Highlights

PMI’s new brand identity serves as our cue to the world that PMI – 50+ years on -- continues to lead the way for a fast-changing profession. The new brand is about more than flashy new colors and logos; it reflects our evolving identity. We’re helping individuals and organizations around the world to better understand how the nature and pace of work are changing, how they can ensure their relevance and thrive in the midst of this change, and how PMI is uniquely “Powering The Project Economy^™.”

The icons in the graphic below are visual representations of our brand.

In 2019, PMI further established itself as a preeminent thought leader in the global discussion around the future of work. Today, organizations and people are centered around a portfolio of projects to deliver outcomes. We call this new way of working “The Project Economy^™” - in which people have the skills and capabilities they need to turn ideas into reality.

For individuals, this means having the right skills and mindset to move seamlessly from project to project in order to help their organizations deliver strategic outcomes. For organizations, this means delivering value to stakeholders through successful completion of projects, delivery of products, and alignment to value streams. All of these initiatives deliver financial and societal value.

To mark our 50th Anniversary, PMI announced the first-of-its-kind rankings of the top 50 projects of the past 50 years on our list of Most Influential Projects. The list recognizes projects that have transformed their sectors and, in some cases, the entire business landscape — from technology to healthcare, infrastructure to architecture, finance to entertainment. The wide-ranging honorees include iconic achievements such as Apollo 11, the Boeing 747^® airplane, and the #1-ranked project: creation of the World Wide Web.

Honorees were chosen from among more than 1,000 high-impact projects identified by 400 leaders in the global project management community, including PMI chapter leaders and members, as well as academics and industry experts. The list stimulated exciting engagement and debate around the world, highlighting the important role that projects have played in driving landmark achievements for the past five decades.

While PMI built its reputation and expertise primarily in the arena of traditional project management, individuals and organizations around the world are working in an increasingly “agile” world. In order to strengthen our position in the agile marketplace and provide even more value for its members, PMI acquired Disciplined Agile (DA) and FLEX in 2019. Regardless of approach, whether it be traditional or agile, project or product, PMI is now uniquely positioned to deliver value for individuals and the organizations they serve.

Together, Disciplined Agile and FLEX have combined under PMI’s banner to offer solutions to address organizations’ major pain points – allowing them to realize stronger business outcomes, faster. During 2019, the teams became fully integrated and have worked to develop an exciting new suite of course offerings and certifications designed to meet practitioners “where they are” and allow them to tailor solutions for the way each organization works. This will further cement PMI’s global leadership in the agile space – whilst remaining loyal to the traditional project management approaches that have put our profession on the map.

For several years, PMI’s Brightline Initiative has joined together with leading global organizations to help executives bridge the expensive and unproductive gap between strategy design and delivery. Brightline expanded its scope during 2019 and developed a trademarked “transformation compass” as a practical tool for executives.

Brightline now provides organizations with three key benefits:

• Thought & Practice Leadership that gives organizations the cutting-edge research and solutions they need to better implement transformation
• Networking for leaders to exchange experiences and advance ideas and practices related to strategy and transformation
• Capacity Building to enable organizations to further develop knowledge within their own ranks

During the year, Brightline convened and supported a host of engaging events around the world and published its new “Transformation Framework” and “The Transformation Playbook” to Chief Strategy Officers (CSOs), Senior VPs, and Executive Directors at large enterprises regardless of industry or geographic location. They also launched development of a Brightline Transformation certification that is expected to be available in 2020.

• Transformation Framework/Compass
• The Transformation Playbook
• Strategy @ Work
• Thinkers 50 Awards

An important part of PMI’s DNA has been shaped by our not-for-profit purpose to improve society through projects, so this golden anniversary was a fitting time to put a unique capstone on 50 years of giving back. We didn’t just celebrate around the globe; we used the occasion as a time to rally together in service, to contribute our collective skills and passion, and to make a difference in the world together.

To accomplish this, the PMI community came together in the Global Celebration of Service – a call to support the United Nations’ mission to advance societal goals like fighting poverty and climate change. PMI stakeholders put their expertise in project management into action in order to enable local organizations and help fulfill the promise of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

We initially set a goal of 50,000 volunteer service hours pledged by our members and partners. In typical fashion, the PMI family overachieved – ultimately TRIPLING the original goal by pledging to contribute more than 150,000 volunteer service hours to advance causes aligned with the SDGs. This Global Celebration of Service was part of our Made Possible by a Project Manager campaign -- harnessing the passion of project professionals around the world to drive societal change.

As part of the 18th Annual American Business Awards, PMI won a SILVER STEVIE AWARD for its Global Celebration of Service in the category of “Corporate Social Responsibility  Program of the Year - Organizations Up to 2,500 Employees.”

In 2019, PMI invested more than US$ 6.5 million to support social responsibility through its philanthropic arm -- the PMI Educational Foundation (PMIEF). Just as important as the dollars invested, 2019 marked the launch of PMIEF's new strategy to ensure that youth learn and apply project management to help support the world's leading nonprofits.

These newly-focused efforts to teach life skills and early project management capability to young people age 5 to 19 will pay dividends to those individuals and their families, to society as a whole, and to the global economy that will need these future professionals to tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges in the future. This early life focus through PMIEF will expose PMI to new generations of potential project managers - and help ensure a vibrant future for the profession as PMIEF celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2020.