The Fragile Reputation of Project Management in Economic Uncertainty
Is project management an “overhead” expense?
There’s always a trend with economic uncertainty, and that is for project management to be seen as an easy part of the whole to slice from the organisational budget.
And as we’re entering another phase of economic uncertainty (the third in my working career), I have been reflecting on the need for the PMO, and whether the project manager job description is a bit too busy for the changing needs of business. We know that as of 2023, 32% of Britons feel uncertain about money matters, inflation currently at 10.7%, and two-thirds of businesses reporting concern around operations. With this in mind we ask - is the economy really in the position to have more projects?
Project managers have long been the linchpin of successful organisations, responsible for planning, organizing, and overseeing the intricate web of tasks required to complete the innovative and ingenious opportunities that companies turn into efficiencies and profits. However, in recent years, the reputation of project managers has faced significant challenges due to issues surrounding their work and perceived poor outcomes. We all know that 70% of projects fail, a standing number that’s been relatively static for more than 20 years. This is a huge number in quantitative measures - in 2018 it was estimated that the potential loss of turnover for British business due to failed projects is estimated at £254.3 billion. I shudder to think what the figure is today, in a post pandemic world. When there are extreme economic pressures, spending 7-11% of your organisation’s budget, and risking 12% of potential revenue on something that fails 7 out of 10 times, can easily thought to be not good value for money.
So, I’m going to discuss why an organisation may feel that the current structure of project managers aren’t as effective as other roles. We’re going to look specifically at project designers, business analysts, and relationship managers. This is because in any successful project, it' isn’t the traditional project manager job description that’s most important, but rather the design, analysis and relationships that will ensure the project is sustainable, that is most critical to project success.
How PMs Get Caught in the Failure Trap
Project managers are thought of as fixers - people who can come in, under any circumstances, and make something work. There’s very little consideration of the environment a project manager is put in - whether there are clear business strategies, models or target operating states in place. The idea is that a PM can, magic up these crucial structures and drive project success.
PMs aren’t magicians though; depending on the nature and complexity of a project, a lack of critical infrastructure to run and complete the project will inevitably lead to unwanted or even disastrous consequences. Irrespective of fantastic communication, documentation and organisational skills, the PM will need to work where there is a clear understanding of objectives, outcome and the end state, and how it will lead to usable outputs.
The PM is the face of the project, and in line with keeping a solid reputation for themselves and their respective industries, they need to avoid the following:
Misaligned Objectives: PMs often are positioned solely in the minutiae of project management, and the wider, broader organisational goals are not focused or articulated. This misalignment can lead to poor project outcomes and disillusioned stakeholders. To avoid this, PMs need to push organisations to clarify objectives, and work with you to specify how those objectives translate into a final product.
Internal Competition: The competitive nature to succeed (at all costs) in some project environments can lead to a project manager who prioritises their personal success over project success. People at the end of the day want to ensure they have their next role, and throwing others under the bus is an (unscrupulous) but sadly effective way to ensure you’re considered the best. And, it results in adversarial relationships and hinders the collaborative process. This is more difficult to avoid, as it relates to core values and personality type - yet, if you feel yourself getting locked into a cycle of unhealthy competition, take a step back. Re-evaluate the situation and environment, and ask your Team Lead for support. Don’t lower yourself to the circumstances - rise above them.
Lack of Stakeholder Engagement: Effective project management hinges on stakeholder engagement and communication. When project managers fail to engage with stakeholders or heed their feedback at the expense of their own egos or that of their leaders, projects are at risk of veering off course. This is tightly linked to the organisational culture, and whether there are cliques or hierarchies in place with engagement. To avoid this, simply don’t be led astray - let people know there is a minimum amount of engagement needed, just the information required to get the job done - otherwise, the work won’t get done.
Overemphasis on Processes: While processes and methodologies like Agile and Prince are valuable tools for project management, an overemphasis on these processes can lead to rigidity and a lack of adaptability. Some project managers rigidly stick to their chosen methodology, even when it's clear that adjustments are necessary to meet changing project requirements. To avoid this pitfall, project managers should strike a balance between adhering to established processes and being open to flexibility when circumstances demand it. Afterall, every methodology has a section specifically on how to tailor - and this is only achieved with a thorough understanding of the organisation. A one-size-fits-all approach will not work for every project - adaptability is key.
Lack of Technical Expertise: While project managers don't need to be experts in every technical aspect of a project, they should possess a basic understanding of the industry and technologies involved. A project manager without adequate technical knowledge will struggle to make informed decisions, leading to costly mistakes and undermining the team's confidence in their leadership. To address this issue, project managers should continuously update their knowledge about the field they're working in. Collaborating closely with subject matter experts and seeking training or certification in relevant areas can also boost their credibility.
The Rise of the Specialist
Some organisations feel that the culture is too entrenched in negative habits to overcome this issue. And that’s a shame. But In response to these challenges, industries are actually sticking with the PM, but rebranding to focus specific core skills. This offers fresh perspectives and approaches to project success, and allows those involved in the delivery of project work to truly understand their role in delivering project success.
What are Project Designers?
