Mary Gerush - Next Gen Project Managers

[This article was originally published at AgileScout.com.]

"It's time to paint a new picture of the IT project manager."

Traditional project management has helped us build our world and these standards are entrenched in our IT culture. Today's project manager is skilled, trained, certified.

But are we successful? Data suggests the answer is "NO."

Project managers need to prioritize differently now.

Teams have changed in this brave new world:

Distributed globally

Culturally diverse

Multi-sourced

Cross-functional

Business and technology complexity is growing in this new world:

Mergers and acquisitions

Partnerships

Compliance

Diverse architecture

Integrations and legacy

New technologies (Cloud, open source, mobility, Web 2.0, social media)

In summary, the new project manager needs to hone their people skills and adapt to new technologies. The soft skills that a project manager has is absolutely crucial to the success of project managers in the new technology-driven world.