Project Managers' Emerging Importance: Trends and Challenges Analysis

This report delves into the evolving field of project management, focusing on the emerging importance of project managers in response to dynamic market conditions and technological advancements. It begins by examining new concepts such as the agile concept, value-driven projects, and managing projects for innovation, analyzing their advantages and disadvantages. The report then explores the competencies and roles of modern project managers, emphasizing the need for skills like communication, technological proficiency, and team management. Furthermore, the paper uses Federal Electricity and Water Authority (FEWA) as a case study, analyzing its core business activities, project management methodologies, and organizational structure. The analysis includes a review of FEWA's current project management practices, associated difficulties, and recommendations for improvement, highlighting challenges such as increased expenses and stiff competition. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of adapting to new technologies, fostering innovation, and developing strong leadership to ensure project success in a complex and competitive environment.

Running head: EMERGING IMPORTANCE OF PROJECT MANAGERS
Emerging Importance of Project Managers
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Table of Contents
Part a).........................................................................................................................................2
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................2
Part b).........................................................................................................................................2
New emerging topics of project management:...........................................................................2
Agile concept:........................................................................................................................2
Value driven projects:............................................................................................................4
Managing projects for innovation:.........................................................................................5
Project initiation context:.......................................................................................................6
Complexity with projects:......................................................................................................6
New emerging competences and roles for project managers:................................................6
Part c).........................................................................................................................................7
Core and current business activities project management methodologies and practices of
Federal Electricity and Water Authority (FEWA):................................................................7
Current organizational structure and its influence on project management of FEWA:.........7
Current organizational project management practices (OPM):.............................................8
Difficulties associated with the current project management practices:................................8
Increase in expenses:..........................................................................................................8
Stiff competition:...............................................................................................................8
Recommendations:.....................................................................................................................9
References:...............................................................................................................................12

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Part a)
Introduction:
The aim of the paper is to delve into the expanding areas of project management,
which is undergoing huge evolution due to changes in science and dynamic market
conditions. The assignment takes Federal Water and Electricity Association of the United
Arab Emirates as the crux of the study. The paper is divided into three sections. The first
section studies the newly evolving concepts of project management like agile concept, value
–driven projects and managing projects for innovation. The author has reviewed each of these
new project management techniques based on several advantages and disadvantages to the
companies. The section also delves into the competencies and qualities the project managers
of today are expected to have in order to match up to the demands of the current market. The
second part delves into FEWA, its operations, projects and organisational structure. The third
section studies the difficulties of modern project management ending with recommendations.
Part b)
New emerging topics of project management:
The field of project management has undergone drastic evolution with new areas like
agile concept, value driven projects, new emerging competences and increasing complexity
within projects. These new areas have also caused changes in the roles of project managers
which demand new competencies.

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Agile concept:
Agile concept is a modern approach of dividing and large complex projects into
sections called iterations. The companies today handle complex projects to satisfy the
diverse demands of their clients. The project managers lead the project team and take the
responsibility of dividing the projects into divisions using a group of software called agile
software. The project management functions under the agile concept divides the production
activities into three components namely, product owner, scrum master and the project team.
The product owner supervises the production from business perspective while the scrum
master helps the different sub teams to collaborate to achieve the target (Landry & McDaniel,
2015). The team under the supervision of these two people and the team members take up
different responsibilities of achieving the targets. The project manager assumes the role of
scrum in the modern project management and leads the team towards achievement of the
target.
A review of the agile system of project management reveals several advantages and
disadvantages. The first advantage of agile concept is that the task is divided into portions
which makes it relatively less complex. This results in more efficient executions of the
project strategies. Secondly, the production is controlled by software; hence it is accurate and
free from human error. Thirdly, here the project managers have very deep knowledge of both
the business and the technical aspect of the project. This enables him to exercise more
efficient control over the project (Schwalbe, 2015).
The agile system of project management has several disadvantages as well. First, it is
very expensive and requires heavy initial investment from the business organisations, which
use or plan to use it. This show, that agile can only be used by multinational companies,
which are financially very strong. The second weakness of the agile system is due to excess
dependence on software, the project managers or scrums have limited knowledge about cots,

