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© David L. Pells, 2008, published here December 2010 with permission.
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Why These Trends Will Continue!
Let us now look at each of the seven factors again.
- IT Investment - while the massive investment in IT in the world's fully developed economies may have subsided, that is not true in Brazil, China, India and other rapidly developing countries. The transfer of IT to developing economies is now a stated mission of both the World Bank and the United Nations, and is seen as key to economic growth, education and peaceful transformation - bringing the developing world into the modern global community. IT investment will continue to grow on a global basis.
- Project-orientation of IT - the time and financial pressures on the development of new hardware, software, networks and systems seems to be increasing, based on global competition. Projects and project management must be embraced to maximize efficiency and productivity in product and system development. This trend will continue or even accelerate.
- Complexity of IT Projects - As technologies continue to change, as underlying hardware and software become both more powerful and more complex, the complexity of IT systems, programs and projects also increase. As IT is applied to ever more human activities, and across more industries and organizations, opportunities for increased complexity multiply.
- Changing Technologies - most predictions include not just changes but increased rates of change, and the impact of some technologies may be dramatic and disruptive - for example, in the nanotechnology field, energy, materials and artificial intelligence. Many new technologies will have an impact on IT.
- IT Project Failures - while logic suggests that as IT professionals gain more experience and knowledge, failures should subside. Due to the complexity of IT projects along with rapidly changing technologies, I do not see major improvements for many years. IT will be a fertile ground for more and better PM for decades.
- The Information Age - as the information economy spreads around the world, and especially in Africa, Asia and Latin America, the number of IT projects will continue to increase, along with the need for modern PM. This process may well dominate the 21st century.
- IT Across Industries - like project management itself, IT can be found in all industries and on all projects and programs, in all organizations. Every project has one or more IT sub-projects. IT will become one of the largest users of PM, with the largest segment of the PM profession and the one with the most impact. As IT becomes more critical for more organizations and more projects, IT PM becomes more important.
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7. IT Crosses Over Industries, Organizations, Programs & Projects
