Hybrid project management key to project delivery in Mena, says expert

Organisations in the Midde East and North Africa (Mena) are anticipating a shift to hybrid project management approach to accelerate outcomes for project delivery, according to a flagship annual report by Project Management Institute (PMI), the world’s leading authority for project professionals.

Around 77% of organisations surveyed in Mena are expecting an increase in the flexible and adaptive hybrid management practices over the next 5 years, it revealed. 

The findings suggest that organisations should focus on empowering flexibility that optimizes team collaboration, innovation, agility and efficiency to gain and maintain competitive advantage. And they can do so without worrying about negative impacts on project performance. 

For many teams, that is a fit-for-purpose, hybrid management approach – one that blends both agile and predictive tools and methods. Organizations need to create an environment of continuous learning and support that makes this possible, it stated.

Around 72% organisations in Mena currently use the linear-run or traditional project management methodologies, stated PMI in its 15th annual Pulse of the Profession report, which details key findings of its annual survey of project professionals and project leaders around the world, 

The annual report also shed light on another critical aspect fundamental to organisations’ ways of working: hybrid work arrangements, it stated. 

The survey results of 2,246 project professionals and 342 senior leaders around the world provide compelling evidence that organizations can provide work location flexibility, agility, and empowerment without affecting project execution and performance.

The Future of Project Work: Moving Past Office-Centric Models, found that globally, since 2020, there has been a 57.5% increase of survey respondents reportedly using hybrid management frameworks. 

Its growing popularity demonstrates that organizations see the advantages of using different approaches and of combining practices, tools, and techniques to get the job done.

Since Covid-19 transformed the world of work nearly four years ago, there has been much debate about the most effective work arrangement, and many studies have attempted to argue that the negatives of remote work outweigh the positives.