31 Essential Project Management Statistics of 2024
Project management offices may seem like an overhead to some, but most organizations understand the risks associated with running projects without project management.
Scroll down to discover how project management shapes project success, project failure, project teams, project managers, project cost, resources, and productivity with the help of 26 latest project management statistics.
Key Project Management Statistics
- Only 58% of organizations fully understand the value of project management.
- 77% of high-performing projects use project management software.
- Only 2.5% of companies complete their projects 100% successfully.
- 18% of projects fail because of outdated project management software
- 39% of projects fail due to lack of planning, inadequate resources, and insufficient work activities.
- 70% of project professionals in SMBs have no certification; most (small, medium, and large) organizations employ a project manager based on experience.
- 46% of project leaders say completing projects on time is their biggest challenge.
Project Management Statistics: Industry-Wide Assessment
1. 93% of organizations abide by standardized project management practices
(Project Management Institute)
As much as 93% of organizations realize that embedding consistent, standardized project management practices reduces the risks and leads to better outcomes.
Still, almost 70% of them limit following any popular project management methodology. In fact, project management statistics indicate that only 58% of organizations fully understand the value of project management.
2. High-performing companies are more likely to establish project management processes than low-performing ones (95% versus 84%).
(PM Solutions)
High-performing companies successfully complete 80% or more of their projects. On the other hand, underperforming companies complete only 60% or less of their projects.
That said, compared to low performers, high performers are much more likely to have had project management processes in place for five years or more (24% versus 49%).
In terms of cost savings per project, on average — the high performers save US$ 125K/project, while low-performers save — on average — US$ 8K/project (same initial investment).
45% of high-performing organizations are involved in professional services and information industries, while low-performers are more likely to operate in finance & insurance (20%), manufacturing (16%), and healthcare (16%).
Moreover, high-performers show 4x more productivity than the low performers (32% versus 8%).
3. 56% of project managers are somewhat or very dissatisfied with the current level of PM maturity
(Wellington)
When it comes to the department’s project management maturity level, over 67% of respondents (300 subjects reviewed) say their current project management maturity is level 3 or higher (out of 5 levels).
On the other hand, in terms of organization-wide project management maturity level, only 40% believe the level of maturity in their organization is three or higher (out of 5).
Project Management Failure Statistics
4. If management takes five hours or more to make a decision, the project’s failure rate increases by 22%.
(Scrum Inc)
The Scrum project management failure statistics report 47% of Agile Transformations fail because of poor Scrum implementations (77% of all Agile Transformations are Scrum Transformations).
The reason: decision latency.
Companies could tackle decision latency with an effective Scrum tool and Executive Metascrum event that prioritizes all initiatives before doing anything useful.
Meanwhile, you will have to ensure that your organization has Agile leaders with certifications capable of making decisions quickly and confidently among the executive key stakeholders.
A report based on 10,000 agile projects indicates the decision latency to be directly proportional to the project success rate — independent of the process.
These time management statistics reveal that the project success rate is 68% when the decision latency is less than an hour. At the same time, there is an 82% likelihood of project failure if the decision latency is five hours or more.
And while these are the Scrum Transformations project fail rates, decision latency influences all types of projects. For example, according to ScrumInc, the project failure rate due to decision latency of five hours or more is 22%, while there is a 53% likelihood of the project producing unsatisfactory results.
5. More than 50% of all projects suffer from some scope creep.
(Wellington)
A scoping document helps organizations with a defined methodology and risk management.
Nevertheless, only 60% of organizations mostly or always create a scoping document using reliable project management software. Conversely, almost 25% of project leaders sometimes or never create a scoping document.
Comparing these both — companies with scope management report 33% of their projects experience scope creep, while companies without project scope management experience scope creep with 66% of projects.
Moreover, as much as 39% of organizations sometimes or never create a baseline schedule. Given these project failure statistics, it is not difficult to see why 50% of them couldn’t follow the project objectives on time.
6. Only 1 in 3 organizations have high-benefits realization management maturity.
(Project Management Institute)
Another project management statistics report from PSI Solution estimates that only 1 in 10 organizations have high maturity with their value delivery capabilities.
Nevertheless, the Project Management Institute sets the bar high. It reports that almost 33% of organizations achieve their larger tangible goals with individual projects, while 67% still manage projects based on traditional outputs like time, scope, and budget.
Meaning roughly ⅔ companies do not track whether their individual projects are helping their organization achieve its strategic goals in the long run or not.
7. 9.9% of every dollar is wasted due to lacking project performance
(Project Management Institute)
Compared to 2013, it is a 27% decrease in terms of money organizations lose because of poor project management practices. Still, as of 2021, organizations with poor management (60% or fewer projects being completed on time and budget) lose $99 million for every $1 billion invested.
On the contrary, project management success statistics report from PMI shows that companies that complete 80% of their projects on budget and on-time waste only 1.4% of every dollar.
