Over the last 50 years, there has been a substantial shift in project management, an evolution. Project have gone from being the Simple/Complicated projects that humans have worked on for thousands of years, evolving in both complexity and size. In order to understand the future of project management, it is important to understand the past and the reasons for so many project failures. Various groups have reported on the high level of project failures, depending on the type of project it can range from 73% (low end) through to 91% of projects fail. If we have been doing projects for so long, why are there so many failures? The evolution of project management is inextricably linked to the evolution of humans. As humans have progressed in technology, project management has been there, not just riding the coat tails, but in some cases leading humanity. This presentation will discuss the current state of project management and what needs to be done to improve the success rate of the industry. It will highlight that most projects are in the Simple to Complicated range, and that most project managers and organisations doing project management are ill equipped to deliver projects beyond the simple/complicated and what needs to be done to improve project delivery.
