It’s 2025, and yet many projects and programmes feel like they’re being managed as if it’s 1995 all over again. After decades of evolution, spurred on by the Agile movement, I’m starting to see a  troubling regression in project leadership and management practices. Instead of building on the principles of adaptability, empowerment, and collaboration, it feels like we’re sliding back into rigid, top-down habits of the Waterfall era. Have we learned nothing?

Over the past year, I’ve observed the following recurring patterns:

• Fixed schedules, costs, and budgets that leave no room for iterative or incremental delivery and result in reduced quality.

• Micromanagement that stifles creativity and ownership.

• Disempowered people and teams, that are told what to do rather than drive innovation.

• Big, up-front requirements that assume we can predict everything before we’ve even started.

• Big-bang solutions delivered with little flexibility to adapt to changes in the environment or organisation.

• Over- reliance on the plans being correct and therefore a belief that to deliver faster just requires more resource.

To me, this all feels like a huge step backward.

What’s even more worrying is that this comes at a time when we’re moving at pace into an AI-driven era. As artificial intelligence transforms how we work, surely we should be putting more emphasis on human elements such as empathy, intuition, collaboration, and emotional intelligence that AI can’t replicate? These are the skills that complement AI yet the management behaviours I am seeing seem to devalue them.

Could this be due to financial pressures cutting corners on training and people development? Or perhaps hybrid and remote working has eroded the human connection, pushing leaders toward outdated Theory X management styles, where people need constant control rather than trust?

Whatever the cause, pivoting back to traditional, rigid practices feels like the wrong answer to today’s challenges.

By Lynda Girvan, Head of Business Analysis and Agility at CMC Partnership Consultancy Ltd