Whether an organization is building a new infrastructure, coordinating remote employee teams, or delivering a new product line, project management and business analysis are critical competencies for any organization's success, especially in today's volatile economy. As these disciplines mature through impacts by internal and external forces, new skills and trends are emerging which can positively affect an organization's productivity and profitability.

ESI International revealed the 2009 Top 10 project management trends that will impact both private and public sector organizations this year. Identified by a global panel of ESI's veteran consultants and senior management, these trends point to organizational need for expertise while coping with tighter budgets, fewer financial and human resources, and change. The forecast suggests where project management will focus in 2009 to drive project and organizational success.

The Sandwich Generation: Middle Managers' Emerging Role in Change
Seventy-five percent (75%) of all change management programs fail because of a lack of employee support. Today's economy will force organizations to confront the important roles middle managers play in the success of change efforts. Middle managers' roles will shift from simple messenger of directives "from above" to creating a positive environment to enable change, accountability and ownership of change initiatives, achieving the full benefits of change and ensuring return on investment.

Navigating Virtual Teams Through Change
As budgets tighten, the role of virtual teams will grow along with the demand for the skill sets to manage them, especially through change. Powerful communication, key management strategies, and new rules of engagement will be required to manage virtual teams as organizations seek to effectively shift with the turbulent global economy.

Sharper Distinctions Between Project and Program Management
Many global organizations have managed programs with the same methods used to manage projects, with predictably disappointing results. Programs are not merely "bigger" projects, and program managers aren't simply professionals who are one step up on the organizational ladder. This year will see an increase in the understanding of the cardinal differences between projects and programs and the utilization of strategies to boost program managers' effectiveness and increase program success.

Leveraging Communities of Practice to Hone Skills
The number and importance of project management communities of practice will increase significantly in 2009. These informal communities will be highly prized for the lack of bureaucracy that increase the sharing and use of best practices, enabling increased dialogue to overcome challenges and growing future leaders.

Strategic Selling of the Project Management Office
Although the project management office has gained wide acceptance, it still needs buy-in at the senior executive level. 2009 will see an increase in the importance of quantifying the PMO's value and how to present that data to the CFO to ensure funding in what promises to be highly competitive arena for organizational resources.

Back to Basics for Successful Project Portfolio Management
More than any year in recent history, 2009 will be a critical year for ensuring project success. Project managers will increase their emphasis on the basics, taking a first-things-first approach and address fundamentals such as gaining and sustaining executive commitment, addressing gaps in the alignment of organizational strategy and projects, project selection, and efficient measurement process while leveraging existing resources to increase project success.

Right-Sizing Staff With Demand Driven Resource Management
The adoption of Demand Driven Resource Management will increase significantly in 2009. Its ability to right-size internal staff and draw on outside contractors when demand requires will be viewed as an essential cost containment approach leading to greater organizational performance and efficiency.

Improved Requirements Metrics
The economic need to accurately assess and evaluate the organizational and cost impact of project requirements will bring a greater role for requirements management and development. Also known as business analysis, RMD's ability to provide quality metrics that project and portfolio managers can use to assess the economic, performance and feasibility value of each project component will become essential to organizations successfully maximizing the ROI of their projects.

People Will Come Before Technology
Organizations will increase their demands for smart third-party guidance that ensures technology investments deliver enhanced performance. This will result in greater recognition of the critical role people play, leading to increased recognition that employees need the right skills and knowledge before applying processes for consistency and adding technology to deliver increased efficiencies.

Risk Management for Governance
In 2009, many organizations will say goodbye to the "one number" method for project outcomes and embrace a quantifiable range of potential results on which to base decisions. Recognizing that best governance hinges on the availability of quality information at the project level, education and leadership in risk management and best practices permeate organizations wanting to optimize project forecasting to deliver more effective governance.

"While these trends are about doing more with less, they all speak to the concept of less is more," said J. LeRoy Ward, PMP, PgMP, Executive Vice President, ESI International. "In 2009, more than any time in recent history, empowering people with the right skills, knowledge and tools to pick the right projects, ensure support for change and effectively track progress for smart governance will be key to project success – saving time and money while driving organizational success."

