Digital disruption is keeping business leaders up at night, with many looking at the emerging trends as challenges rather than opportunities. Mr. Vijayanagaram referred to a KPMG 2017 study among CEOs that showed that their confidence in the global economy, industry, and country in this environment is coming down. He said the priority areas for CEOs are greater speed to market, fostering innovation, implementing disruptive technologies, becoming more data driven, and digitizing the business.

“A project manager needs to ask these questions: what am I doing to achieve these business priorities; what am I doing to add value; and what am I doing to achieve it faster, better, or at a lower cost,” he said.

He added that agile project management practices will continue to grow in this business environment. But for agile to reach its potential it must address some of the common misconceptions that lead to unrealistic expectations, micro-management of teams, and quality issues. “Project managers should focus on providing business value, facilitate lean thinking, business agility, and extreme automation. I recommend providing more guidelines for agile practices so that they can achieve these objectives,” he added.