"Society will not ask whether we achieved the project's objectives; it will ask whether it was worth delivering the project the way we did"

The International Seminar on Project Management and Engineering (ISoPM), the international programme of the 30th International Congress on Project Management and Engineering (CIDIP / ICPME 2026), concluded with the roundtable «Where Is Project-Based Governance Heading? Project Portfolio Management», a high-level discussion in which four internationally recognised leaders explored the future of project management, organisational governance, and the role of leadership in a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, sustainability and digital transformation.

The roundtable brought together:

• Mladen Vukomanović, President of the International Project Management Association (IPMA) and the Croatian Project Management Association, PhD in Civil Engineering, Full Professor at the University of Zagreb, and international consultant and trainer.
• A. Sivathanu Pillai, President of IPMA India, former Vice President of IPMA, PhD in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, internationally recognised scientist in the defence and aerospace sectors, and Professor at several universities in India.
• Vladimir Obradovic, Vice President for Operations and Finance of the International Project Management Association (IPMA) and President of the Serbian Project Management Association, PhD in Economics, Full Professor at the University of Belgrade, and international consultant and trainer.
• Elena Moral Grande, Chief Executive Officer of Norvento TechnPower, former Chief Operating Officer of Talgo, Director of International Projects and Programmes, Mechanical Engineer, Associate Professor at IE University, and member of the Strategic Council and Engineering Programme of the Royal Academy of Engineering of Spain.

The discussion was moderated by Jesús Martínez Almela, Chairman of ISoPM, First Vice President of AEIPRO–IPMA Spain, former President of IPMA, and IPMA Honorary Fellow.

As an introduction to the discussion, Jesús Martínez Almela highlighted the need to move towards a more systemic approach to project management by aligning organisational strategy—whether in public or private organisations—with project portfolio strategy and governance models.

The roundtable brought together different international perspectives on the future of the profession and encouraged an engaging discussion in which seminar participants also had the opportunity to contribute.

The main conclusions of the roundtable, compiled by its moderator, Jesús Martínez Almela, are presented below:

1. AI—artificial intelligence—will not replace engineers, project managers, educators, or leaders

The right question is not about the replacement of certain roles within the professional community, but rather about what kind of society we are building through the use of AI, especially when it is used merely as a tool. AI offers us—and will continue to offer in the near future—better options for streamlining and optimizing certain tasks, but humans must decide what is worth doing. Undoubtedly, AI can help us deliver projects faster. But faster delivery does not mean a better or more sustainable impact from the project.

2. AI’s ecological footprint, AI’s sustainability

AI depends on energy, water, data centres, GPUs, rare minerals, cloud platforms, capital, and political influence. It’s worth noting that operational data centres consumed approximately 415 TWh of electricity in 2024, and projections for 2030 indicate this figure will rise to 945 TWh. By way of comparison, an average nuclear reactor produces approximately 8 TWh per year. Thus, when we talk about AI, we are talking about the availability of energy and water, the financial resources to invest, and political influence.

It is not just about generating and using the best algorithms; AI has become a race for electricity and chips, rare minerals, cloud infrastructure, water, and capital. Whoever controls these resources will be able to control future productivity, competitiveness, better decision-making, and, above all, influence.

Technical skills in AI management are a prerequisite for using this technology, but they won’t be the deciding factor; the true distinction between current and future AI use is based on ethical criteria, sustainability, critical thinking, and new competencies.

3. The future will not ask whether we have completed the project; the future will ask whether it was worth doing it that way

The uncontrolled development of AI can turn public resources into private power, affecting equity among nations and regions and widening the gap between people in any sector of activity. The required consumption of electricity and water drains resources that are essential for other sectors of activity. But the challenge of sustainability, equity, gender, and ethics does not affect only AI projects; it affects any project: there is no such thing as a successful project on a planet in decline.

Society will remember project leaders not only for the projects they delivered but also for those they had the courage not to undertake. Many questions remain unanswered:

• What should the project deliver (commission)?
• Who benefits from the project?
• Who pays the cost?
• What kind of sustainable future does the project help build?
• The concept of “Projectification of Society” should guide us in designing project-based solutions.

4. How the IPMA ecosystem helps address these challenges

For more than 60 years, IPMA® has provided the profession and society with a unique ecosystem based on the development and continuous improvement of competencies—for individuals through the ICB®, for people working in project teams through the PEB®, and for organisations through the OCB®. This ecosystem helps organisations understand and apply the principles required to build better organisations, whether public or private, regardless of their sector of activity.

At the individual level, the ICB® (Individual Competence Baseline) enables professionals not only to acquire knowledge but, above all, to understand how to apply it through skills, behaviours and self-management, while effectively interacting with others.

The PEB® (Project Excellence Baseline) enables project teams operating within a continuous improvement framework to learn and improve through practice by aligning people and purpose, processes and resources with project outcomes. This approach enhances scalability in terms of effectiveness and efficiency, performance and flexibility, reliability, continuous improvement and, ultimately, sustainability.

The OCB® (Organisational Competence Baseline) complements this framework by focusing on organisational competence in project management. It enables organisations to integrate people, resources, processes, structures and cultures across projects, programmes and portfolios within a governance and management system aligned with the organisation’s mission, vision and strategy, ensuring both successful results and continuous organisational development.

The panellists presented examples from companies and organisations operating in different countries and sectors, illustrating the value generated through the IPMA ecosystem, with particular emphasis on organisational competencies and IPMA DELTA® certification. These examples ranged from energy generation, transmission and distribution projects to education and research, water resource management, organisational change, social development and international cooperation, as well as infrastructure, transport, security and defence.

5. Project-based governance rooted in portfolio management ensures that strategic ambitions are translated into results

Organisations need a stronger and more mature project management culture, supported by maturity models capable of accelerating and consolidating organisational competencies. This, in turn, activates the organisation’s dynamic capabilities to adapt, integrate and reconfigure its resources and capabilities in response to changing market conditions and emerging opportunities.

These dynamic capabilities include the ability to identify and seize new opportunities, transform existing resources, and continuously learn and innovate. They are essential for organisations to thrive in dynamic and competitive environments through effective and efficient project management across programmes and, ultimately, portfolios.

Project portfolio management means doing the right projects in the right way. Portfolio management provides a coherent approach to managing strategically aligned projects, programmes, portfolios and related work in increasingly complex and uncertain organisational environments, with the following objectives:

• Ensure that investment in projects and programmes is aligned with the organisation’s strategy.
• Maximise the benefits generated by that investment, going beyond traditional ROI.
• Optimise organisational capacity and resources by aligning people, structures, processes and cultures.
• Identify and manage stakeholder expectations.
• Provide visibility into the performance and status of projects and programmes across the portfolio.

Final conclusion

In the near future, society will not ask whether we achieved the project’s objectives; it will ask whether it was worth delivering the project in the way we did.

Projects are not islands, and project managers are neither castaways nor heroes. Organisations need more competent professionals to lead projects, programmes and portfolios, but above all they need leadership at the highest level to consolidate a culture of project-based management, project-based governance and higher levels of organisational maturity that ensure the proper use of resources, guided by ethical principles and equity, as the path towards genuine sustainability.

There can be no successful projects on a planet in decline.

My sincere thanks to the four panellists for their outstanding presentations and valuable insights during an intense roundtable discussion that, unfortunately, left too little time for debate with the audience.

Jesús Martínez Almela