Project Management Has Become More Adaptive and Flexible

Project planning has become more flexible.

I have been planning projects for over 20 years, and today's project planning is much more effective than the processes used back then. Decades ago, you had a project manager who spent a significant amount of time on predictive activities even before the project was being executed. Working off of objectives and a well-defined scope, the project manager would create a schedule and estimates on time and cost. The theory back then was that the more you could anticipate issues before the project began, the better you could create plans and potential mitigation activities when problems inevitably arose.

That was a good theory, but in practice, it fell apart. Project managers often did a poor job of estimating. Because they weren't experts like software engineers, they became reliant on the opinions and best guesses on how long things should take. The issue with software development is that it is difficult to accurately predict that certain activities will take a fixed amount of time. An integration between system A and system B could take a day, but this assumes the software developer understands the architecture of both systems, the means of integration are well-known and documented, and the integration is not dependent on another tool or code base. This is a simple example, and estimating software tasks was much more difficult in more complex scenarios.

Also, project managers quickly realized that the predictive work they created became out-of-date. Not only were estimates incorrect, but unforeseen issues such as executives changing scope, regulatory or market changes necessitating project modifications, or losses to key project personnel guaranteed that the schedule would be inaccurate.

Predictive styles of project management also proved unpopular with many development teams. Many software developers chafed at an uninformed outsider dictating time estimates, quality, and prioritization of tasks. Due to the rigidity of predictive project management, the scope could not be altered even when issues like security or the creation of management tools surfaced as crucial to the project's overall success during the development phase.

Project management today is in a far better place. While some predictive activities are still conducted at the beginning of the project, they are mostly limited to defining the problem and describing the business case. The project manager is now primarily a facilitator, helping to organize the work and ensure activities remain coordinated. Rigid adherence to schedules and estimates still causes project friction, but project teams are more open to creative solutions and alternatives. Getting input from the entire project team on the best method forward is now considered essential rather than optional.

Do you have a project that could benefit from an outside expert? I am a PMP-certified project manager and have experience in both traditional and agile styles of project management. I have completed large ERP migrations (Salesforce, NetSuite, HubSpot, Oracle), delivered customer-facing software, and led significant infrastructure upgrades (Active Directory, e-mail, and telephony systems). Let me know if I can assist you.

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