APM Blogs

When he was six, the eldest of my nephews had a keen interest in aeroplanes.

When I ask a room full of project managers how many have sufficient time and resources for the scope they are being asked to deliver, I’m greeted by a stony silence.

Mike Bourne, Managing Editor of the forthcoming eighth edition of the APM Body of Knowledge (APM BoK), is Professor of Business Performance at Cranfield University, where he leads the Project Leadership Programme for senior civil servants which is supported by PA Consulting and The Project Academy.

How do you juggle competing priorities, manage expectations and still leave the office on time? Elizabeth Harrin, Director of Rebel’s Guide to Project Management, gives practical advice on how to do this in the latest edition of her book Managing Multiple Projects.

The upcoming summer edition of Project journal includes a deep-dive feature on the topic of ‘sector shifters’ – project professionals who’ve jumped from one sector to another and gained a great deal from the experience.

The rapid evolution of project management was illustrated most clearly when APM’s President David Waboso commented that we were uniquely honoured to share the success of a Royal Charter with those who originally found the profession.

Project professionals are faced with a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world – as if anyone needed reminding of that in 2020.

This year our Power of Projects conference was a significant one.

In 1995, Martin Cobb, the CIO of the Secretariat of the Treasury Board of Canada, said: “We know why projects fail, we know how to prevent their failure – so why do they still fail?” This became known as Cobb’s Paradox, and while we could argue that this absolutist statement is not completely true, there is no doubt that we have a lot of knowledge about how to run projects and more seem to fail than should be the case.

So, what was it really like starting your first ever job outside of university during the COVID-19 pandemic? No site visits, no colleagues at the next desk to answer questions, no physical interaction, everything being virtual.