Accelerating the Evolution of Project Management

By Andrew Macpherson, Executive Director, Project and Programme Management, Asia, Arcadis

Andrew Macpherson, Executive Director, Project and Programme Management, Asia, Arcadis

Six key areas are shaping the project manager of the future.

• Technology and Digital Transformation

• Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence

• Soft Skills

• The Client’s Customer and Design Thinking

• Project Management Offices

• Offshoring, Remote Teams, and the Gig Economy

Technology and Digital Transformation

Technology is rapidly advancing the planning and design development stages of projects through computational design, VR, AR, and MR. These digital tools allow end-users and customers to visualize the final product better, provide valuable input, and make faster decisions, thus reducing the time required for design development. Such visualization technology also facilitates design enhancements to improve constructability and maintenance, leading to reduced risk and improved efficiency during operations. Project managers should become fluent with these tools as part of an improved interface with clients, end-users, and other stakeholders.

Discussions about digital information naturally lead to Building Information Modelling (BIM). In the last few years, BIM has become the leading platform for hosting asset information in a consistent, integrated, transparent, and easily accessible digital format. As the benefits of BIM are being proven and the cost of implementing BIM is reducing, uptake is rapidly increasing. Governments across the globe are mandating that BIM is used on their major capital expenditure programs.

Today, BIM enables clash detection, design coordination, engineering calculations, quantity take-off, cost calculations, scheduling, site planning, and construction simulation all from a single set of digital information. In the future, BIM will facilitate a shift in the construction process whereby construction becomes more like manufacturing—leading to a step-change in speed, efficiency, quality, and cost. Arcadis has already invested in this area through a 100% BIM initiative, giving our 28,000 global staff access to BIM training.

Another game-changer for the construction industry is the concept of Digital Twins, which can be created for new buildings as well as retroactively for existing buildings. These digital replicas of physical structures allow for multiple data sources, such as building performance, building usage, and customer experience to converge in a data-rich environment, optimizing the overall performance of assets and improving decision making.

Finally, the proliferation of drones, mobile apps, and other forms of technology is adding to the changing the face of project and construction management.

Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The volume of data being generated in the design and construction sector is growing rapidly as new technologies are adopted by the industry. For example, Data Lakes are facilitating easier and faster collection of large amounts of structured, semi-structured, and raw data from multiple sources. At the same time, making use of such data is becoming easier with the development of processing tools that link seemingly unrelated data together and identify trends.

Data analytics and presentation are also becoming increasingly sophisticated. Real-time data capture and analytics, business intelligence tools, customer-friendly graphical representation, dashboards, and visualization are now able to present data in meaningful and intuitive ways.

Data has already progressed from descriptive (what happened and why), to predictive (what will happen next) and is rapidly moving to prescriptive (what should we do to influence the future)

The project manager of the future will be able to integrate data with experience, insight, and market intelligence–becoming a “digital translator” that can help their clients make informed, data-driven decisions without subjectivity and bias.

Data has already progressed from descriptive (what happened and why), to predictive (what will happen next) and is rapidly moving to prescriptive (what should we do to influence the future). The data flood has paved the way for artificial intelligence, and machine learning, two developments that have launched us into the 4th Industrial Revolution. AI allows project managers to analyze much larger data sets and deliver faster, more accurate and more consistent analysis, while freeing up time to build meaningful, human-powered relationships with team members and stakeholders.

Soft Skills

Just as important as the data processing abilities of AI bots are the indispensable human qualities that make a successful project manager. Machines can not yet lead teams, build relationships, listen, empathize, or negotiate - soft skills that are invaluable in any industry.

The Client’s Customer and Design Thinking

Rather than focusing exclusively on their client’s needs, project managers are increasingly considering the needs of their client’s customers, or the “end-user.”

To better serve end-users, project managers are utilizing design thinking: a non-linear, iterative process used to create innovative solutions which can be rapidly prototyped, tested, improved, and launched. This agile process is radically different from the traditional waterfall method that project managers are used to, which uses sequential phases to define, build, test, and release project deliverables. Design thinking instead uses iterative work cycles called “sprints” where each sprint can engage with end-users, build, test and improve and release project deliverables.

Project Management Offices

Establishing Project Management Offices (PMO) for delivering major projects or multiple smaller projects continues to gain popularity and for a good reason. The PMO provides the infrastructure and standard processes to ensure that projects efficiently meet their pre-defined goals and objectives. The PMO also provides an environment where aggregated project information can be used for performance managemen; lessons learned, reporting, and decision-making purposes.

PMO’s are evolving from a mainly administrative and procedural function to be more strategic and business-focused. In so doing, PMO’s are bridging a critical gap between strategic objectives and tactical delivery. In expanding their remit, PMO’s are embracing new capabilities like data analytics, stakeholder management, and change management to become a hub for innovation. The Digital PMO of the future will be able to provide relevant information, insight, and recommendations to any stakeholder, at any time, on any device to achieve the best outcomes.

PMO’s are also evolving to become more enterprise-based, acting as an integrator across multiple workstreams and departments to align towards a common business goal which is often transformational. The Enterprise PMO holds a strategic and highly influential position within the business and can influence strategy and lead change across the whole organization.

Finally, PMO’s are becoming more agile to respond to changing external factors and business needs. These PMO’s need to balance governance and standardization with responsiveness and flexibility.

Offshoring, remote teams, and the gig economy

Project management has largely been a client-facing discipline, with some aspects being undertaken by suitably qualified professionals in the back office or offshore locations. In parallel with the evolution of digital tools, more Project management activities will be undertaken remotely, often in ercenters of excellence located in lower-cost regions.

Arcadis has long-established Global Excellence Centres in Bangalore and Manila. Through the adoption of technology our GEC’s have evolved from providing back-office support to now being at the leading edge of scheduling and programming, BIM, data analytics and reporting undertaken by highly qualified and well-trained staff often with direct access to the client via video conferencing.

With the ability to leverage technology and establish remote teams, there is the potential for project management to follow other services such as graphic design, software design, writing, translation, and accountancy into the gig economy.

The use of so-called independent contractors on a short-term basis comes with both benefits and risks. From the structure, discipline, and professionalism provided via a competent, ever-learning project management organization is necessary to provide the intended outcomes for clients. Such organizations can access specialist skills or meet temporary increases in resource needs through the gig economy.