From ancient Egyptian Pyramids construction to modern apps implementation – a lot has changed in Project Management, and is still changing, in even more dynamic way. What is the future? The end of traditional waterfall approach, no need for designated project manager or even more remote work in dispersed teams – these are just some of the Project Management trends examples, especially in IT world.


History of Project Management is almost as old as history of mankind itself. We can easily see construction of the Egyptian Pyramids as huge, ancient projects. However, Project Management itself began to be seriously considered in the second half of the 20th century, when Neil Armstrong stood on the moon. Today, the projects grow and change in an indescribable way. In 2000 the approject consisted of one commissioner, one contractor and a few, maybe a dozen or so tasks to do. In 2010 it was already a dozen or so entities involved, and several thousand tasks to do. And the level of complexity of the projects is only increasing, so as the tools number.

Top 5 trends in Project Management

Talking about the future, people do talk that project management will no longer be in existence. However, I do not believe that project management will go away. Projects will always be there and so will be the need of project management. The future might change the strategies for project management, but it will exist for sure.

There will be no designated project manager

In all kinds of industries, the project manager has a main role to play. In the near future, with project management tools, there would be not main role of these project managers. Depending on the phase of the project like development phase or design phase, the role of the project manager will rotate throughout the development lifecycle.

Advanced leadership capabilities with increased need of tools

To provide more functionality the project managers will have to elevate their game and empower advanced leadership capabilities. Different software will give different features, the smart and intuitive services will rise to the top.

Need to be more agile

The future of project management is believed to close up the traditional waterfall project management and agile techniques. There will be different tools with each different approach and smart project managers will pick the tools according to their needs.

The evolution of collaboration ecosystem

There are various apps for different work and people have to rely on these apps for one work or the other. The future of project management lies on combining these closed apps together. It will inhibit collaboration technology where it will be possible for everyone to converge and work together easily. Everything for your project will be under one roof.

Remote work

The work is getting dispersed widely each day and it is increasing the need for remote project management software. The overall success, budgets and project schedules depends on having the right technology. And the right technology is the right project management tools which is inspiring companies to adopt remote working techniques.

Thus, the future lies in all the teams having a single system for everything at work and will not have to move between different tools. The companies need to be updated with new project management trends for a bright future in their industry. They need to understand their strengths, opportunities, and threats and increase the chances of advancing and adopt ways to respond to challenges in a better way.

The human element has proven vital

As projects have become less tactile and tangible and more digital and cerebral, the human element has proven vital.

We do not live in a world where CEOs tell their employees what direction the company is going and the employees will follow so they can please the boss. If we do not like a direction, we will advocate (or even sabotage) to get a new direction. Our projects have to accommodate whim, human nature, and willingness. This requires far more soft-skills, leadership, and an understanding of change management.

Rather than making project management more impersonal, some technological innovations have actually fostered better communication. And the human element – along with all the communication that goes with it – is the future of the project management industry.

Project Management from the IT perspective

Contemporary IT project management is significantly different from what it was even 10 years ago. A lot has changed with the wide-spread implementation of agile methodologies, such as Scrum or Kanban. The teams work different, but so do the Customers. Mutual expectations have gone up a great deal – the projects are to be developed faster, more efficiently, with minimal supervision of the Management, but at the same time the expectations of Product Managers is that they will retain full control of any features during the development cycle. Long gone are the Waterfall days when the requirements would be written in stone as early as possible. Especially in IT, because of the rapidly changing environment where new versions and new software are released every week, it’s vital to be as up to date with the project as possible.

Project manager’s role has shifted dramatically. From the “all knowing” guru the role is shifting more towards Business Management, or even Product Management itself. PMs should be more versed in negotiations with the customers/clients in order to enable their teams’ full capacity. With the teams’ skill cap growing, it’s of vital importance that any roadblocks are removed early and clear expectations are set with all the stakeholders. All this aimed to making sure the specialists, like developers, testers, architects, etc. can perform their work without unnecessary interruptions as well as excel in their narrow fields of expertise.

IT is a very competitive market with brain drain present at every corner. A well versed, highly skilled project manager must remember about team’s well being every step of the way. It’s up to the PM to manage the working environment. You should remember the old saying “people don’t leave Companies, they leave bad managers”. And having a stable, senior team is the dream of every business manager.

Teams and team members are becoming more and more specialized, it’s up to the project manager to make sure everyone’s deliverables are provided. In a perfect world, the team of specialists can handle itself, but it’s up to the manager to make sure the business is happy and the environment for the team is optimal.