Rebles Guide to PM

1. Project Management Trends [2025 edition]

   

   There’s no denying that project management today looks different to how it did even 5 years ago. Project management trends shape our profession. We see technology evolving, new tools, consolidation, innovation and more.

   Trends come and go, or they stay with us and evolve into new ways of working that stick around and become “the way we do things around here.”

   Change is inevitable – we all know that. So what are the emerging trends in project management that are going to shape how you do your job in the future? And how can you benefit from them? Well, I have the answers for you. Read on!

   How project management is evolving

   The trouble with trends is that you might not notice they are happening. Often, ‘trend’ is shorthand for the prediction of a gentle evolution. You just carry on doing your job and you don’t notice the world shifting under your feet.

   Until it’s too late.

   Staying relevant in a fast-changing business environment is part of the job these days. We all need to be following what's happening in consumer and commercial environments so we can keep our skills up.

   The way tech, economic, social and environmental considerations are evolving – heck, even the way public health affects workforce planning – will impact the way projects are run.

   https://youtu.be/oW7bAekVPx0?si=KiRwVDwbu4EXRpHU

   10 Project management trends you need to know

   Leaders need to know how the world around them affects the work they are doing today, and how to plan to capitalize on those trends in the future.

   Ready to find out more? Here are the top project management trends that are already shaping the world of project delivery.

   1. Data analytics

   Bringing more data professionals into projects was a theme of Andy Murray's column in Project magazine's Winter 2023 edition, and it's still relevant today.

   APM now has a Data Advisory Group. Questions like: "Do we need project data analysts or translators?" now come up in board room discussions.

   Data analytics is all about using current and past project data and predictive data to help people make better decisions. It gives us the information to bust myths, uncover truths and reinvent how projects get done.

   Why is it important?

   You can only get the benefit from data if you know how to use the data.

   A huge trend at the moment is making sure that the vast amount of data in our project management software is accessible, presented in an understandable, meaningful way and available to decision-makers.

   What you can do

   • Look at what data is available on your project and consider if it is being used to its full advantage.
   • Take the Google Data Analytics Certificate for an introductory, solid understanding of what can be done with data - it's eye-opening!
   • Consider the bias in your data and how that might influence decisions.

   2. Managing a hybrid, multi-generational team

   Project leaders today have to manage a hybrid workforce. Your project team is no longer guaranteed to be in the office every day.

   Remote work has always been part of the project ecosystem, from off-shoring and near-shoring development and customer services but now even the colleague who lives down the road is likely to be in her home office at least some of the week.

   On top of that, we're facing the first time that 4 generations have been in the workplace together. Managers need to adapt their leadership styles to better address how different team members want to work and be managed.

   Why is it important?

   “The only positive thing to have come out of this pandemic was the (at first) necessity and (later) willingness for employers to embrace flexible work,” says Amanda Haynes, Marketing Manager at Ganttic.

   “Remote and hybrid work has been a boon for employee work/life balance (what we now call work/life integration) and often a prerequisite for new employees. Since 91% of US workers want to work at least somewhat remotely in the future,” she adds. “And since we're already in the middle of the great resignation, companies need to be willing to allow this work model in order to retain their employees.”

    What you can do

   • Embrace the trend. It benefits you as well, not to be in the office every day.
   • Listen to your team. Find out how individuals want to work as well as how the team overall wants to work.
   • Use tools designed to help keep your remote and hybrid team on the same page.
   • Be willing to incorporate a few different tools to meet the varied needs of your colleagues.

   3. More trust, less control (especially in remote teams)

   If nothing else, the coronavirus pandemic has shown us that remote teams are an effective way of working. Businesses that resisted the shift to Zoom meetings are now embracing the flexibility that remote teams give them.

   Project managers need to be competent in leading remote teams and working with colleagues online, and that means a different approach.

   “There is already a shift in employer-employee relationships,” says Jacob Udodov, Founder and CEO of project and task management platform, Bordio. “And there will be more changes in the next few years. What we practice already and more and more companies are adopting is more trust and less control. Results are what's important, and it doesn't matter how many hours employees spent at their desks or what time they logged in today. If the deadline is met and the end-product is great, why micromanage the rest?”

   Couldn’t agree more! A results-oriented workplace is where we should all have been for some time, and finally that’s gaining traction.

   Why is it important?

   Remote work gives you flexibility. It stops you having to rely on people who work in your local area and means you can draw on subject matter expertise from wherever the best people happen to be.

   In the APM Salary and Market Trends survey 2021, 61% of respondents reported that working from home options were an important criterion for choosing a new role, up from 52% in 2020.

   People want flexible options for work.

   WFH and flexibility also minimize our impact on the environment by cutting down on commuting, give us more time in the day (which many people then spend working instead of traveling) and improve work/integration balance.

   What you can do

   • Brush up on your virtual leadership skills.
   • Think about how you are going to run remote team meetings and workshops – it is different to holding meetings face-to-face.
   • Assume trust in a remote team, but consciously try to build it as well.
   • Make sure you’re alert to burnout in remote teams. Research from Gallup shows that nearly 80% of full-time employees experience burnout on the job at least sometimes.

