Although, as I have discussed before, digital project management is a valuable discipline, I mused for a while on where it came from.  Many digital organisations came from the design and advertising industries, where, although significant project management skills are practised, it is not recognised as a discipline. Having worked in those areas myself for a number of years, I understand that the concept of a project has negative connotations. Project based work means that the company has to constantly be chasing new work – the holy grail is to turn those projects into clients requiring on-going service. The management philosophy is usually built around account handling and account management, rather than project management.

When digital media arrived, the type of work originally undertaken was the building of websites. These were usually individual turnkey projects, and as such were amenable to project management methods and approaches. But what of the other services now offered by companies operating in the digital arena? Web marketing, on-line promotion, and digital communications all can be looked at as on-going processes, rather than finite projects with a beginning and end point. However it could be argued that if a strategy is in place with defined objectives, project management is the route to go.

Okay, I admit a lot of this is semantics and depends upon the taxonomy of roles within an industry sector, and most operations will embody both account and project management disciplines, but I think it is also a reflection of the culture and business philosophies to observe which is dominant within the sector.