.

Certainly, the PMOs had a reduction in staff, there’s no question about that. And obviously their size of project portfolios went down along with discretionary spending. So I found it very interesting how the PMO was shifting gears in terms of what its role was in the organization and the fact that it was not just wholesale removed as a cost-cutting component so that’s telling me that the PMO is starting to be recognized for the value that it can bring in times of intense change.

Cornelius Fichtner: And if I remember correctly, one of the things you saw was that PMOs are now also beginning to reach in to operational activities not just straightforward project management-related activities, right?

Terry Doerscher: Right, absolutely! I mean if you stop and think about it, the PMO is there to help facilitate the organization to do whatever its mission is and a big part of that is to help the organization make decisions.

Now historically, the PMO has certainly helped with the project portfolio which was really ultimately a discussion in organizations about what products or services or assets do we need to change or modify or get rid of. But certainly, I think there is a growing recognition that before you can have that discussion, you’ve got to understand a little bit better where you are as an operation before you can understand what you need to change and what that change strategy is going to be that ultimately drives this project management discussions and decisions.

So more and more we’re seeing the PMO to be the consistent elements to help shepherd that process along and then obviously once you get the results and the deliverables into operation managing the life cycles of those respective products and services as well. For example, I was very surprised to see the number of PMOs. About 60% of all application portfolio management initiatives are being run in PMOs now which I found very interesting.

Cornelius Fichtner: Let’s take a look in to the future here. What trends do you see in project management? Anything on the horizon maybe in regards to project management methodologies?

Terry Doerscher: Boy, I think we’re seeing much the same way we are with PMOs. In the world of project management, I’m seeing a very rapid uptake of interests in how to simplify and provide more flexibility around how project management is being executed.

Now obviously, we’re all aware of the fairly significant trend around taking an Agile approach for software development. But I am seeing that well beyond the arena of STLCs or even IT these days and more into how do we relay that to be more adaptive with project management in general in other areas of the business.

I can’t remember the last time I went to an industry even and there wasn’t something on the agenda about Agile Project Management or Adaptive Project Management. Usually, it wasn’t just specific for IT. So I think that is something we’re going to see more and more in the future because of a level of uncertainty we’re dealing with. It’s going to require us to be much more flexible and I think it really aligns better with the way we all work day to day in terms of how we really need to manage our projects so the heavy methodologies, they’re always going to be relevant for construction and the big monstrous projects that have to be in series but across the board, I’m seeing a lot more interest in the area of being more adaptive and not much definitive guidance out there and what that means and what it looks like.

Cornelius Fichtner: Talking about heavy methodologies, let’s talk about a heavy framework here. December 31^st 2012 is the expected release date for the PMBOK® Guide 5^th Edition. Are there any topics that you feel that are missing in the PMBOK® Guide and should be added?

Above are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete PDF transcript is available to Premium subscribers only.