I got involved in this business of project management nearly 12 years ago. Quite a good story some tell me. But I think what amazes me still today is how this business has grown.

Many said back then that it was just a ‘wave’. Some of the ‘older’ PMs, the ones who were there already, suggested that the boom was just a fad. They could be heard saying that technology projects were not large enough nor important enough to warrant a seat in the professional world of project management.

Man, were they wrong.

But very interestingly, while the ‘boom’ in interest in project management has come from the technology sectors over the past 10 years, I am seeing a renewed interest in formal project management from the more traditional sectors: engineering, construction and aerospace. It’s almost like they woke up over the past year and said “maybe we were wrong to stop learning about project management. Maybe we don’t know it all."

And then as our classrooms and conference isles site more of this more established set, we see a whole new crowd of ‘kids’ take a major interest in project management. I write this as I fly home from Vancouver – the home of over 10,000 employees working in the Gaming industry. Video games. And guess how old this group is? Young. Very young. This groups looks on the 30 something crowd of PMs as old, established and traditional.

So what am I getting at? I think that the most fascinating part of this business over the next 10 year will be the growth – from all sectors, the hand off from the old to the young and the challenge we will all have to address the needs of all of these communities.

David Barrett