Insights Into Managing Project Teams for Industry 4.0

Abstract

In a fast-paced and changing world demanded by Industry 4.0, the continuous delivery of products and level of integration of technologies are required. This is achieved through the introduction of agile but agile itself demands changes in the way projects are managed. The role of the project manager itself is changing from a command and control to a collaborative and coaching style of leadership. Project teams on the other hand should be self-organizing and self-directed to be agile. Managing agile teams requires a different approach as the idea is to deliver workable solutions and products at a faster space. New project manager skills and competencies are required as well as ways to manage agile teams. A conceptual model is introduced, highlighting the required enablers for an agile environment. The enablers have an impact on how the agile project manager interacts with the agile team. The end result is that products are faster deployed enabling organizations to react to the changes demanded by Industry 4.0.