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   4. Integrating change management for project success

   Too much of project management focuses on building and completing something. There’s not enough focus on whether the people receiving the ‘something’ are actually ready to work with it.

   “Reimagine the must-have project management skills,” says Brantlee Underhill, Managing Director, North America, Project Management Institute (PMI). “Project management isn’t just about managing spreadsheets and timelines. The projects of the present and future need project managers who are strategic partners and changemakers. In addition to business acumen, the top bracket of project managers deploys interpersonal skills like relationship building, collaborative leadership, strategic thinking, creative problem solving, and commercial awareness.”  

   Change management uses all of the skills that Brantlee mentions and if you want to be a changemaker, it’s an important area to embrace.

   Change management is the forgotten discipline of project success.

   You might be lucky and have change managers working in your business. Or you might be like most of us and have to do the change management as well as the project management.

   Relationship building is one of those cross-over areas that relates to both project management and change management as disciplines. We need to engage stakeholders about the project’s progress, but we also need to engage the people affected by the project work with what’s happening and why it’s happening.

   Without change management, your project will struggle – and it might even fail. A successful project embraces change management, even if the only person doing it is you.

   Why is it important?

   Here’s an example of how project communications are changing, and how we can tap into that for better change management.

   In 2021, Ciscoestimated that 82% of consumer internet traffic was video. If that’s what your stakeholders are doing on the internet outside of work, how do you think they are going to want to get status updates and briefings at work?

   Research by Vidyard and Demand Metric reports that video converts better than any other content type. In other words, it shifts behavior. It gets people to buy or sign up or whatever.

   And my own research during the winter of 2017 shows that getting people involved in projects is still the most challenging part of getting work done. Stakeholder relationships are a huge area of concern for project managers.

   Video shifts behavior? I’ll have some of that please.

   Yes: video is coming to employee communications and to how we become changemakers and engage others.

   To a certain extent, it is already here. Some companies are already using video as part of staff onboarding and training.

   What you can do

   • Read up on change management – learn what it is and how to best apply it to projects.
   • Take a change management class (like my fab workshop which has loads of templates and support resources included).
   • Look at your project schedule and consider whether you have truly incorporated enough change management activities (and time/budget for those activities) in the plan.

   5. Soft skills and EQ as a differentiator for leaders

   Emotional intelligence is one key skill that it’s worth calling out because it’s about how you operate in your environment.

   Your project environment is a complex socio-political web of interactions, populated with people who know what they want, most of the time. And those wants don’t always play nicely together.

   As in the past, we’ll see soft skills valued more highly – perhaps valued more highly that credentials. As the demand for project management work grows, certification schemes are a simple way to differentiate candidates, but being able to operate effectively within the organization is key to getting things done.

   Why is it important?

   The trend towards valuing soft skills is important because as automation and AI bring advanced features to our tools, much of the ‘technical’ bits of project management can be done by software.

   I see a day in the not too distant future where you plug your task information into a tool and out pops an estimate, based on the last 12 projects using the same resource and qualitative data on past performance. The tech is already there – it’s just a case of making use of it.

   That means your interpersonal skills are more important than ever – the shift is to project managers being awesome at stakeholder engagement, conflict resolution, change management (more on that later), negotiating, influencing and all the things that tools aren’t (yet) capable of doing for us.

   Emotionally intelligent project managers are in demand. The exec team need to know that you aren’t going to do or say something to upset anyone. Beyond that, being able to look out for your team takes being able to interpret social cues and people with high EQ find that easier to do.

   What you can do

   • Be culturally and socially aware.
   • Be curious.
   • Invest in relationships and actively value the people you work with.
   • Read Anthony Mersino’s excellent book: Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers

   Read next:15 easy-to-do types of professional development

   

   6. Resilience as a priority

   Project work is stressful, we know that. I’ve written in the past about the results of my survey into why people are leaving project management. And let’s face it, so far this decade hasn’t exactly shaped up to be that great for many people’s mental health.

   Safeguarding our emotional and mental health and that of our teams has to be up there as a trend for the forward-thinking leadership team. Resilience as an individual, resilience for the project, and business resilience are all essentials for the next 12 months.

   Businesses were quick to put in place the resources to help staff work remotely. But the associated support networks for remote and hybrid work haven’t been as quick to appear. And given the ongoing disruption, frequent ups and downs and economic fallout that has happened recently, resilience is top of my personal list for next year.

   “What businesses didn’t have the time or realization to do at the time, was to provide their people with the mental support they needed to adjust to this change,” says Karine O’Donnell, Director, project trainer and coach at Australian consultancy, Projecting With People.

   “More and more, projects are being impacted by emotional and cultural factors caused by the changes to how people are working,” she adds. “I’ve already seen several organizations planning projects to support the emotional needs of the hybrid model of working, where some of the team work-from-home and some work from the office.”  

