The future of project management must have a balance between the tactical and strategic focus, in addition to a balance between digital and human. This balance will be key to achieving effective and sustainable strategic value realization.

Getting to this balance is a key to future experiencing culture. Much of achieving the balance topics were also addressed in the interview conducted by PMWJ. The interview was conducted by Yu Yanjuan PMR (2022). Project Management is a Strategic Competency: Interview with Dr. Harold Kerzner and Dr. Al Zeitoun; Project Management Review; republished in the PM World Journal, Vol. XI, Issue IV, April.

Based on your observation, what are the challenges facing project management now? What should we pay attention to in the era of PM 4.0?

Harold Kerzner / Al Zeitoun (Kerzner/Zeitoun): For decades, project management appeared restricted to traditional or operational projects where the requirements were well-defined at the onset of the project. We used to tell students to initiate planning, scheduling, and budgeting activities after you get a scope statement or detailed statement of work. The result was that most of the projects could be executed using a one-size-fits-all methodology. Most traditional or operational projects used the one-size-fits-all approach.

Today, we are seeing new types of projects coming into the mix. These new projects are strategic in nature, such as innovation, research & development, new product development and strategic planning initiatives. Many of the traditional project management processes, tools, and techniques used in operational projects do not apply to strategic or innovation projects.

Today, executives have realized the value in using project management for all types of projects. Flexible approaches such as agile and Scrum have been found to be more effective than the traditional waterfall approach on many projects. We find the key here is to not think ‘either or’ but choose a mix that most fits the project’s context.

Another challenge is that many strategic and innovation projects start out with an idea, rather than a well written statement of work or business case. Strategic projects have a greater likelihood of being impacted by even small changes in the enterprise’s environmental factors. In addition, decisions in strategic projects entail a higher degree of business risk than with the traditional projects. New metrics will be required to determine the true status and value of strategic and innovation projects. These challenges are now changing the knowledge requirements and the mix of skills that we expect project managers to possess in the future.