The project skills for a project economy

It is where organizations deliver their value proposition (or what they do differently compared to their competitors) to maintain and grow market share through successful completion of projects in a growing digital world. 

According to the World Economic Forum, 50% of all employees will need reskilling by 2025. That is, those specific technical capabilities that enable an individual to perform a task. In the face of global labour market challenges, increasingly more organizations are realising they need to continually develop their people in the science of project management. Like Antonio Rodrigues states ‘project-based work is the engine that drives change and progress’ for any organization in any industry or sector. 

To be really effective at how organizations and individuals use project management; project managers will require skills in a broad range of knowledge areas. There are many ways individuals can go about developing and improving their knowledge, skills and abilities. However, one proven and tested option is training and certification. What APMG-International offers is a wide range of industry best practice knowledge products that best meet the challenges of an expanding project economy. As such, people should consider reading about and understanding how to apply:

Implementing strategy is a rare and valuable skillset that sets apart the most successful and influential leaders in business. Individuals with proven ability to identify bad strategy from good including the ability to implement strategy are in high demand from organizations all around the world. The challenge is that the current generation of leaders have been taught how to plan but not how to implement. This is reflected in the high strategy implementation failure rate, where the Strategy Implementation Institute found in 2020 that only 52% of organizations achieve more than two thirds of their own strategy objectives. This high failure rate drives the need for project managers to enhance their abilities and become recognized strategy implementation institute professionals.

Find out more about Strategy Implementation Professional (SIP) Training and Certification.

Understanding the contribution of the portfolio to organizational (including strategic) objectives is consequently at the very heart of effective benefits management. That is, benefits should be the primary driver and rationale for any investment while costs are the constraint. Organizations invest in programmes, projects and other work to realize benefits in terms of:

• Increased revenue
• Efficiency savings
• A tangible contribution to a strategic objective or business priority
• Meeting a legal or regulatory requirement or maintaining business as usual
• Maintaining business as usual

Reports from professional bodies, audit agencies and academic research show that organizations, regardless of sector, continue to struggle in demonstrating return on investments in change. The significance of this is even greater in a volatile economic climate where failure to optimize benefits realization may put future investments and the business model at risk.

Find out more about Managing Benefits Training and Certification

Creating effective programme and project business cases is critical to establishing business justification, secure funding and management buy-in in order to successfully deliver strategy objectives through benefits realisation. It is important therefore that project managers have the opportunity to develop their capabilities to create, review and adapt effective business cases. Organizations adopting this proven approach can expect a reduction in unnecessary spending and an improved decision-making process, whilst project teams have a greater chance of securing necessary funding and support for change initiatives.

Find out more about Better Business Cases Training and Certification

Praxis is a community-driven framework which can help you and your organization realise the intended benefits from investment in projects, programmes and portfolios. The Praxis Framework is a combination of four types of best practice guidance - Knowledge, Method, Competency and Capability and is the first free framework to integrate projects, programmes and portfolios in a single guide. By covering the full breadth of guidance needed for effective project, programme and portfolio management within a single framework, Praxis training and certification represents an efficient approach to learning project, programme and portfolio management best practice.

Find out more about Praxis Framework Training and Certification 

Change is inevitable and for many organizations change can become a regular occurrence. Accordingly, dealing with change and, more significantly, the impact of change, is a high priority for organizations. It is therefore important that project managers have the opportunity to develop their capabilities to deal with change before, during and after it occurs. Projects introduce change (new systems, new products, new ways of working). The changes may be to processes, job roles, organizational structures and types and uses of technology. Most importantly change management is effectively about how we engage with and support those affected by change (customers, partners and employees).

Find out more about Change Management Training and Certification 

Agile’s influence on the project management industry continues to rise at pace. More organizations and project professionals than ever are embracing agile tools and frameworks as they aim to increase the success of – and return on investment from – projects and other change initiatives. AgilePM is designed to support the Agile Business Consortium’s underlying philosophy that ”best business value emerges when projects are aligned to clear business goals, deliver frequently and involve the collaboration of motivated and empowered people”.

Find out more about AgilePM Training and Certification

One of the most influential management writers, Peter Drucker, wrote: “We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn”, but more importantly how to integrate related methodologies to optimise successful delivery particularly within a growing project economy.