   Karine predicts that more organizations will start projects to support well-being at work including:

   • New HR regulations for people working full or part-time from home 
   • Time sheeting projects to help businesses address productivity concerns
   • Digital tools to facilitate online collaborations, task completion, project planning and management 
   • Online mindfulness programs to support staff anxiety, stress, and burnout.

   Why is it important?

   People are our most valuable asset. It’s not enough to simply do the work. We have to do the work in a way that doesn’t destroy us.

   The Great Resignation, quiet quitting, workplace stress, and having to hold the fort while colleagues are off have all taken their toll on teams.

   In a research report by the UK's Ministry of Defence into psychological safety in major projects, projects that scored in the top quartile for high psychological safety had 47% higher median wellbeing scores than the lower quartile. That's basically saying that teams that put effort into creating psychological safety have better wellbeing (and higher resilience, I'd add).

   Looking out for each other should be a top priority.

   What can you do?

   • Use resource reporting to check workloads and ensure no one is overloaded. If you don’t have resource management tools, do a verbal check in with the team at least once a week.
   • Create psychological safety at work so people feel it’s OK to tell you they are struggling.
   • Live it. Don’t be the kind of boss that says everyone should have a work/life integration and yet send emails at 2am while you’re still working. Model the environment you want to create.

   7. Artificial intelligence and RPA

   This won’t be news to you: everyone is talking about AI being a powerful trend for the coming years. There are lots of applications for this in project management software including:

   • Identifying potential risks through natural language search
   • Improving risk assessments
   • Testing risk response
   • Allocating resources and resource levelling
   • Intelligent, real-time scheduling
   • Automating mundane and repetitive tasks
   • Improving consistency in process and decision making.

   However, AI is more likely to be suggestive rather than active, as Dennis Kayser points out in this podcast on the DPM website.

   Remember the paperclip in Microsoft Office?

   Clippy was early suggestive AI, bringing you “helpful” suggestions. It was so helpful that Time declared Clippy one of the 50 worst inventions of all time.

   AI is coming to the tools you use,but let’s hope that the developers have learned the lesson of the doomed paperclip.

   Bots are another aspect of this: if you’ve had auto-responses through Facebook Messenger or used a Slackbot then you’ll have seen them in practice. I think there are some good uses for this such as opting in to receive status updates, sending team member reminders and so on.

   RPA is Robotic Process Automation. It’s a way of automating repetitive tasks and it’s having a bit of an impact on the PMO community. As a way to save time, it has huge potential, so expect to see more of that in your Project Office.

   Why is it important?

   Tech is always evolving, and if you want to stay relevant in the marketplace, you need at least some understanding of what’s happening to the tools you use.

   Ultimately, AI, bots and RPA are there to make lives easier for project teams, streamline tasks and give us more time to do the stuff that robots can’t do.

   “If you can have your project management tool do more for you without lifting a finger, you can save money and increase productivity,” says Lindsey Allard, CEO and Co-Founder of  PlaybookUX. “Use automation to help you to perform basic tasks, organize specific things, and even compile helpful data.”

   She adds: “I’ve seen how helpful automation can be in regards to project management and I look forward to seeing how automation can elevate my processes in the coming year.”

   Varada Patwardhan, Managing Director at Xebrio, agrees. “The role of project managers in the industry is evolving into project leaders,” she says. “They will be expected to integrate AI capabilities in their project management styles and give more emphasis on their emotional intelligence and soft skills like ideation, communication, and problem-solving skills.

   For project leaders and organizations, implementing AI capabilities can help attain transparency. AI can accurately identify potential risks in a project and augment a project leader’s decision-making ability by analyzing data from multiple projects at the same time.”

   What you can do

   • Look at how you can leverage the AI capabilities of the tools you already have.
   • Look at how you could adopt new tools with automation and AI features to speed up repetitive work and data analysis.

   

   8. A strategic shift for PMOs

   With tools becoming smarter (more on that in a minute) and automations taking some of the grunt work out of project data crunching, what’s the future for the Project Management Office?

   PMOs are here to stay in my view, but they might look different as they evolve to meet the changing needs of organizations.

   For example, instead of putting together a strategic plan for what projects are going to be delivered over the next 3 years, they may be called on to answer “How” questions instead like these:

   • How can we optimize our processes?
   • How can we make a splash in a new market?
   • How can we launch a new product in 4 months?

   “I believe the PMO will have to focus on those more strategic areas and shift away from specifically defining the teams and resources that will do the work,” says Bill Raymond, host of the Agile in Action podcast. “Moreover, the PMO may be removed from tracking those efforts after the problems have been identified and the teams set the work into motion.”

   Why is it important?

   Bill says that with cross-functional projects – especially those that are highly visible – it’s almost a given that a PMO will be set up to track and plan the work.

   “Moving forward, organizations will put the tracking and delivery of the work on the teams and tools,” he says. “PMOs will be reporting centers and support the teams in addressing major issues or risks that the teams escalate.”

