What is the top challenge for Project Managers nowadays? and what is the best way to deal with? (Maroun)

Project management has evolved throughout the years to cope with the fast moving markets. Back in the 80’s and 90’s, project management was still a shy concept and it revolved around making the right product with no real regards to time; concerns were quality and customer reach.

Starting the third millennium and the rise of competition in local and global markets, project management took a different turn. It evolved to cater for competition focusing on time and on scope, while maintain the quality level.

Companies were entering the competition field with a broader view of building better products faster. Money was being spent in substantial amounts and huge investments were made. Companies were either thriving or going through bankruptcy. Multiple projects were being undertaken simultaneously by companies and organizations were not efficiently managing the resources being expended, be it financial, material or human resources. In addition, the organizations were not coping with the evolution of strategies; projects were being finalized however, the results were not aligned with the new strategies because by the time projects were delivered, strategies would have changed and projects were not aware of them, nor coping with them.

Due to this, the need for proper project management was gaining momentum and project management was coping with the change. Companies started adopting project management methodologies with the need to have a bouquet of best practices, thus cutting short the way for greater effectiveness and efficiency while undergoing projects.

Project management stood tall to shape the future of projects, and after proving itself to be the right choice, and tagging along most successful projects; it became the millennial sensation. The importance of project management rose and this could be tracked by the number of certified professionals in project management which rose exponentially, for example in Germany, the number of PMP takers rose from 41 in 2000 to 800 in 2009; today the yearly German PMP exam takers average 1300 and the total PMP holders worldwide is nearing the million.

Other certifications are gaining popularity as well and companies like PgMCerty are doing a great job leading the way to successful certifications.

What is the future of project management? Well, everything is possible.

The evolution from waterfall methodology, to agile and from it to hybrid, gives us a clear answer that the horizon is wide for project management.