Project management has become a cornerstone of the way enterprises “earn their corn”. The Association for Project Management released the results of a YouGov study it commissioned recently in which it discovered that 43% of the UK’s workforce are involved in projects of some description; and of this group, 11% are fully-fledged Project Managers.
The widespread acceptance of project management as its own discipline in business is a trend that is reflected worldwide, as explained by Kyle Wills who works out of Pennsylvania, USA as a global director – portfolio management for DSM Biomedical, a large life sciences corporation.
“Most industries now recognise the importance of project management – although not all do; there’s still work to do there – and it encourages me that there are now many educational institutions that offer project management courses and even degree programmes in project management,” he says. “What was seen before as a skill to be picked up through on-the-job experience is now a legitimate discipline with a well-defined core structure and a strong library of best practices.
“In the early days of formal project management, the focus was almost exclusively on the technical aspects of project management. Today, technical project management is but one of three equally critical areas identified by the Project Management Institute. The others are leadership and strategic and business management. Project managers are now expected to display aptitude in all of these areas.”
Read the subsequent posts in the series below:
Part 2: “What skills are required for effective project management?” here.
Part 3: “Why do a large chunk of projects fail?” here.
Part 4: “What are the keys to successful project management?” here.