   What you can do?

   • Think about how your PMO teams are rewarded. Are they rewarded based on things within their control, or is an aspect of the bonus dependent on other people completing projects within a given time? What would make it fairer?
   • Determine business outcomes and priorities and start operating strategically within the PMO, even if it isn’t demanded of you yet.

   9. Customization of project management tools

   Customization is where you can tailor your messages effectively to the audience to the point that they think they are getting a more personalized service, but without too much work behind the scenes.

   It’s another consumer trend. When I first wrote Social Media for Project Managers, I was reporting on consumer trends that were making their way into the business environment.

   When the book was updated and reissued as Collaboration Tools for Project Managers, we saw that a lot of the consumer uses of social media were firmly embedded in collaboration tools: think features like chat, file sharing, liking and gamification etc.

   Perceived customization is another example of a growing consumer marketing and tech trend that will find its way into how we manage change.

   One aspect is all about making sure people see the right data at the right time, and smart analytics is definitely going to shape how we process data as project professionals.

   “The predictive analytics space will be a completely new market to figure out,” says Ryan Fyfe, COO of Workpuls. “Primarily because those might model for strategic intent, human strategic intent. We're going to have predictive analytics that not just look at what somebody does but tries to figure out why they do it, and figure out how their decision-making process works. It's going for a much higher level of insight than you can get by looking at the person's behavior alone.”

   Rich data will help tailor the project management journey for stakeholders and help leaders make smarter choices about what next steps to take when the environment seems uncertain.

   Who knows, we might see more virtual reality environments, tailored to our stakeholders, in the years to come.

   Why is it important?

   Customization is a different take on tailoring your approach and communications to suit the audience. Within project management tools, I want to see the things relevant to me. My sponsor wants to see different things, like real-time information on progress and budget. The data we both need is different, but obviously drawn from the same data set.

   It’s all possible with a few clicks and a smart set up. One-size-fits-all doesn’t cut it any longer. Did it ever?

   What you can do

   • Look at how you can customize your project management software to present data intelligently to different groups via reporting and dashboards.
   • Ask stakeholders how they would like to receive project information and customize to the best of your ability to make it relevant (and therefore more likely to be read).

   Need advice choosing the right tool? We’ve partnered with software comparison portal Crozdesk to bring you expert suggestions. They’ll call you to find out your needs and then recommend products to fit — massively cutting down your time to shortlist suitable project management software.

   
   
   

   10. Tailoring project management methodologies

   Are you waterfall or Agile? Or something else? Project managers need to make smart tailoring decisions and choose the methodology that best fits your team and your project.

   And let's be honest, there aren't only two ways of doing work: linear and predictive methods are simply two ends of a spectrum of tools and techniques and you pick where you sit on that spectrum based on the risk and uncertainty level of your project, amongst other things.

   With the PMBOK® Guide, The Standard for Project Management and the PRINCE2® manuals both discussing tailoring more thoroughly than ever before, project managers have more flexibility to adapt project approaches to their environment.

   But do project managers have the skills to tailor their approaches?

   Tailoring requires professional judgement. It requires being able to differentiate between the benefits of Agile, waterfall and blended approaches, understanding the pros and cons of each. You don’t get that from reading a book.

   What matters is whether you can get the job done in a way that works for your business.If that’s a blended approach, and I’m seeing that more and more, then good for you. If pure Scrum works, or you’re totally a waterfall shop, then as long as you are seeing results no one is going to care.

   Having spoken to a lot of project managers over the last year, formal training seems harder and harder to come by, and more and people are having to take responsibility for their own career development. And this is a global project management trend.

   If project success rates are going to go up – and they really should – then value and business benefit are where we should be putting our energy. Not into what template you need to use or whether it’s a ‘risk log’ or a ‘risk register’.

   Agile is no longer a ‘trend’ – especially since we’re now more than 20 years on from the Agile Manifesto. It’s a reliable, repeatable way of working that brings huge benefits to the teams that do it well.

   However, it’s still not widespread or adopted reliably and effectively.

   There’s a trend, in my opinion, towards more intelligent adoption of agile methodologies in a way that better suits your context. For example, more Kanban for operational teams – shock! Non-project teams using agile tools to get work done! And Scrum of Scrum style set ups for larger organizations looking to scale.

   Why is it important?

   Today, more than ever, we need flexible ways of working.

   We have to be able to change and adapt to market conditions, but the type of work we do often needs input from specialists, meaning the ‘traditional’ multi-functional and self-sufficient Scrum team doesn’t work for every project that would benefit from Agile methods.

   Hybrid project management works – we know that. This trend is important because ultimately business value is the only thing that matters.

   As project managers, we want (and need, if we care about our careers) to deliver something brilliant that is valued by the organization. Who cares how you get there? Methodology is not a competition.

   The complexities of your project management environment are encouraging more managers to seek out mentors and coaches for themselves and their teams to learn from others.

   That makes tailoring decisions easier, because you’ve got support and past experience to draw from as well as your own theoretical knowledge.

