Almost any business stands to benefit from project management, the art of meeting your business goals within realistic parameters. With each passing year, innovations in the field make that easier than ever to achieve.

To see what’s on the horizon for project management, we spoke to several experts for their take on emerging industry trends. So, if you’re curious to see what project management looks like in 2024 and beyond, read on!

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Article Roadmap

• Key Takeaways
• Project Management Trends for 2024
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  • Data and Analytics
  • Hybrid Approaches
  • Emotional Intelligence
  • Adaptability
• Next Steps

Key Takeaways

• Widespread technology adoption follows increasing demand for better outcomes.
• AI and analytics show promise in reducing business project failure rates and raising the probability of successful outcomes.
• As AI and analytics streamline the practical side of project management, companies are shifting focus to human elements like soft skills, emotional intelligence and team collaboration.
• Advances in software and hybrid project management methodologies help project managers navigate working with remote and dispersed teams.
• Modern project management software provides businesses with unprecedented adaptability and flexibility.

Top Project Management Trends for 2024

Here’s what the future holds for the world of project management, according to our experts.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial intelligence is making waves across all industries for its unprecedented ability to enhance essential business operations. From automating simple tasks to analyzing user sentiments, businesses are leveraging AI and algorithms to develop better practices and a more efficient day-to-day. As many as 62% of companies agree that they’ve become more productive and efficient with AI.

This is especially relevant to the field of project management, where efficiency is king. AI can contribute to successful projects in countless ways, including:

• Generating performance insights.
• Estimating and predicting project specifics.
• Informing key decisions.
• Performing risk analysis.
• Visualizing data.
• Optimizing resource allocation.

Alan Zucker, Founding Principal of Project Management Essentials, had this to say about the AI trend:

As with all industries, there is much interest in the potential of AI. In the short term, AI has the potential to automate time-consuming activities such as taking and publishing meeting minutes.

“We may also see tools that can assist in developing, reviewing and monitoring project schedules and plans. AI will not eliminate the need for project managers. Instead, it will allow them to engage in activities requiring critical thinking or interpersonal skills, which cannot be automated now.”

By taking over these tasks, AI may also help mitigate project failure rates, which have been a serious issue in the field for a very long time. While this number has declined over the years, the Project Management Institute’s most recent study found that the average project failure rate remains around 28%.

The Project Management Institute traces AI adoption back to the pre-pandemic landscape, with early adopters using its capabilities to improve customer experience, employee efficiency and project outcomes. Now, in its more widespread use, it helps manage and predict key considerations like cost, duration and progress while simplifying execution.

Its promise, however, may be a little overstated, according to expert Shane Anastasi, CEO of PS Principles. He says:

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[W]hile AI is still promising it is not quite useful enough to assist. We have been building quite a few models that attempt to utilize our project management best practices as a way to help project managers guide their project decisions. The biggest issue we face is that too much data creates too many options and the AI cannot discern a best practice from a bad one.

Even with RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) approaches the models want to ‘inject’ incorrect steps that stem from ‘common’ knowledge as opposed to restricting the knowledge solely to the field of project management. Essentially, the overabundance of general knowledge waters down the best practices fed into the model.”

Anastasi’s insights align with what PMI forecasts for AI. With this technology in constant development, the only way to really harness its value is by investing in your own experts and staying on the cutting edge. High-performing organizations with robust digital transformation strategies will reap the biggest reward, especially if they invest in continual employee upskilling and reskilling to keep up with technological advancements.

While AI is meant to simplify things, employees still have to know how to use it effectively for companies to see the most return on their investment. PMI points out that businesses need to either hire or train IT and data specialists to support AI application, and create data governance strategies to keep the process organized and transparent.

And, while there’s a lot of potential, the jury is still out on whether AI will “prove capable of replacing human-like intelligence,” according to PMI. Certain advancements, like emotion AI, which enables machines to read, analyze and utilize our emotion states for business purposes, also bring up ethical implications for teams to deal with.

Ultimately, in the right hands, AI can be an asset to project managers, so long as it’s used effectively and responsibly. And, with so much effort going into development, it continues to become more user-friendly, commonplace and capable of handling complex tasks.

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Data and Analytics

Business owners have always known the value of their data. In addition to helping with the practical, day-to-day stuff, your data provides incredible insight into key areas of your business, from financial performance to customer behavior. Now, new technologies, like the analytics features in project management software, can help you really put that data to work.

Project management is an especially data-driven field. But as many as 54% of project managers can’t access project KPIs in real time, leaving that crucial resource untapped.

Data is the cornerstone of good management decisions. It helps with risk estimation, project scheduling, team formation, quality management, you name it. And its impact on successful outcomes is undeniable.

Anastasi sees the influence of analytics growing as demand for better project outcomes increases:

This might manifest itself by attempting to track more data around earned value (comparison of budget consumed versus progress made) for similar projects of size and complexity. This kind of comparison can give a ‘best in class’ type recommendation that might help keep the project from getting off track.”

For his part, Anastasi and PS Principles are building proactive assessment models that use a current project’s status and data to identify predictors of future problems.

We use them to help project managers predict if their project will escalate in the future and provide corrective action plans to have the project manager attempt to avoid the escalation before it happens.”

Zucker also weighed in on the influence of Big Data, saying:

As teams mature in their workflow based Agile practices, the use of predictive analytics that help estimate the time and effort required to deliver stories will also increase. Using these predictive analytics may prove to be the best way of estimating project cost and duration.”

Hybrid Approaches

The COVID-19 pandemic changed a lot about our lives, and it’s had a lasting impact on the workplace. Hybrid environments became the norm, and we’ve never really looked back.

