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| PMs Transform and Go forth |
Many of you are probably familiar with PMI's Talent Triangle. Simple, intuitive, and easy to understand. Only Pythagoras himself could come up with a better three-sided concept.It emphasizes the "ideal" set of skills for project and program managers to succeed in the project economy.
Ever since it came out, I've been a fan of the concept. It provides direction for technical, leadership, and strategic and business management skills development. The idea is simple. To stay relevant and competitive, PMs must develop these skills. Not to mention, these skills help to elevate the value of project and program managers as strategic partners in business success supporting longer-range strategic objectives that contribute to the bottom line.
The Talent Triangle was published in 2015. That's already five years ago. On a global scale, a lot has happened since then: The Brexit vote, Donald Trump, a global pandemic, and much more. Moreover, technology has advanced at an unprecedented rate challenging traditional business models. Moore’s Law, the golden rule for the electronics industry was even replaced by Neven’s Law after being unabated for 50 years. Basically stating, that the growth in power with each new improvement to Google's best quantum processor is growing at not just an exponential rate, like in Moore's Law, but at a doubly-exponential rate.
This is important in the context of the Talent Triangle because when it was published, the authors could not have foreseen the impacts of such exponential technological growth and particularly of certain disruptive technologies such as automation, robotization, and digitization. Over the course of the last five years, who would have predicted that high-speed mobile internet, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and cloud technology would have, to such an extent, catalyzed digital transformations across the globe.
Self-driving cars, artificial intelligence, quantum computing — these are no longer the fantasies of sci-fi movies. This is the reality of our future, or should I say present. The World Economic Forum highlights that we are on the cusp of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (or Industry 4.0).
What does this mean for project management?
Project management as a career is about to be turned up-side-down according to Gartner. It's been predicted by Gartner that by 2030, 80 percent of the work of today’s project management (PM) discipline will be eliminated by artificial intelligence (AI). Things like data collection, tracking, and reporting will become automated. AI will replace "repetitive" jobs--those tasks that can be automated like robots are doing in factories.
Many industries are already feeling the squeeze such as accounting, healthcare, marketing, law, hospitality, and many more. AI will target those process-driven, standardized and repetitive roles in the field of project management. In other words, the knowledge based "technical skills" of the talent triangle. As these technical skills are primarily process-based, they are easier to teach than other attributes that some project managers possess.
When AI Attacks and Decepticons rise-up!
Technical skills are primarily knowledge-based, and if these will be automated first, then the ancient axiom of "knowledge is power" no longer holds the same weight. It is only the starting point (sorry, Francis Bacon). AI operates with such an intentional, intelligent, and adaptive manner, that those repetitive, standard, and administrative elements of PM processes don't stand a chance.
Well, then it's time to transform! And program management offers a way to rise-up as it pushes the frontiers of leadership, business acumen, and strategy. A program manager manages multiple projects, and sometimes multiple programs while a project manager manages the teams responsible for fulfilling the project and achieving its deliverables. Project management is focused on creating a deliverable as efficiently as possible, program management is focused on maximizing the benefits realized by the organization. If we take a quick look at the following table, we can see a comparison:
As you can see there is a difference between program and project management. In general, program management involves much more of the holistic, strategic, corporate execution at a senior level with larger-scale impact on company finances and business goal achievement. Project management sticks closer to immediate tasks, outputs, timelines, and the goals of the project, and is perceived more as tactical or operational.
Future of Jobs
When we look at World Economic Forum The Future of Jobs report revealing the top 10 skills you’ll need by 2020, these skills align closely to the essence of program management, and can be developed operating in a program management environment:
Conclusion
In conclusion, to be successful in our VUCA world, PM's must transform, and gear up on their soft skills and leadership. Program management offers an avenue to develop these needed skills, but above all helping you as a PM professional to be a strategic connector and help demonstrate the added value of the role, and the impact project and program managers can have on business success - and above all, evolve professionally in a way that compliments the changing technological and business landscape, while avoid the risk of falling behind. PM's transform and Go forth!
The Author : Kamil Mroz
I am driven and energized by coaching, mentoring, and developing talents while overcoming transversal organizational challenges. My experience in people management has enabled me to discover my passion for the leadership of intercultural, diverse, and technical teams composed of both direct reports and cross-functional matrix project teams. I have been awarded global distinctions from both the largest PM organizations, IPMA, and PMI for advanced project management expertise, strong teamwork, communication & leadership.
I owe my servant leadership approach to the time I have dedicated to social and volunteer-causes where I focused on several high-impact philanthropic projects in Europe. I am also proud to have also been the first-ever student to be awarded the Young Alumni of the Year by the Faculty of Engineering from the University of Ottawa and I also Chair of the ISPE BeNeLux Steerco on Project Management.
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