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personnel and risk management. This impedes efficient decision-making actions by the
project managers. Thus, it can be reviewed from the above discussion, though agile facilitates
automatic control of projects, it is expensive and often results in project managers becoming
over dependent on technology and losing their competencies like risk and personnel
management.
Value driven projects:
The value driven projects refer to the modern development in project management
which demands the project managers to complete the projects to the needs of clients or
customers. This completion of projects according to the demands of consumers are perceived
as value creation. The project managers today have to adopt total quality management
approach and ensure value to the customers in terms of money, time specified by the
customers and quality demanded by the customers (Schwalbe, 2015).
A review of modern approach of value driven projects reveals several advantages,
which make the process significant to project managers of today. First, the value approach
driven requires the project managers to produce according to the needs of the customers. As a
result value driven approach more revenue for the companies compared to the traditional
project management approach. Moreover, in order to ensure high quality, the project
managers have to allocate the resources available in the most efficient ways. This results in
efficient usage of resources and minimises wastage. In order words, value driven concepts
lead to sustainability. Third, when the projects are executed as per the requirements of the
clients, it earns more revenue.
There are certain disadvantages of value driven concepts of project management as
well. The value driven concept like any other modern project management concept is heavily
dependent on technology. Thus, the multinational can invest in the technology to align the

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demands of the customers with production to maintain high quality. The second shortcoming
of this approach is that project managers often become heavily dependent on technology
which impedes their decision making power (Jeston & Nelis, 2014).
Managing projects for innovation:
The project managers today require to be innovative in order to manage their
production strategies with the market conditions. The project managers and the apex
management of companies have realised that the traditional practices like production as per
norms of the company without consideration of the clients’ requirements and making one
product for all the markets are no longer suitable for the present competitive scenario. This
has led to the project managers of different companies carry out open innovation to discover
new methods of managing projects more efficiently. The project managers today partner with
overseas firms like laboratories in order to bring about more innovative products which are
able to meet the new demands of the consumers. A review of managing projects for
innovation shows that entering into partnership to manage projects for innovation is more
feasible for the multinational companies because it requires huge capital investment. This
disadvantage of managing project for innovation prevents the smaller firms with limited
resources from adopting the method (Kerzner, 2015).
A review of the method of managing projects for innovation reveals that though
managing projects for innovation is expensive and may largely restricted to large
corporations, it has multiple positive aspects. First, managing projects for innovation lead to
companies carrying out projects to meet the customer demands. This means that the
companies executing those projects earn huge revenue. Secondly, the firms innovative
projects leads to the manufacture of products which are more useful to the consumer needs,
thus giving the firms more market penetration. This innovation allows firms to collaborate
with each other to improve their existing projects and to introduce more market oriented

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products or products. This analysis points out the third advantage of managing projects for
innovation, which is, the companies can share their resources and diversify their losses. This
in turn augments the competitive of both the participating firms (Verzuh., 2015).
Project initiation context:
Project initiation context refers to the steps, which leads to initiation of projects. The
project initiation context comprises of planning, analysis, design and implementation. The
company carrying out the project carries out feasibility tests to find out whether the project
would be feasible, profitable and sustainable.
Complexity with projects:
Ziadat, Kirkham and Gardiner (2017) state that project management have become
extremely complex in order to cope with the fast changing demands of the market. the
consumers today demand more advanced, economical and high quality products. The project
managers managing the manufacturing projects in the companies have to integrate their
production methods with this changing needs of the customers. The project management
methods as discussed are heavily dependent on technology and collaboration between
multiple business concerns and laboratories. This according to Marle and Vidal (2016), has
made the production methods and project management extremely complex.
New emerging competences and roles for project managers:
The growing competition and the need to manage projects strategically has led to the
project managers develop new competencies and roles. The project managers were
traditionally mere employees managing the production activities of companies (Serrador &
Pinto, 2015).Serrador and Turner (2015) point out that project managers are not mere
employees. The companies today regard them as business partners of strategic importance.
The project managers in order to cope with the ever-changing world have developed new

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skills like communication, strong knowledge of advanced technology, team management and
negotiation. These newly emerging competencies help them to lead their project teams
towards attainment of higher productivity (Lenfle, Le Masson & Weil, 2016).
Part c)
Core and current business activities project management methodologies and practices
of Federal Electricity and Water Authority (FEWA):
The core business activities of Federal Electricity and Water Authorities is to carry
out duties entrusted on it by the Ministry of Electricity and Water. The main business
activities of it are to provide electricity to the people living in the Northern Emirates. The
body uses balancing between cost of production and distribution prices. It also conducts
consumption behaviour and creates awareness among the public regarding using water and
electricity sustainably.
The current project management strategies of FEWA revolve around achievement of
sustainable existence in the Emirates by using water and electricity sustainably. The body’s
current project management strategy also consists of controlling demand and supply of
electrify and water in the country. FEWA also manages desalinated water in excellent and
sustainable manner. The body also aims to rationalise the use of water and reduce wastage of
resources. FEWA also supervises administrative services with high quality standard,
efficiency and transparency. It also encourages innovation in terms of corporate environment
(fewa.gov.ae, 2017).