Top 10 Requirements Management and Development Trends for 2009

The  Growing Importance of Cost-containment Role of Business Analysis
The 2009 Top 10 requirements management and development (RMD) – also known as business analysis – trends that will impact business this year were announced by ESI International recently. Determined by a global panel of ESI's consultants, these trends acknowledge the growing importance of RMD as a strategic, cross enterprise discipline essential to the success of systems development, process improvement and change, especially in today's volatile economic environment.

Better Sight for Strategic Enterprise Analysis
As businesses work to ensure short-term viability as well as long-term security, the critical thinking, elicitation and assessments skills of RMD professionals will play an increasingly important role in helping senior management see across the enterprise to deliver more accurate strategic analysis.

The Rise of the Center of Excellence
The need to demonstrate RMD's value while increasing efficiencies will result in more organizations establishing centers of excellence. Centers will increasingly be valued for setting methodologies and standards that enable consistent sight across the full breadth of the enterprise.

Increasing Role in Successful Change Management
As businesses retrench and react to the unpredictable economic environment, well-executed change management will help ensure that decisions made are delivered as planned. Essential to that success will be RMD expertise in helping organizations thoroughly understand and document the change criteria and their cultural and economic impact.

Proving the Value of RMD
Smart businesses will be looking to contain costs across all areas in 2009. It will be incumbent on RMD professionals to effectively measure the value of RMD and demonstrate its ROI to justify continued support.

The Role of the RMD Will Elevate Above the Project
The combination of greater organizational reliance on RMD to ensure enterprise-level success and the increasing value of RMD experience and expertise will result in RMD stepping up to greater roles at the program and portfolio levels.

RMD Experts Will Be Prized Members of Service-Oriented Architecture Project Teams
As enterprise-wide solutions become imperative for cost containment and other efficiencies, RMD professionals will be prized on project teams for their ability to see across the enterprise as well as for their change management skills.

Strengthened Collaboration of RMD and Project Management for Best Practices
Projects will continue to become more complex and more expensive. Collaboration between RMD experts and project managers will play an increasingly important role in ensuring that projects meet organizational needs and deliver promised ROI.

Growth of the RMD Leadership Gap
As businesses increase their reliance on RMD to drive change, help contain costs, ensure project success and gain accurate enterprise-wide insight, senior management will recognize the need to grow more RMD leaders. Organizations will place greater emphasis on RMD-specific career tracks, professional development, and certification to close the gap.

Higher Value of High-Impact Communications
Driven by a need to make faster, more cost-effective business decisions, the often background skill of effectively facilitating diverse groups to achieve consensus through high-impact communications will be moved to the fore as a key RMD role.

RMD Will Facilitate Greater Use of the Agile Software Development Methodology
As organizations look to continuously become more streamlined and cost-effective, Agile development will be increasingly viewed as a key solution. RMD will be valued for its ability to increase understanding of pre-planning activities and the ability to validate information early, supporting successful use of Agile for streamlining and cost-containment.

"A mere decade ago, RMD was viewed as a purely tactical function focused on improving communications between project members and users," said Glenn Brûlé, Director of Client Solutions, ESI International. "In 2009, the strategic importance of insight across the enterprise and strong critical thinking will complement the tactical importance of exacting requirements to raise the importance and profile of RMD expertise as critical to project and organizational success."

These lists were developed by senior management and practitioners at ESI International (www.esi-intl.com), a global training company specializing in project and program management to optimize business performance.

About ESI International
ESI, a subsidiary of Informa plc, helps people around the world improve the way they manage projects, contracts, requirements and vendors. In addition to ESI's more than 100 courses delivered in 18 languages at more than 75 locations worldwide, ESI offers 8 certificate programs through their educational partner, The George Washington University in Washington. Founded in 1981, ESI's worldwide headquarters are in Arlington, Va., USA. For more information visit www.esi-intl.com.

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