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52 statistics on project management that you absolutely need to know

52 statistics on project management that you absolutely need to know

Posted by David Galiana, on Monday 14 March 2022

Project management is a set of tools, technique and methodologies used by a team to complete a project from A to Z. Today, project management has become essential. It is increasingly popular, adopted by companies of all sizes and for all types of projects.

What are the most useful methodologies? What are the success and failure rates of projects? How much does a project manager earn on average? How will project management continue to develop? What about using project management software?

Here are more than 50 statistics to have a clearer vision of current project management.

Project management in general

Businesses which invest in proven project management methods lose 28 times less money because their strategic initiatives are more successful and their results are more reliable.

Only 58% of companies fully understand the value of project management.

68% of companies say they use external project managers.

69% of projects carried out achieved the initial objectives and the intended commercial scope with success and 15% were considered to be failures.

Jobs and salaries

In France, the average gross annual salary for a multimedia project manager reaches 53,846 euros according to SalaireMoyen.com.

According to PMI’s 2018 survey on salaries, project management professionals with certification earn 23% more than those without.

By 2027, 2.2 million new project management positions will need to be filled each year in 11 countries (China, India, the US, Brazil, Japan, the UK, Germany, Australia, Canada, Saudi Arabia and the UAE) (PMI).

Success and failure of projects

Around a third of projects are completed on time and on budget.

According to the people surveyed, a project’s success is measured according to the following criteria:

  • satisfied stakeholders (20%);
  • on-time delivery (19%);
  • delivery on budget (18%);
  • reaching targeted profits (17%);
  • achievement of high-quality deliverables (15%);
  • achieving an acceptable ROI (return on investment (9%);
  • other (2%).

The keys to the success of a project are:

  • the technical skills of the team (48%);
  • management support (41%);
  • good communication within the team (26%);
  • agile methods (19%);
  • the leadership of certified project managers (17%);
  • effective soft skills within the team (12%).

70% of projects fail.

According to the Pulse of the Profession 2018 study carried out by the Project Management Institute (PMI) in 5402 companies, the three main causes of project failure are:

  • a change in business priorities (39%);
  • a change in the project’s objectives (37%);
  • incorrect collection of requirements (35%).

Projects with a budget over $1 million USD tend to fail 50% more than project with a budget below $350,000.

37% of projects fail due to a lack of precise objectives.

According to American workers, the two biggest barriers to a successful project are communication (59%) and accountability (29%).

Only 2.5% of companies complete all of their projects all of the time.

The agile method:

56% of companies only use a single project management methodology.

Of the 1492 people who responded to the 12th Annual State of Agile Report Survey conducted by VersoinOne in 2017, 52% state that more than half of their company’s teams use the Agile method.

However, only 11% of businesses use Agile methodologies all the time, for all of their projects.

Regarding Agile methodologies, Scrum and its derivatives (ScrumBan and Scrum/XPHybrid) are the most used (70%).

Why are companies adopting the Agile method?

  • to speed up the software delivery (75%);
  • to manage changing priorities (64%);
  • to increase productivity (55%);
  • to improve harmonization between the company and IT (information technology) (49%);
  • to increase the quality of the software (46%).

Among the benefits of the Agile methods, respondents cited:

  • change management in priorities (71%);
  • project visibility (66%);
  • harmonisation between the business and IT (65%);
  • delivery speed / time to market (62%);
  • team productivity (61%).

Agile projects have a higher success rate. A study carried out by PWC indicates that Agile projects are 28% more successful than traditional projects.

Using a project management software

According to PWC, in 2007, 77% of companies used a project management software.

Project management software is purchased 40% for its functionality, 24% for its ease of use and 9% for its price. Then there are criteria such as assistance, reputation, the popularity of the software and training.

Between 2017 and 2018, the rate of companies using spreadsheets to manage their Agile projects fell from 74% to 67%. Now, these companies have adopted suitable tools such as project management software.

According to Transparency Market Research, the world market for project management softwares online will pass from $2.74 billion in 2016 to $6 billion in 2025.

And what about you? Are you ready to ditch spreadsheets for a better solution? Get started and make your life easier with an online collaborative work tool.

Sources: 4PM, Atlassian, Capterra, Gallup, Gartner, Information Week, PMI, PWC, Standish Group, Statista, Version One.

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