Project managers are not immune to the changing economic conditions, having to contend with the same pressures as the wider business in terms of reduced budgets, delivering greater value, higher productivity and increased outputs.
However, the inaugural AXELOS project and programme management (PPM) Benchmark Survey found that project managers and organisation around the world, including a sizeable sample from Africa, were facing general business challenges that, if not properly managed, could seriously and negatively affect the outcome of projects across the board.
AXELOS is a joint venture company set up by the UK government to develop a portfolio of global best practice project management methodologies and qualifications. These methodologies include ITIL, PRINCE2 and MSP.
The 2017 study - The Value of Project Management Excellence and the Search for Competitive Advantage - is intended to lay the foundation for a yearly publication aimed at giving insight to the PPM market.
Survey respondents were consistent about the issues they faced that could impact the success of a project. The following seven issues were regarded as the most important:
1. Over-ambitious timeframes and unrealistic budgets: The majority of project managers acknowledged that increased business competition was causing a variety of knock-on effects including a tightening of project budgets and timelines as clients and stakeholders seek greater value. This ultimately led to more projects in shorter timeframes. Where project managers (59%) found themselves handling a project that couldn't be delivered in the timeframe, nearly half (47%) experienced project failure.
2. Changing project brief/ expectations and poor communications: this, along with poorly defined business cases and misunderstanding of risk - is contributing directly to project failure. In fact, 56% of project managers had witnessed significant changes to the project brief and expectations and this led to project failure in 48% of cases.
3. Maturity of project management: in many organisations, project management maturity was still behind where it needs to be to meet the increased demands of more projects within existing timeframes and budgets. Less than 20% of organisations described themselves as having established processes in place, with ongoing improvements based on monitoring and feedback.
4. Not having the right people for the task and, to a lesser extent, a lack of skills and training. Half of project managers felt their project didn't have the right people in place, which led to project failure in 43% of cases. Many organisations were not prioritising investment in their project management teams. Although continuing professional development (CPD) was actively supported by three-quarters of organisations, there was a disconnect between their support for and willingness to fund it. In addition, nearly two thirds of respondents said extra staff had not been hired to deal with demands to deliver more projects annually at a quicker place.
5. Inefficient work practices: there was a lack of commitment from organisations when it came to keeping up with the latest best practice and investing in their future leaders.
6. Project management does not have enough influence. Despite the fact that under-representation of project management at a senior level is known to impact on the successful delivery of projects and PMOs were in place in more than half of organisations, its level of internal integration at the highest level was apparent in only 39% of cases. At the same time, a third of organisations had no PMO to oversee project delivery and ensure that organisational change was managed efficiently and effectively.
7. Organisations' expectations of evolving technology has led to their relying more and more on projects to deliver greater competitive advantage. However, evolutions in technology were bringing their own set of challenges resulting in greater complexity in project delivery, increased project risks and an impact on profit margins.
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