In project management, “hybrid” has more than one meaning. Hybrid project management is a strategic approach to projects, combining traditional and Agile methodologies, like Scrum or Kanban.

In multi-project environments, scrum masters use various strategies to help their teams tackle complex problems. Using a hybrid approach keeps different personnel and areas of the project aligned with the same goals, while providing the flexibility to adapt to the needs of each.

As workplaces change, the methodologies project managers use change too. Alan Zucker tells us he’s noticed a drop-off in the use of Agile:

There is a slowdown or qualitative loss of interest in Agile. Some companies have declared ‘victory’ and reduced their Agile transformation staff. Colleagues report a waning interest in Agile coaching and training. The role of Technical Agile Coach seems to be gaining traction. It is unclear what is driving this shift in Agile or if it is a temporary blip or a longer-term trend.”

Ultimately, project managers are concerned with what will produce successful outcomes in the most efficient way. Finding the right hybrid strategy becomes even more complex in a hybrid work environment. Remote and dispersed teams are notoriously more difficult to manage, especially if employees work asynchronously or across various time zones, or have different backgrounds or work styles.

Remote project management strategies cater to these specific obstacles and needs. Transparent communication serves as the foundation, facilitated by features that promote teamwork. As Zucker notes:

Another major trend is the shift to collaboration workspace management tools, which allow teams to work and collaborate online. These tools make it possible for remote or distributed teams to create information radiators that are available to all team members.”

Establishing realistic expectations and clear assignments through concrete dependencies and milestones also helps keep teams functioning.

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Emotional Intelligence

Business isn’t all about data and numbers. The “soft” side of work is arguably just as important, if not more so. With employee happiness reaching a record low, companies are looking for ways to boost morale. After all, happier workers are as much as 20% more productive than their unhappy counterparts.

For project managers, navigating the complexities of human interactions is part of what makes for effective leadership. Emotional intelligence goes a long way towards project success.

For one, teams are often diverse, with personnel having different backgrounds, personalities and work styles. Emotional intelligence helps project managers understand and manage interpersonal dynamics effectively, promoting positive working relationships.

Also, understanding the needs, concerns and motivations of your team helps you utilize each team member’s potential to its fullest. Simply put, if you know your team members well, you’ll know what works for them and what doesn’t. This makes it easier to allocate tasks appropriately and avoid overloading anyone.

Project management is often stressful due to high-pressure situations, tight deadlines and unexpected challenges. Project managers need to not only guide their teams through these issues, but also regulate their own emotions and maintain composure, so they can focus on getting things back on track.

Then there’s the crux of project management: communication. According to PMI, about 90% of a project manager’s time goes to communicating what needs to be done, so it’s absolutely crucial to your success, especially if you’re working with remote teams and don’t have immediate oversight.

Emotional intelligence helps you not only communicate effectively with your team, but also foster good communication within your team. More than that, it builds trust, which increases personal investment, engagement and accountability from your team members.

As technologies like AI and software increasingly streamline the technical and practical aspects of projects, experts and companies alike will continue shifting focus to developing soft skills and building meaningful relationships.

Adaptability

We all love when things go according to plan — especially the project managers among us, considering the meticulous planning business projects involve. But sometimes life happens. Something breaks down, someone gets sick, a problem arises that you didn’t expect.

When that happens in project management, it’s sink or swim. You adapt and find a way to move forward, or risk your efforts going off the rails.

You might be feeling stressed out just reading this. But, while it doesn’t always happen, it’s something project managers have to account for, which is why developments in the field increasingly focus on adaptability.

Advancements in project management software help teams weather the unexpected better than before. Tracking tools provide granular insight into resource allocation, personnel status, timelines and task progress, making it far easier for managers to ensure things are going the way they should be.

And if something does go wrong, it’s much easier to not only pinpoint the problem, but also address it. For example, if your PM software shows you’re running low on a particular resource, you can see if there’s a surplus elsewhere, or make arrangements to bring in more of what you need before you actually run out.

Increasing accountability and transparency among your team also helps you adapt. Tracking tasks at every stage means there’s no mystery about who’s responsible when something doesn’t get done.

The days of wasting valuable time to investigate where exactly things went wrong are over. Technology can help you regroup and recover fast, and it’s only getting more effective in 2024 and beyond.

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Next Steps

It’s an exciting time to be in project management. Advancements in AI and analytics continue to improve how teams work, leading to better outcomes. On the flip side, trends like emotional intelligence and hybrid strategies underscore the human element that will always be integral to project success.

One way to stay ahead of the trends is investing in a solid project management software. Check out our free requirements template to see what features can help your business succeed in the new year and beyond.

What other project management trends do you think we’ll see in the coming year? Let us know in the comments!

SME Contributors

Shane has 20 years experience in the delivery of enterprise professional services and founded PS Principles in 2014 after publishing his groundbreaking book, The Seven Principles of Professional Services, which has become the standard orientation guide for customer-facing consultants. The goal of PS Principles was to help customer-facing project teams deliver their projects more successfully. Shortly after founding the company, he put the theories to the ultimate test by becoming the CEO of CirrusOne, a CPQ implementation start-up.

Alan Zucker has over 25 years of experience working in Fortune 100 companies leading projects and large organizations. He has delivered thousands of successful projects and managed major strategic initiatives. Alan has led large organizations and managed multi-million-dollar programs with hundreds of resources. In 2016, he founded Project Management Essentials to provide training and advisory services. His areas of expertise are project management, Agile, and leadership. He is a keynote speaker and provides customized training. He is also an Adjunct College Instructor.