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Current organizational structure and its influence on project management of FEWA:
Chairperson, Ministry of Energy, leads the organisational structure of FEWA. He
supervises the Vice Chairperson and the directors. The other departments like finance and
marketing work under the supervision of the directors.
This has a strong influence on the management practices and project management.
The chairperson of the Ministry of Energy leads FEWA, which ensures that the electrical
bidy works under total control of the government. This project management system also leads
to trust and customer preferences get priority.
Current organizational project management practices (OPM):
The current organisational project management practices of FEWA come under direct
control of the government. The strong leadership of the government in the project
management practices ensures high standard of services to the customers. The government
also encourages innovation and sustainability in electricity and water supply. This ensures
that the body conducts operations and manages its projects in the most efficient ways.
Difficulties associated with the current project management practices:
The current project management practices have become very diffcult and challenges .
The following are the main difficulties and challenges project management practices
encounter:
Increase in expenses:
The project managers while continuing projects to produce goods have to face threats
from the strong market competition. This strong market competition forces the companies
manufacturing and marketing products spend a high amount towards caring of innovation on
regular basis. Moreover, innovation and experimentation in certain sectors like energy is
every expensive. These innovations often do not guarantee high returns, thus causing losses

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to the organisations. Today most of the manufacturing companies enter into collaboration
with laboratories all over the world to carry out open innovation. This increases their cost of
operations by manifold.
Stiff competition:
The stiff market competition demands the companies like FEWA to offer more
innovative and customer friendly products. The companies as a result do not restrict
themselves to their core products. They extend their product lines to serve more diverse needs
of customers. Thus, this extreme competition makes companies like FEWA launch projects,
which satisfy these core and additional product strategies. For example, FEWA provides
electricity and water, which requires huge investment from the company. This makes the
management of the projects extremely complex and difficult. This puts extreme pressure on
the project manager and the project team. They require investing huge amount in technology
to support their core product, electricity and water and their allied products, online payment
of bills. This increases the cost of operation of projects and put hug pressure on the existing
resources. The project managers of multinational corporations like FEWA require having
expertise in various areas like business execution, marketing and production technology of
both electricity and water. These diverse needs put intense pressure on the project managers
of FEWA and his team.
Recommendations:
The discussion shows that modern project management has enabled project managers
to handle bigger projects. The project managers today are not mere managers of projects but
business partners who ensure that the companies produce goods according to the
requirements of the customers. They, in other words align the projects towards business
generation. Technology has enabled better handling of projects using software driven systems

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value-driven and agile. However, the discussion also reveals that project management has
become very expensive and complex. The job of the project managers have become more
challenging which has led them to develop new qualities and skills to cope up with the
situation. The following recommendations in the light of the above discussion aim to help in
improving project management practices and activities in the organisations:
1. The business organisations should invest in sustainable project management techniques
and procedure. The clients today are increasing stressing on sustainability and environment
friendly products and services. Hence, the project managers should stress on acquiring raw
materials for the projects from suppliers supplying with eco-friendly goods.
2. The increasing complexity of the projects in companies like FEWA requires the project
managers to outsource the less important portions of the projects to sub contractors or smaller
firms. The project managers in the principle company handling the project should ensure that
these small firms use the same method of project execution and parameters.
3. The discussion indicates that projects have become extremely expensive and complex. The
project managers can deal with the exceeding cost of project execution by two ways. First,
they can acquire supply chains both with the country of operation and overseas. They as a
result would be able to choose from a large number of suppliers supplying a particular
material. They can buy the materials for the projects from the suppliers, which satisfy the
quality parameters of the company and offer the materials at economic rates. Secondly, they
can acquire materials available locally from local suppliers. This method would enable them
to save expenditure they incur on exporting and importing raw materials. Thus, these two
methods can save expenditure to continue with and execute the projects.
4. The project managers should emphasis on reduction of wastage and recycling of the
resources to minimise expenditure. For example, the wastewater can be recycled and reused

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in the projects. Thus, the companies can save the expenditure they incur after acquiring water
from outside and paying taxes for the same. The project should mandate installing and using
of recycling as a compulsory of their project management practices. The companies can
allocate the amount saved towards other important functions like marketing. Thus, recycling
of wastes can help the companies in lowering the project costs and making them more
profitable.