   Oh, and that is something I can help with, if you are looking for a professional project management mentorship scheme.

   What you can do

   • Look critically at the project management methodology in use and consider if it really fits your project. Make conscious decisions about how to work effectively.
   • Be brave with your tailoring. Flex your agile approach to truly suit the needs of the team members.
   • Share your agile knowledge with people outside your immediate team. Ops teams and others can benefit from a smart way to manage their work.
   • Find a mentor with experience to help you make tailoring choices.
   • Don’t be snooty about agile or non-agile – whichever side of the fence you come down on as a personal preference. You can combine them and still get the work done. We’re all friends in project management, and we all have the same goal: delivery.
   • Be open and collaborative. Work with your colleagues to learn about their best practices and bring your knowledge together to create the perfect solution for your teams.

   Now you’ve seen what’s coming in the short term, why not check out what thefuture of project management holds for us? Get ready… more change is coming!

   This article first appeared on Rebel's Guide to Project Management and can be read here: Project Management Trends [2025 edition]

2. 5 Questions For Your Project Supplier

   

   Finding the right supplier for your project can have a huge impact on whether you deliver successfully or not. A good supplier will work with you to create a positive partnership with the shared goal of getting the work done on time and to the required specification.

   A not-so-good supplier will make it harder to work collaboratively and creates a tension in that working relationship that you could really do without.

   As choosing a supplier is so important, it’s important to ask the right questions.

   You are likely to have several vendors to choose from, all of which who look equally good on paper and can do what you want. Here are 5 questions to use during your vendor selection that go above and beyond this to help you establish who you want to work with.

   

   1. Can they use your tools and methods?

   Let’s say you use earned value management on your projects. Does the supplier that you are considering have an understanding of what this means for them?

   If earned value is a deal-breaker for you it’s better to have these conversations up front. Failing to do so could leave you disappointed when the vendor doesn’t understand the jargon or can’t provide data in a way that helps you with the progress measurements.

   Is there software compatibility?

   The same goes for online software. Many project management teams rely on collaboration tools to help them manage their projects, and these often involve uploading files and instant messaging-style chat between team members. Does the supplier have experience of using the same tools as you do, or are they at least willing to learn?

   This is also a question to ask your IT department. Your supplier may be willing to use your version of Viva Engage or to upload documents to your networked tools, but can they be granted access to do so?

   For security reasons, this type of product is often hosted on your company network and is not available to outside groups. IT may have to arrange guest or privileged access for suppliers if this is a necessity for your project’s success.

   Do you share the same project delivery values?

   Finally, do they have experience of using the same project management approaches as you, or are you willing to support them? You could, of course, decide to adapt your working practices for this project to compromise based on how they work. All of those options are fine, but again it is worth discussing this with them before you are thrown into the busy work of projects and don’t have time to explain the change management procedure.

   2. What is really included in the quote?

   The supplier’s proposal will include a list of things included in the quote. Share this with your project team and make sure that nothing obvious is missed out. It’s often easy to overlook:

   • Taxes
   • Training (even if training days are included they still have to prepare the training materials)
   • Training for your own user acceptance testing team (how are they going to test the system if they haven’t had any training on how it works?)
   • A realistic budget for travel expenses that isn’t simply a % calculation based on the overall proposal cost
   • Attendance at steering group or project board meetings by some of the senior people on the account (the day rate for these people might not be billed to you, but it’s definitely worth asking how that would work, especially is they can be very expensive)
   • Interfaces with other systems or software
   • Hardware to make their (software) solution work, such as a new server.

   It is also sensible to ask them to estimate a budget for change management based on their prior experience. They may not be able to do this but in your own project expenses it’s a good idea to account for a contingency fund just in case.

   Interfacing extras

   Remember, if you are implementing new software and it needs to connect to existing software, you’ll also need input from that software manufacturer. The two vendors will have to work together in order to make their tools ‘talk’ to each other.

   I have worked on projects where both suppliers have said how easy this would be and it has turned out to be anything but. Even with a willingness on both sides you can still hit problems and that equals a higher cost. Try to take estimates of this work from interfaces the supplier has created before or your own internal project expertise.

   3. What other costs do they foresee?

   Let’s have that conversation about extras now. Before you sign on the dotted line, or at least in the really early days of your project, you should make time to discuss additional or hidden costs.

   Hidden costs don’t have to always be something that the supplier will charge you. They may have experience of doing similar work for other clients and have insights into the kind of things that cause budget overruns on this type of project.

   Pick their brains. What other projects have they worked on that were similar and went over budget? Why? This is a good exercise to build a positive and long-term trusted working relationship with a supplier and will help you with contract management going forward.

   Areas where projects often go overspent include the following:

   Licences

   The project team find out that a lot more users have to be licenced, or the licence model for the software doesn’t meet their needs after all, and they have to choose a different (more expensive) model.

