What’s the future for Project Management? – UKFast roundtable

Agile, the future for Project Management. Well, that’s a good start point for a discussion – but is it as clear-cut as that?
UkFast The future of Project Management roundtable

I took part in a roundtable discussion recently over at UKFast (great offices btw) around the subject of The Future For Project Management.

When I got the invite I had a case of Imposter Syndrome : it’s not that I don’t know the different styles of PM – I’ve been involved with project management on a large range of UK and International web site and digital marketing campaigns for the last 14 years. Which has involved steering and working with teams of talented designers, UX, IAs, copywriters, developers, account handlers – and Actual Project Managers.
But I’m neither a certified Prince2 practitioner nor a certified / trained Scrum Master. So surely an imposter at a Project Management Futures roundtable?

Thankfully I could contribute with some insight into what agencies (and those clients I work with) both understand and actually practice in terms of Agile versus ‘traditional’ / waterfall project management. And where that might be heading. I’m an advocate of Agile and I use kanban boards, have taken part in daily huddles, worked on sprints etc but I think there’s still a need (or demand from clients) for an over-arching Prince2 type governance for things like budgeting and ‘external’ (to the project) marketing / media deadlines. With Agile being focussed around the UX / design / dev core stages with the commercial (and collaborative) benefits the methodology brings.

The other guys on the panel made for a lively and really insightful session (as they are sleeve rolled up Agile practitioners), it was good to meet them all (and to say hello to Clare from RedWeb who I worked with a few years back).

The panelists:

James Blake – Godel Technologies Europe LTD
James Cannings – MMT Digital
Ian Carroll – ThoughtWorks
Clare Gledhill – Redweb
Mark Kelly – Mark Kelly Consultancy (me, obviously)
Beccy Weeks – Saint Gobain Building Distribution UK

The roundtable summarised discussions
– with some great insights – were captured by UKFast and are here:

What is the future for Project Management?

Does Agile make for a better work environment?

Top tips / what does Agile mean to you?

What is your experience of implementing an Agile (and / or a ‘hybrid’) project management approach in your agency or business?
I’d be interested to know in the comments below.

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