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These Are the Project Management Trends for 2025

January 20, 2025 | 5 min

Artificial IntelligenceProject and Portfolio Management

For years, AI has been a regular topic in articles about trends in project management. 2025 is now the year in which AI will have to prove its worth. In addition to AI, the topic of sustainability will also occupy the project management industry, as will the perennial topic of resource management. Furthermore, projects that cross departmental and corporate boundaries will come into focus, as well as the need for individualization.

Trends in project management: AI

Trend 1: Artificial Intelligence Must Prove Its Value

Artificial Intelligence will undergo a significant shift in perception in 2025. The focus will increasingly be on assessing its value with the key question, “What specific added value does AI contribute to projects?” To evaluate the benefits that AI can create in the future, it is worth taking stock first.

Lack of Flexibility in Resource Allocation

So far, AI has mainly been used in the field of communication, for example, for translations, summarizing project information, or creating specific stakeholder information. In addition, AI supports in risk analysis to identify risks early and find countermeasures. In IT-related areas such as data analysis and preparation, the use of AI has now become more of a rule than an exception.

In resource allocation, AI demonstrates strengths and weaknesses. It works well in assigning matching employees to specific project tasks and avoiding overloading and underutilizing resources. However, from the user’s perspective, the results are not yet satisfactory when it comes to flexibly responding to unforeseen changes. Overall, AI is used in projects to increase the efficiency of employees by automating recurring routine tasks. However, employees do not (yet) trust AI to solve more complex tasks independently, without human control.

One reason for this is certainly that projects are unique, and insights can only be partially applied to other endeavors. Therefore, AI is welcome as a project assistant but not as an independent project manager.

“With cplace Citizen AI, we enable users to seamlessly integrate GenAI into their workflows, automate recurring tasks, and increase efficiency while keeping human expertise at the center.”

Navid Heidemann
Head of Product, cplace

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Trend 2: Sustainability in Project and Portfolio Management

Especially in portfolio management, the sustainable and efficient use of limited corporate resources is a given. In addition to this economic approach, the environmental and social dimensions of sustainability, as defined by corporate social responsibility (CSR) or the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the United Nations, are becoming increasingly important for companies and must be integrated into their strategy and project portfolio.

What Does Sustainable PPM Look Like?

After companies have embraced the issue of sustainability and integrated it into their strategies, the next step is to embed it in portfolio management. For example, sustainability criteria can be incorporated into the selection of initiatives, which then factor into project evaluations. Sustainability reporting and specific KPIs also support organizations in achieving their goals.

On the project level, the topic of sustainability should also be integrated. For instance, environmental and social objectives can become integral parts of project goals and should be considered during project planning. These issues should also be reflected in risk management.

Furthermore, project managers will increasingly become familiar with the implementation of sustainability initiatives: More and more companies are using ESG reporting obligations as an opportunity to systematically embed sustainability in the organization, which can have a positive impact on their capital procurement, cost structures, and overall business success.

Trend 3: Resource Management

Mastering resource management places you in the Champions League of project management. This topic has been a constant presence in articles about project management trends for quite some time. The reason for this is relatively straightforward: More and more projects are crossing team, department, and division boundaries, making the supposed planning all-purpose weapon Excel useless. Only a comprehensive platform solution can help here. In addition, the maxim applies here: there is no such thing as a little resource management. Larger companies in particular need a holistic solution to be able to deploy their employees efficiently – both in their business units and in overarching projects.

A challenge in this regard is to establish a company-wide standard that is practical for all those involved, while simultaneously granting them sufficient flexibility. A resource management solution must allow for flexibility and diversity and must captivate its users. The journey toward this goal is arduous, but exceedingly rewarding.

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Trend 4: Cross-location projects

In product development projects, cross-departmental cooperation has long been the rule rather than the exception. Depending on the industry, up to 70% of the value creation no longer takes place within the manufacturer (OEM) itself, but in networks with suppliers and sub-suppliers. This cross-company form of cooperation increasingly characterizes the daily project routine in companies and is therefore listed as one of the main trends in project management.

The response to the specific challenges of such comprehensive projects in value creation networks is called collaborative project management. In this approach, the complex project is divided into several independent parts (sub-projects) to make it more manageable. In this process, the functional departments are given responsibility for their sub-projects. These, if necessary, are further divided into work packages, each with responsible employees.

In Collaborative Project Management, it is important for all stakeholders to commit to a previously agreed framework plan that defines the essential milestones. If deviations occur, they are immediately reported to the next higher level and checked to see if they have any impact on their planning. Collaborative Project Management is based on the three pillars of decentralization and delegation, networking and communication, and collaboration.

Principles of Collaborative Project Management

Trend 5: Individualization in Project Management

The mega trend of individualization is noticeable in almost all professional and private areas, and it also affects portfolio and project management. Projects are by definition unique, and project managers choose the methods that best suit their individual projects. Individual projects with a customized mix of methods – can this be reconciled with standardized processes and standardized IT solutions for project management?

Especially larger organizations often must reconcile very different requirements from various business areas for their project work into a standard. In practice, it has proven effective to collect, cluster, and categorize the individual requirements as comprehensively as possible. From this, the greatest common denominator, i.e., the intersection of all requirements, is formed and developed as a standard. It is important that, where sensible and necessary, deviations and additions to the standard must be allowed. Because only when the employees live the process will it also work. If the process hinders or obstructs their work, it will not be followed, and the workflow will noticeably come to a halt.

This is the kind of individuality that a project management software needs to offer its users in order to achieve a high level of acceptance and to be able to provide the greatest possible benefit. It is even more important that the software fully supports the company-specific standard for project and portfolio management. According to the motto: Your project management, your rules!

Reference:

* Prof. Helge Wild, Dr. Agnetha Flore, KI im Projektmanagement, 2024; Pushing the Limits. Transforming Project Management with GenAI Innovation, 2024, PMI

About the Author

Christian Schneider, Content Marketing, cplace

With its Next-Generation Project and Portfolio Management technology, cplace is revolutionizing and transforming the way people and organizations collaborate on complex projects. The flexible software platform enables leading companies to create customized solutions for digital transformation and developing complex products.

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Christian Schneider

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