   Training

   Consultants often put a few days in their proposal for training. In my experience, this is rarely adequate as it leaves you with a huge group of people to cascade the training to. Do you have the team members to do this or would you want your supplier to do it?

   Go live support

   Depending on your project, a few days of go live support isn’t normally enough. What do they expect you to do afterwards? Find out how the go live period will be managed, and think carefully about how much support you think you will need for hypercare.

   

   4. What experience do they have of your industry?

   They might be experts in this particular widget, but what do they know about your industry?

   Say you’ve got a choice of vendors. One has excellent industry knowledge but limited experience of the solution you want to use. The other has deep solution knowledge and has used this technology all over the world but hasn’t ever worked in your industry.

   I’ve faced this decision before, and in the end, we decided that we could work together on the technology, but explaining our industry was complicated. A vendor with industry experience was a necessity for that project.          

   That might not be the right decision for your project, but it is worth considering whether it’s easier to teach someone the nuances of how your industry works or if you need to find someone who has experience in the sector already. Both options are valid and have advantages and disadvantages specific to your situation.

   5. Can they provide references?

   Before you sign the contract, it’s a good idea to get feedback from past or current clients. The vendor should be happy to share this information with you. They probably already have a number of customers who are willing to be used as reference sites or contact points.

   In some cases, they’ll even earn credits towards their maintenance or support agreements if they host potential clients and explain about their project, so don’t feel as if you are asking too much.

   If you want to visit someone who has used this supplier’s products or services before, just ask. It’s often a lot more useful than reading a glossy case study brochure (although that has its place too – they can give you a quick overview of whether this vendor can meet your needs).

   Plan your time for a reference visit

   Be clear about what you want to ask the referee and how much of their time you anticipate needing. That will help them and the supplier prepare, and you’ll get more out of the conversation.

   Have your list of prepared questions as well but don’t be afraid to ask something different if the discussion feels like it has naturally turned that way. Those questions should include what they found difficult about their project and what they would do differently if they did it again.

   Take advantage of the time with them to ask about their lessons learned so you don’t make the same mistakes!

   Read next: 12 ways to manage project quality without the drama

   Your next steps

   These 5 questions alone won’t help you choose the best supplier for your project, but they will certainly give you lots of background information about ways of working, transparency, and whether they would be a good fit for your project and corporate environment.

   Sometimes, finding people who you can work with effectively is more important than them knowing everything there is to know about the technology, situation, or industry. You can work things out together and draw on their resources and expertise as you see fit while both sides concentrate on doing what’s right to bring the project to a successful close.

   Making the decision about a vendor is important as it can be the start of a long-term relationship, so do your homework and choose wisely!

   This article first appeared on Rebel's Guide to Project Management and can be read here: 5 Questions For Your Project Supplier

3. How To Build A Project Scorecard

   

   A balanced scorecard is a way to monitor progress against a set of key, agreed measures. Companies typically have goals to focus on each year, such as revenue growth or health and safety targets.

   It’s called a balanced scorecard because there are different measures on it and the company has to balance performance across the whole piece – it’s no good having amazing customer satisfaction scores if your staff costs are spiralling out of control, for example.

   This model is in use in many businesses and it’s really helpful to scale it down for projects too. It is a sensible and standard way of monitoring your progress monthly. How do you start? Here’s a quick guide.

   

   1. Identify your measures

   The items that you want to include on your project scorecard should be the things that matter to you and your stakeholders, and that will persist throughout the life of the project.

   They should be metrics that are available to you (or that you can make available). It’s no good including ‘impact on company revenue’ if you are never going to be able to find out what impact your project has made.

   Financial information and quality targets are good starting points, and it is sensible to group measures into categories. One way to do it would be something like this:

   • Project quality: audit results, project benefits, quality targets
   • Project budget: Earned Value measures, project running costs
   • Project delivery: milestones, customer satisfaction
   • Project team: staffing levels, resource allocation, staff satisfaction or engagement.

   The measures you choose should be things that are meaningful to your team and sponsor. There’s not much point, for example, in assessing your progress against project benefits if you know your project won’t deliver any benefits until a good few months after it has finished.

   How many categories to have?

   Four categories is my preferred number because you can then display each category as a quarter of a circle, and have a nice circle diagram to represent your scores for that month.

   But if you don’t want to do that, a spreadsheet makes a great alternative and is probably easier to populate! Think about who is going to be reading it and what they would find most easy to use.

   Personally I’m a fan of presenting information in a graphical format because that’s how I find it easier to digest numerical data, but you know your team best so lay out your scorecard however suits you.

   Choose easily measurable categories

   Finally, your measures should be things that you can measure easily. Your scorecard should be a neat way of monitoring your progress monthly, an addendum to your project report and something you can use when you are communicating up to your project sponsor. So you don’t want to spend hours pulling it together.

   2. Agree your targets

   What makes your project red, amber (yellow) or green on a particular measure? Set measures for what Red means, or what makes a project Green.

