The 3 top trends in project management

On October 28 and 29, the International Project Management Forum took place in Nuremberg for the 31st time. Once again this year, a large number of interesting practical reports were presented in eight parallel streams on the management of projects in all sectors. I took away three particular highlights from the PM Forum 2014.

Classic and agile project management closely interlinked

Agile project management with methods such as Scrum or Kanban has long since conquered the traditional world. This is shown by the study "Quo Vadis Agile?" conducted by Koblenz University of Applied Sciences in collaboration with the German Association for Project Management (GPM). Of 600 respondents from 30 countries, 85% stated that they use agile methods either in part or in full. 39 percent use mixed forms of agile and classic project management. This impression was also confirmed by a large proportion of the presentations on agile project management, which dealt with the successful fusion of approaches. But be careful: agile methods require their own form of leadership that optimally supports the self-organization and goal orientation of the teams.

Managing risks with fun and games

How do you impart advanced project management experience? How does a project manager learn with a net and a double bottom? The answer is: with business games and simulations, as I was able to find out in two presentations. Business games are nothing new and are often used in school and university education. But even experienced project managers and project staff can learn a lot from each other in a simulation of complex project situations. It is important to reflect on what has been learned in relation to your own project situation. Whether at the beginning of the project, during the transition to a new project phase or as part of a lessons learned analysis, pitfalls and risks of the project can be recognized and knowledge can be made useful for subsequent projects.

Don't just philosophize about project management - just do it

If you listen to the key messages from the many successful, large and complex projects, you feel like you've been transported back to a standard project management training course. Proper planning and consistent project controlling are important - as is risk management, of course. Stakeholder and partner management are key success factors. Managing customer expectations is a "must" for complex projects. Yes, and you should talk to each other; internal and external project communication is fundamental. But: if it's all so simple, why do so many projects go wrong? And what factors made the practical examples presented at the PM Forum [1] successful? They simply applied the basics of project management consistently. And if something wasn't quite so consistent, the project managers made adjustments in good time.

Conclusion

At doubleSlash, we have been using both classic and agile project management methods for several years now. We also experience this "infiltration" by agile methods as an enrichment of our method toolbox for the benefit of our customers. However, agile methods in particular also require a strong commitment to these approaches. Simulation games such as Scrum Cooking [2][3] help us and our customers to create the necessary basic understanding. Regardless of which method or hybrid form is chosen, consistency in the management of the project is a basic prerequisite for the project to have the desired success.

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