Also in its this year’s study the Project Management Institute (PMI) again assesses the actual trends that will influence our profession Profession Projektmanagement and its development now and in the near future.
It also shows that the success ratio of projects is decreasing again since 2008. Fewer than 2/3 of projects meet their goals and business intent, and about 17% fail outright. This means in plain figures that from every $1 billion of project volume $ 135 Mio. is burned money, not yet counted the collateral at business benefits like missed market opportunities, bad efficiency, losses at the bottom line etc.. But the research also shows that companies with a “mature” project organisation manage to realise their project objectives and benefits at 90% on average, whereas such that work in a “do more with less” business environment only achieve in 34%.
This actually is not a new insight, and it is not only promoted by PMI plausibly. Good project management definitively is an invest in a strategic business asset, not only a commodity or a part-time work ! And if the necessary know how is not (yet) available within the company it is eonomically reasonable to get some experts on board – for an important project, or for implementing an organisational structure, processes, and tools which enable for good project management. The price for good project managers can’t be by far as high as for burned money in insufficient projects !
Visit also the PMI Community Blog and the PMI Website about the topic.
Enjoy reading and receive lots of (new or well known) inspirations. To download the study please click on the PDF icon:
P.S.: In my article from last year you still can access the 2012 study. A comparison of the forecasts and the reality is always interesting 😉
For the 2/3 projects that failed, what were the success criteria that they failed in ? Was the SPI and CPI variance based on the cost and time revised baseline establsihed by the integrated change control process for all Variation orders legitimately agreed between the Peforming organisation and the client ?
What is failure? For me it is not primarily not meeting schedule and budget targets, but rather meeting the objectives of creating the desired benefits and business case for the company (I admit this is a more program management view). Have a look into the full research report at the PMI website. There are plenty of reasons for success/distress which appear quite similarly for years since Standish Group’s “Chaos Reports” and other professional assocations’ research is published. The conclusion often is that origin project management mistakes usually only have a partly influence on project failures, but the bigger impacts come from the project’s interfaces to the performing organization, management, infrastructure, culture, politics, etc. All things related to how PM is seen and valued/supported by the organization. That’s why we practitioners and even more the PMI must enforce our promotion of PM at the C-level.
I meant the 1/3 of projects that failed.