How to Improve Project Management Skills

Key takeaways

You have several options for improving your project management skills, including pursuing a master’s degree, taking online courses, obtaining certifications, and seeking mentorship. Here are some important things to know:

• Demand for project management specialists is expected to increase by 7 percent from 2023 to 2033, resulting in approximately 77,000 job openings annually [1].

• As project management continues to meet an important need, organizations seek individuals with the necessary skills to help them achieve their goals. 

• Investing in your skill set in this area can be beneficial, especially as organizations seek to develop new products, enact sustainability practices, or organize events. 

Discover how to improve project management skills, explore available courses and training, identify trending project management skills, and explore how to advance your career in project management. Then, consider enrolling in the IBM Project Manager Professional Certificate, where you’ll learn essential project management concepts, tools, and techniques to track progress, manage client relationships, and adjust throughout the lifecycle.

How to improve project management skills

Although traditional methods of skill enhancement, such as gaining experience, earning advanced degrees, and obtaining project management certification, can undoubtedly help you improve your project management skills, a survey of 373 project management leaders identifies the attainment of “next generation” skills as even more impactful. Project managers skilled in these areas are 1.4 times more effective at achieving key outcomes [2]. Explore how to improve project management skills to meet the needs of the next generation of project management roles.

Learn new project management tools and techniques through experience.

Practical experience offers one effective way to improve your project management skills. For example, you might begin incorporating new tools into projects you already work on within your organization. Doing so helps demonstrate your willingness to adopt new technologies and offers opportunities to get a sense of how to work with various cutting-edge options, including the following. 

• Ecosystem mapping: As the number and diversity of collaborators that project managers oversee expands, you can benefit from improving your expertise with tools that highlight relationships between the various contributors to a project. Building a Kanban board, for instance, can help you learn more about workflows, team collaboration, and maintaining steady production processes. 

• Smart contracts: These digital contracts can automate transactions, removing the need for a third party and promoting transparent, accurate, and efficient collaboration.

• Digital twin platforms and virtual modeling: To ensure your projects remain flexible and aligned with the original plan, you can learn to use digital twin technology to simulate, monitor, and optimize projects in real-time.

Take courses to improve project management skills.

Educational platforms and industry organizations offer online courses and virtual workshops to enhance your project management skills and update you on best practices and the latest technologies. Because online classes generally require less commitment, they can be a great way to improve targeted project management skills in emerging areas. Explore courses in the following areas:

• Digital Twins

• ChatGPT for Project Management - Leveraging AI for Success Specialization

• Become a Sustainable Business Change Agent Specialization

• Global Impact: Business Ethics 

• Agile Leadership: Introduction to Change 

• Inspired Leadership Specialization 

Earn a certification.

Earning a certification can help you learn new skills, stand out to employers, and potentially increase your salary. 

The Project Management Institute and Global Association for Quality Management offer certifications, such as the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM), Professional in Project Management (PPM), and Certified Project Director (CPD), to help you improve your project management skills in areas such as Agile environments, project scheduling, conflict resolution, and team motivation.

You can also improve your project management skills by acquiring certification related to next-generation project management skills, such as sustainability, ethical decision-making, process and framework strategies, or adaptive leadership. The Certified Green Project Manager from Green Project Management and the IBM IT Scrum Master Professional Certificate on Coursera are examples of specialized certificates that may meet your needs. These credentials can help you improve your project management skills in specific areas that may be in demand as the field evolves.

You might also consider earning other credentials, such as the Google Project Management Professional Certificate, where you can learn about business communication, collaboration, and strategy. If you work in IT, the IBM IT Project Manager Professional Certificate covers topics such as Agile concepts, the software development lifecycle (SDLC), software engineering, programming principles, and leadership and management.

Other ways to improve project management skills 

In addition to learning new tools, taking online courses, and acquiring certifications, you may want to advance your skills by finding a professional mentor or earning an advanced degree. Many universities offer MBA programs in project management, covering essential topics such as problem-solving, communication, leadership, negotiation, conflict resolution, and time management. Connecting with a mentor can provide guidance, feedback, and valuable lessons from their project management experience. Fortunately, some members of the Project Management Institute community offer mentorship services. Regardless of your situation, you can likely find an appropriate option to improve your project management skills. 

Industries that hire project managers and how to transition between them

Various industries, including finance, construction, engineering, health care, information and technology, marketing, pharmaceuticals, and software development, hire project managers. If you’re already a project manager planning to switch industries, you have an advantage: Many of your skills will transfer.

However, you can take specific steps to navigate challenges and ease the transition. The following tips may help you as you transition to a new industry:

• Create targeted resumes: Emphasize how your skills in your current industry will apply to your desired role. For example, if you’re switching from IT to construction, focus on your understanding of the overall project management life cycle and your ability to steer projects through initiation, planning, execution, and completion. Mentioning a more general project management certification, such as the PMP, can also be impactful.

• Use your network: Throughout your career, you likely developed contacts across various industries. Now is the time to leverage these connections to find job opportunities and learn about the additional skills you may need for your new industry.

• Close the skills gap quickly: Research your industry’s most valued skills and certifications. For example, if transitioning from IT project management to health care project management, you may need to enhance your knowledge of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements and the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Earn a promotion in project management through action

Even as a successful project manager, you can take steps to secure a promotion and advance your career. Options to increase your chances of advancement include:

• Use your project management skills to create a project plan to achieve your promotion. Outline your goal, develop steps for the process, and establish a timeline.

• Actively seek out problems within the organization and propose solutions. For example, if you notice a stalled project, take the initiative to complete it.

• Exceed expectations by delivering a project ahead of schedule and under budget.

• Increase your brand visibility by writing an article on LinkedIn or speaking at a professional conference.

• Take small, calculated risks, but ensure you understand your organization’s response to unsuccessful innovations.

Improve your project management skills on Coursera

Get started building your project management skills by taking our project management career quiz. Or, explore these additional free resources:

• Watch on YouTube: Career Spotlight: Project Manager

• Get our insights: Subscribe to our Career Chat newsletter

• Hear from an expert: How to Use GenAI to Advance Your Career: Insight from Coursera's Former CEO 

Whether you want to develop a new skill, get comfortable with an in-demand technology, or advance your abilities, keep growing with a Coursera Plus subscription. You’ll get access to over 10,000 flexible courses.

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