   Even if you are using something that is commonly understood in the business, it is still worth defining what it means. Every measure might have something slightly different. Here’s an example:

   • Project quality: Red = All modules failed last verification, Amber = Over 20 modules failed last verification, Green = Under 20 modules failed last verification
   • Timescales: Red = currently on track to miss published end date and/or more than 3 milestones on the critical path, Amber = currently not on track but expect to be able to still hit published end date and no critical path milestones impacted, Green = on track

   As you can see, Red is defined differently for each measure.

   Read next: Real-life tips for managing Red projects and getting back to Green

   Use the targets across all measures

   This all sounds quite time consuming but once you’ve set it up, you can use it for practically any project. Also, not only does this make it clear for everyone reading your scorecard, it takes away some of the work from you. You don’t have to apply your critical judgement every month as you’ve done it once and now you simply refer to the targets to see exactly where you are.

   Share what the targets mean

   You’ll have to find a way to communicate this – once is probably enough as long as people know where to find the data if they need a reminder. Try to avoid using footnotes in the document itself as people often don’t bother to read them and they make the page look cluttered. A page on the project’s intranet site or in the wiki might be a good place to store them.

   Using RAG on the scorecard

   My preference is to mark each area of the scorecard as red, amber or green as this contributes to the visual look and feel of it and helps you see areas in trouble at a glance.

   This works because we use RAG scoring mechanisms on other areas of the project (such as the risk log) so everyone understands it.

   If you use something different, or your stakeholders are used to information being evaluated in a different way – like with smiley faces, on a 1-10 scale or something different – then use that. Make it as easy for them as you can.

   3. Collate and share the results

   A balanced scorecard is a great communication tool. Now you have your model set up, your diagram or spreadsheet prepared, the next step is of course to assess your project against your targets.

   Gather your data, populate your balanced scorecard template and produce your first version of it. With the results collated, you should have a good graphical snapshot of the project’s progress to be able to share with your key stakeholders and the project team.

   Ask for feedback

   You’ll most likely get some useful feedback the first few times that you share the scorecard results with everyone. Think about how you could incorporate this to make the model clearer or to include measures that your project sponsor thinks are essential (but forgot to tell you about the first time).

   Of course, you may also get feedback that you can’t incorporate, so explain why. That should stop people asking you for the same changes again next month.

   Act on the results

   Remember, the point of doing this is to record key measures and project performance, so it’s also important to build in some time to do something about the results.

   If any of your project measures are reporting as Red (or a sad face, or 0 out of 10 or whatever) then what are you going to do about it? It’s pretty pointless to go to the effort of measuring performance if you aren’t then going to take action to put right anything that is identified as underperforming.

   While the scorecard is a great communication tool, it’s also a performance management tool to help you manage the project more effectively, so use it.

   4. Track trends

   Gathering a set of standard monthly data items on a regular basis gives you the information you need to track trends on your project. Looking at the scorecard data might help you identify where your project team is struggling. An element that goes from Green to Amber is likely to go to Red next month unless you do something about it.

   Positive trends are also good for internal trumpet-blowing! Look at your dashboard figures and see what you can shout about. You’ll have turned something around or have a good news story in there somewhere, so share your positive results with your colleagues.

   

   Using scorecards for the PMO

   While project scorecards are great tools for project managers, you can also use them at the Project Management Office level to monitor the health of your project portfolio overall.

   The measures you put on the scorecard are likely to be similar to those in use on a project scorecard, but you would want to pay more attention to things that are important to the PMO such as resourcing.

   Here are some ideas for metrics that you could use:

   • Percent of projects with complete project information or documentation
   • Percent of staff working on more than one project
   • Project team member churn rates
   • Percent of projects with overallocated resources
   • Percent of projects with red indicators (maybe in comparison to last month, so you’d show an increase or decrease against the last reported figure).

   A PMO-level scorecard could take a sub-set of dashboard measures that you are already collecting. Or it could roll up the scorecards from all the projects and report at a consolidated level. This could give you an interesting picture for the organisation as a whole and help you identify business-wide weaknesses.

   For example, if across all projects the project managers are reporting Red indicators against financial measures, then you can target training at boosting their budget handling skills.

   Numbers never tell the whole story!

   However good your measurements remember that they don’t replace your judgement (either at a project or PMO level). Numbers never tell the whole story: context is everything. A Red score might not be that much of a problem in the grand scheme of things and equally reporting a measure as Green, while technically correct, might hide some other issues on the project.

   Scorecards are a good visual way of communicating progress, tracking trends and showing the snapshot status of a project but they aren’t a replacement for solid project management skills.

   And, as I have said, anyone can report but it takes someone to act on the data and improve the results. As a project manager, that should be your job. The scorecard is simply there to highlight problems. Metrics help you manage projects and performance but the actual ‘management’ is down to you.

   This article first appeared on Rebel's Guide to Project Management and can be read here: How To Build A Project Scorecard

4. How To Improve Credibility As A Project Manager

   

   When I’m mentoring project managers, one of the key things I hear time and time again is that they want to be given more responsibility and have greater influence over the work.

