You can hardly turn on your computer without being flooded with (often contradictory) posts about the changes afoot in the project management discipline. This one, I hope, is a bit different, because it offers you the opportunity to actually make your views part of useful research into the changing approaches, research that may shape the decisions made in organizations over the next few years.

The Adaptive Organization: A Benchmark of Changing Approaches to Project Management is 2024’s entry in PM Solutions’ 25-year library of research studies. In part, it reprises our 2018 study, carried out to examine the adoption of agile, adaptive and hybrid strategies in the wake of the Sixth Edition of PMI’s PMBOK® Guide. Revisiting those questions will allow us to see trends in the adoption of those methods, as well as trends in training and organizational results.

But there’s far more to “changing approaches” after six years of dynamic change. That’s why the 2024 study, reframed in the terminology and performance-oriented focus of “PMBOK 7,” will also delve into the adoption of AI, the use of Project Management as a Service (PMaaS), and the training strategies for all these methods.

It’s hard to get a clear understanding of the situation in organizations just by reading the business news. The headlines today give the impression that everyone is using agile and/or AI on their projects. Many large consulting companies tout their PMaaS expertise. Yet looking at the fine print, I find the actual numbers of clients, case studies, or engagements are pretty small. A better strategy for carving a window into project-based organizations is to ask the project managers themselves (program managers, too … plus PMO staff and directors … everyone who is hands-on) what tools they are using, what practices work best, what training they are offered, what their challenges are.

Will you add your voice? The research questionnaire is posted through Feb. 23. All participants receive a full-data copy of the research report. Here’s the link again.

 About the Author

Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin is Editor-in-Chief of PM Solutions Research, the content generation center of PM Solutions, Inc., a project management consulting and training firm based in Chadds Ford, PA. A frequent presenter on project management research topics, she is the author or editor of over 20 project management books, including two that have received the PMI Literature Award.  In 2007, she received a Distinguished Contribution Award from PMI. Jcabanis-brewin@pmsolutions.com