The Project Management Institute (PMI) released its 2018 edition of the Pulse of the Profession report – 35-page PDF absolutely packed with insights about the current state of the industry.
You should give it a read, but if you haven’t carved out enough time to devour the whole document, here are a few surprising facts to hold you over…
9.9% of every dollar is wasted due to poor project performance.
That’s $99 million for every $1 billion invested. That number is startling enough on its own but consider this – it’s gone up since last year. In the 2017 Pulse of the Profession, it was a (still staggering) $97 million. There is hope, however! PMI says that “champion” organizations (those companies who complete 80% of their projects on budget and on time) waste only 1.4% of every dollar.
Think about that. If you’re an average organization, strengthening and systemizing your processes could save you a whopping 8.5% in wasted costs. And, according to the report, if you’re a below average organization, the savings could be as high as 27.7%!
Most projects fail for one specific reason – lack of sponsor support.
Almost half of all the underperforming organizations that were surveyed said the same thing – lack of executive sponsorship was the primary cause of project failure. A good project sponsor is critical. He or she uses clout and influence to help project teams overcome obstacles, navigate through turbulent times and gain buy-in from other people in the organization.
According to the report, organizations who have effective project sponsors on eight out of every 10 projects are 40% more successful than other organizations.
Only 58% of organizations understand the value of strong .
How is this possible in 2018? Of the organizations surveyed, nearly half failed to include as a strategic competency for driving change. And guess what? Those organizations experience 50% more project failure than the companies who do see the full value of skills.
If you think you might be one of these non-believing institutions, don’t worry. You’re reading a post on a Six Sigma website. That’s a huge step in the right direction. See, Six Sigma and aren’t so different from one another. Motorola had this all figured out in the 1980s.
Project management has a clear goal – finish a project on time, on budget, all while accomplishing the original business intent. In Six Sigma? You have to identify an issue, address the issue by creating change, measure the outcome of your effort – all while keeping your mistakes and rework to a minimum.
It’s all process methodology. It’s all about moving through milestones to achieve goals.
And according to PMI’s 2018 Pulse of the Profession report, that skillset is as important as it has ever been.