   Project managers often struggle from not having budget and resource responsibility. If you don’t control these elements of the project, you don’t really have the option to take many decisions about how the work unfolds.

   You can’t do anything to address risk either because people don’t take your recommendations seriously. You struggle to influence the outcomes of negotiations, or your suggestions aren’t taken on board – although if someone else suggests the exact same thing, their words are lapped up and lauded like they’ve spoken some perfect truth.

   This is the curse of not being credible at work.

   

   In the worst situations, you become a de facto project coordinator doing schedule management and tracking. You get all the not-so-fun admin tasks and all the burden of making the project a success but none of the things you need to actually step up and lead the work.

   Gaining credibility at work is one of the ways that you can build your career. If you are credible as a project manager, people will give you the tricky projects and the resources you require to get them done. If they trust you, they’ll leave you to largely manage by yourself without that awkward micromanaging that you may feel you sometimes get.

   But where does credibility come from? And how do you get it?

   Credibility Tip #1: Build Competence

   You can’t be seen as credible unless you know your craft.

   That means you should build your skills. You need to have the technical and social competences to be able to manage projects before anyone will consider you credible and influential.

   There are several project management competence models. The Association for Project Management has one. The UK government has the Project Delivery Capability Framework. Your own project management office may have created an internal competence framework and assessment.

   To be honest, it doesn’t really matter which one you use as a personal reference.

   The chances are, the people judging you in the workplace aren’t going to be mentally comparing you against those standards. They will simply assess whether you get the work done in a professional way and give them the outcomes they are expecting.

   Invest in your technical skills

   Technical competence is easier to get than the soft skills. You can go on a training course to learn your project management software, or the best ways to create a project schedule or do cost control. Yes, you can go on a course to learn more about leadership, but somehow it’s harder to truly internalise the changes required to lead in a different way and sustain that level of personal change over time. All soft and social skills can be learned and improved, but you need real commitment to see long-lasting change.

   Show you can do the job

   However, the key here is to show that you can do the job. Getting a project management credential may help you, especially if you move between organisations and your new colleagues have no idea of your previous track record for delivery. A certificate can show that you’ve achieved a baseline in competence.

   

   Credibility Tip #2: Build Confidence

   Confidence matters hugely. No one is going to consider you influential if you can’t get your point across in a meeting.

   You need to be able to hold the attention of a room and behave in a confident way. If everything about your body language says, “I don’t want to be here and I don’t know what I am talking about,” then why would anyone consider your advice to be a credible recommendation?

   Building confidence is harder, especially if you have recently joined the organisation or are new to project management – whatever your age and prior business experience. However, there are some things that you can do.

   Adopt a positive attitude

   A lot of confidence issues are in your head. If you think you can’t do it and that you aren’t confident, then you will come across that way.

   Of course, there’s a balance between being over confident and arrogant and hitting the right notes for confidence at work. Get some feedback on your behaviours if you have concerns over whether you are getting it right.

   Check your body language

   Sit or stand tall. Don’t fiddle with your hair, jewellery or glasses. You’ve heard all this advice before, right?

   Google ‘body language’ and try to pick up one trait that will help you appear more confident. For me, it’s standing with both feet flat on the floor at hip distance apart when I am presenting.

   I do still balance on one leg or stand with my legs crossed, but at least now I’m thinking about how I look more, and making conscious efforts to project confidence.

   Do your homework

   I feel least confident in situations where I know the least information. Do some preparation before meetings, especially those with senior stakeholders.

   Know your numbers and know what you want to happen next, so that you can steer conversations in that direction.

   I find something that really helps is talking to other attendees before the meeting, so that you can get a feel for where they are going. Start to socialize your ideas and you’ll find that it is far easier to get them accepted on the day.

   Building credibility isn’t something that happens overnight. It’s a long term goal for you as a project manager, and focusing on confidence and competence will help you achieve it. Over time you’ll stop worrying about whether people see you as a safe pair of hands at work, and start to realise that you do have influence!

   This article first appeared on Rebel's Guide to Project Management and can be read here: How To Improve Credibility As A Project Manager

5. Project Management Trends

   

   In this webinar I share 3 trends and how to use them in project management -- and no, it's not about AI!

   These are non-AI, important to your stakeholders and things you can actually have conversations about now with the tools and skills you already have.

   Because I'm bored of hearing about cool things that are coming but that I can't actually put into practice because of security blockers or lack of investment.

   AI is important and it's coming, but my survey of project managers shows that most of us are not actively using AI today.

   You'll learn about the importance of:

   • Sustainability
   • Personalization
   • Speed of access.

   These topics underpin business resilience, stakeholder engagement and time management.

   And I'll give you practical things that you can do to build these into the projects that you are running today.

   https://youtu.be/oW7bAekVPx0?si=fqCAyZLRMcgzArDa

   Want more webinars? Check out my other webinars and training videos.

   This article first appeared on Rebel's Guide to Project Management and can be read here: Project Management Trends