Page 17 - Straight Talk On Project Management IV

The only way is up. at last, the IT project economy’s CTRL-ALT-DELETE is

working

I’m feeling upbeat today. After a grey start, the sun is
shining as I write this. A neighbour has some builders in
(that’s a sign that things are picking up) and their radio
just played Yazz’s The Only Way Is Up.

And Yazz’s little musical time capsule sent from 1988 is
right, things are picking up – both for the IT Project
economy and the economy in general.

A survey by IHS Markit found that UK’s Services Sector
was emerging from the depression caused by the Covid-
19 lockdown and that the sector was expanding at its
fastest pace since 2015. The purchasing managers’
index (PMI) reading was 56.5 in July - an increase from
June’s 47.1 and a vast improvement on April’s (all-time
record low) of 13.4.

PMIs are a measure, on a scale of 1 to 100, of private sector activity. Anything over the halfway point
(50) is an indicator of growth, whereas a figure below that signals contraction. 56.5 is a very
welcome number!!

The services sector, which includes finance, law, retail, engineering, and consulting, is crucial to the
British economy. Accounting, as it does, for about 80% of the UK’s economic output, it is also a
pretty accurate barometer of where we are it in our post Covid-19 recovery - 38% of respondents
reported an increase in business activity in July.

And it is, for us at least, borne out in an increase in IT Project Management activity this past two
months.

A word of caution though, PMIs measure the rate of change, it should be remembered that we’re
coming back from April’s pretty low starting point so while this a good indicator of a rise inactivity, it
does not mean that the services sector has recovered from the impact of the lockdown.

It does mean though that we have moved onto our next normal – this is certainly the case in IT
Project Management.

The Next Phase of ‘Normal’

This new phase of normal is all about change. IT Project teams have always been facilitators of
change – if ever there was a moment for us to shine! The IT Programme Managers I’m talking to are
telling me about fast-paced projects, particularly Business Change ones, many of them are existing
projects that have been re-focussed, but an encouraging number of new ‘change’ projects are
getting green-lighted.

If I were to sum up, I’d say the majority of live IT Projects right now are delivering and facilitating
business change over business growth.