Project designers specialise in crafting a comprehensive project plan and design. They excel at envisioning the project's ultimate goal, defining its scope, and outlining essential milestones. This environing often includes actual tangible assets, such as prototypes, sketches, simulations, HTML designs, flowcharts, etc. Their primary focus is on setting the project's strategic direction and ensuring alignment with organizational objectives. They don’t necessarily deliver on the project - the design is set to be a blueprint that specialists can further and use, and they assure that the specialists are staying on track. The organisation continues to own the benefits and delivery, and works with project designers on a strategic level to ensure their workforce and resources have the capabilities to deliver the work, meaning, it’s feasibility, and what skills will be needed to ensure sustainability.
Project Designers work to Programme Managers to ensure that the tasks remain strategically aligned across the portfolio, and assist in coordination of integrated activities. Yet, the Project Designer has a key focus - the detailed planning and design aspects of individual projects within a programme or organisation, ensuring well defined scope, blueprint, tasks, and design skills in products, systems or solutions. They are widely used in creative design, engineering and architecture - but the approach taken is finding its way into other industries, such as healthcare and technology.
What are Business Analysts?
We’re all more familiar with Business Analysts, as they’ve been around for a long time. And, there’s real benefit of analysts in Finance and Construction sectors, as well as health, technology, engineering, and customer relations. Business analysts act as bridges between business stakeholders and project teams. They are experts at gathering and translating requirements, identifying pain points, and proposing solutions. Business analysts ensure that projects are closely aligned with the organization's needs and objectives.
Given that a Business Analyst focuses on analysing and understanding business needs and requirements, the Project Designer is assured that the work for detailed planning and design of specific projects is evidenced based. There is a clear link between the business model and the work, and the competition between the two roles is negligible because they have very separate functions and deliverables to the team. This frees the Programme Manager to efficiently oversee and manage multiple related projects to achieve the broader organisational objectives and benefits.
What are Relationship Managers?
Relationship managers prioritise building and nurturing relationships with key stakeholders. They facilitate communication, address concerns, and ensure that stakeholders' interests are considered throughout the project lifecycle. Relationship managers promote collaboration and maintain transparency, vital components of project success. Relationship Managers can also focus their engagement with a client or supplier, giving dedicated concentration to nurturing and maintaining relationships between an organization and its internal and external inputs.
This allows Business Analysts, who sometimes are tasked with change management to be assured that decision making is informed by the full scope of stakeholder relationships. This frees the project designer to be more strategic and value focused, as stakeholder relationship building is time consuming. And of course, the programme manager is now assured that the current and growing stakeholder list is well managed, ensuring stakeholders have a positive view of the project and it’s movement.
Global Insights: Project Manager Distribution
A project manager, in its essence, ensures the project is moving forward and meeting it’s objectives. They are skilled at course correction, highlight reporting and individual task management. From the above role description, it’s obvious that project management seems to possess elements of design, analysis and relationship management - as well as driving the project forward - which is an impossible task. The programme manager ends up with some elements of project management as well, confusing the roles. For me, this is a major contributor to project failure, as lack of clarity in role description is at the source of employee dissatisfaction and poor project execution.
The prevalence of project managers varies worldwide, reflecting diverse approaches to the role:
United States, India, and China: These countries boast the highest numbers of certified project managers and robust project management ecosystems.
Japan and South Korea: While they have fewer certified project managers, these countries often employ efficient methodologies such as Lean and Six Sigma in project management.
Emerging Economies: In many emerging economies, project management may not be as standardised. Projects are often managed through informal networks, strong local leadership, and extensive knowledge of the local context.
What is consistent worldwide, is that 40% of project professionals worldwide say they might leave their jobs in the near future. This is no surprise, with the variation and lack of specialty to the profession.
Additionally, good project managers know when they aren’t needed (or they won’t be able to affect worthwhile change in the environment). Not all projects require a dedicated project professional, especially in smaller organizations or for straightforward projects. Design work may be all that’s required. Some organisations aren’t ready for full PMOs, they may be going through great transition, in which a relationship manager and business analyst would probably be more useful to the start of the project.
Organisations that can “go-without” a structured project management approach tend to have:
Strong Leadership: Organizations with strong leadership may delegate project management responsibilities to leaders who possess the requisite skills and experience.
Self-Organizing Teams: Agile methodologies promote self-organizing teams that collectively manage project tasks, reducing the need for a traditional project manager.
Simplified Projects: For well-defined projects with limited complexity, detailed project management may be superfluous, and team leads or supervisors can oversee the work.
And, incidentally, the first two points are also the features of organisations that have highly functioning PMOs and high project success! So, the need to prove the utility of project managers through the use of clearer and more specialised role descriptions is critical.
Conclusion
The reputation of project managers has faced significant challenges, prompting industries to consider alternative roles like project designers, business analysts, and relationship managers. These roles offer a fresh perspective on addressing issues that have eroded the traditional reputation of project management, and frees up the project manager to do what they do best - push the project forward.
In order to stop the failure trap; we need to rethink the project manager role. In most cases, clearer and more efficient job descriptions can be leveraged to achieve successful project outcomes, emphasising the importance of selecting the right roles to drive the organization’s needs. The evolution of project management is ongoing, driven by the need to adapt to an ever-changing business landscape. If we discontinue the practice of over-tasking project managers with roles best aligned to specialists, the outcome will be much greater efficiency and ultimate successes!
