Value Delivery Questions, Answered

We had a terrific group of attendees for our live webinar that aired Thursday October 5, when PM Solutions’ VP Client Success Eric Foss and I covered the top findings from our 2023 research study, Project Management Skills for Value Delivery. (If you missed it, you can find the recording here.)

As always during these events, we try to bridge the remote gap by involving the participants as much as possible. First, we asked attendees to score their organizations’ project management performance using the same ten performance measures that we used for the study. The attendee group scored right in the same general zone as our research population: about 60% rated their companies as above average on project management performance. When these kind of polls run in the same lane as our survey results, it’s another indication that the findings track with the realities that organizations are facing.

Then, we polled them on a couple more questions:

Does your organization offer training in advanced PM skills?

What skillset do you think you are most in need of improvement in?

Of the attendees who participated in the polls almost half indicated that their organizations did offer training in advanced skills. The need for training in Benefits Realization loomed large, with about 40% saying they needed to improve in this area. Again, this tracks with survey findings from 2023 and previous years, which have indicated that even high-performing organizations could use improvement in realizing benefits.

We also had a few questions and comments during the live Q&A that we could not get to. Not surprisingly, all of them were related to AI’s impact on project management. Although ChatGPT had only gone public a couple months before we began formulating this study, and framing the skills project managers would need to work with AI assistance was not even on our bingo card … that is exactly what the study findings ended up showing! PMI’s recent release of data on AI and project management underscored the importance of project managers excelling in “communication, problem-solving and collaborative leadership”—reflecting the top skills for high performers in our study.

One questioner asked us to rate the AI tools – “ChatGPT, Claude, and Microsoft's AI” – but recommending tools is just something we have never done. PM Solutions is “tool agnostic,” preferring to approach client issues with an open mind and use tools that fit the situation and culture. And in the case of AI, all these tools are too new, as is the question of how to best use them. We also have found that being tool-focused is generally a mistake. The very human questions of how to approach work – and why—must be settled before any consideration of tools makes sense. Another attendee offered a comment instead of a question, and it’s one we could not agree with more:

Not a question, just a comment.  AI capabilities could help with the science of PM, leaving more time for PMs to focus on the art of PM.

And therein lies the challenge. The Project Management for Value Delivery study offers those who hope to expand their mastery of the art of project management some suggestions where to start. Watch the webinar, download the executive summary, and if you are attending PMI, please join me for my session based on the research: “Irreplaceable! Skills to AI-Proof Your Project Management Career” at 3 pm on Friday, October 27 in Atlanta.