Abstract

Project management is becoming increasingly important in both business and academic venues. In our increasingly dynamic world of digital transformation, the ability to rapidly execute projects that change and restructure business processes is becoming critically important. Without such an ability to change, any organization will fail in the face of the dynamic new challenges arising in our increasingly AI-enabled world. Yet, project failure rates remain distressingly high, reaching over 50% experiencing outright failure or cost/schedule overruns (Bilir & Yafez, 2021; Shehzad et al., 2017). Therefore, trained and experienced successful project managers remain in high demand and short supply. Colleges and universities, therefore, are under pressure from employers to better prepare students for project management positions. Institutions are therefore increasingly offering project management courses, both as electives and required courses, at all levels, including graduate degrees, minors, concentrations, and certificate programs in project management. These courses focus on both traditional project management and agile, international, and analytics project management. Accreditors and bodies such as the AIS and ACM are also emphasizing project management within their recommended curricula. The ABET accreditation criteria include the ability to assist in creating a project plan as one of the required skills for graduates. Project management has been suggested as a capstone course to integrate the concepts students are exposed to in other courses. Educators should therefore be aware of the expectations of their students' prospective employers. They will need to understand which skills are important for successfully participating in and completing projects. It is only when they inculcate the expected skills that they can increase the value of their graduates to employers and the value of their brand in the marketplace. Given the increased emphasis on the value of projects in the business world and the emphasis placed on it by industry and accreditors, this research aims to understand the specific project management skills that are valued. Using a Delphi study of experienced project management professionals, we aim to make recommendations on which skills are most important for project managers to achieve success.

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