8. 18% of projects fail because of outdated project management software
(Work etc)
An outdated, inflexible PM software increases the odds of project details being overlooked or misunderstood. This leads to bad project management and poor resource management — and thus project failure.
Today, even the free CRM tools can report generation capabilities, app integration features, and sheer customizability. And produce far more relevant details than outdated project management systems. Imagine what your organization can achieve with a reliable CRM tool or business management software.
Project Management Statistics: Benefits of Project Management Software
9. 77% of high performing projects use project management software
(Wellington)
Wellington’s project management software market statistics report that almost 97% of organizations believe that project management is critical to business performance and organizational success.
Yet, only 22% of organizations use PM software, although studies suggest that PM software increases performance and satisfaction commercially available.
Nevertheless, 66% of project managers say they would use PM software if they had approval from their organizations. At the same time, 44% of project managers are not likely to use project management software.
10. The project management software market is likely to register a CAGR of 10.67% during the forecast period (2020 – 2025).
(Research and Markets)
The project management software market was valued at US$5.37 billion in 2020.
And it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.67%, envisioned to reach US$9.81 billion by 2025, owing to the increased usage of PM software to manage resources and rising demand for risk management practices.
Additionally, the digital transformation has forced the industries to incorporate real-time dashboards to manage projects anywhere, anytime. Especially since the pandemic, most project professionals are adopting dependable web-based project management software, given the ever-demanding need for optimal functionality, remote team communication, productivity, and flexibility.
11. Jira leads the project management software market, with 41.96% of organizations utilizing it.
(Datanyze, Medium)
The global market size of the project management software industry is 118,477 companies.
Jira dominates the project management industry, with over 63,578 (41.96%) teams relying on Jira for successful project management.
Microsoft Project is the second most popular project management tool in the project management software industry, with over 22,940 (15.46%) companies using it. Kanban is employed by 8,152 (5.38%) teams across the world.
Airtable, Smartsheets, and Asana are used by 4.96%, 4.58%, and 2.98% of organizations respectively.
12. 75% of project managers believe their PM software will lead to bad project management
(Digital.ai)
The PM software project failure statistics report from Digital.ai indicates that 73% of project managers believe their PM software does not have reliability, ease of use, and ease of integration — and suggest looking for these three attributes while investing in project management software.
13. Over 100,000 companies across the world use Monday.com to manage their projects
(Monday.com)
Used by over 100,000 companies around the world, Monday.com is one of the best all-around project management tools that provide a visual and collaborative space for teams to plan, organize, and track project progress.
Its versatility, scalability, affordable prices, and impactful feature set are only some reasons why companies like Adidas, Samsung, Uber, and WeWork use Monday.com to manage their teams.
14. 4.96% of all organizations including Uber and Pinterest use Asana to manage their projects
(Datanyze)
Known for its ease of use, simplicity, and Kanban-style user interface, Asana is used by 4.96% of organizations worldwide. Its Agile and Scrum support, team communication markers, versatility, and ability to integrate over 100 third-party tools are the reason why 11,434 companies including Uber, Airbnb, and Pinterest use Asana to manage their projects and teams.
15. Over 200,000+ teams use ClickUp to stay on track.
(TechCrunch)
ClickUp is used by companies like Google, Nike, Uber, Airbnb, Netflix, and Ubisoft to keep track of all projects and manage their teams efficiently via its extensive lists of features.
16. 20,000+ companies spread across 140 different countries use Wrike for collaborative work management.
(FinanceOnline)
Tailored to help teams, agencies, and professional service providers, Wrike is used by 20,000+ companies.
Some of the notable companies like PayPal, AT&T, Amazon.com, MTV, Capgemini, Ecco, Hootsuite, HTC, Hawaiian Airlines, and Pure storage use Wrike as their project management systems because of its ability to deliver real-time analytics.
17. TeamWork is most often used by companies with 1-10 employees and 1-10 million dollars in annual revenue.
(Enlyft)
Regarded as one of the best services for managing projects by tech critics, Teamwork is used by 0.56% of all organizations. Computer Software (15%), Marketing and Advertising (11%), Information Technology and Services (10%), the Internet (10%), and Hospital & Health Care (9%) are the largest industries that use TeamWork for cloud-based project management.
Project Planning Statistics
18. 39% of projects fail due to lack of planning, inadequate resources, and insufficient work activities.
(Tem Gantt, nTaskManager)
Only 50% of project professionals create a baseline schedule to track the performance of their project team.
Even the ones that create a project baseline schedule rely on incompetent planning tools like Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Word to manage project plans.
For instance, a Gantt chart made via advanced Gantt project management tools is more interactive than Gantt charts created in Excel.
19. 60% of project managers use hybrid methods to deliver their projects.
(Rebel’s guide to Project Management)
A mix of predictive (like the waterfall) and iterative (like Agile) methods, hybrid project management methodology is the most common delivery approach among project professionals.
And one of the primary factors contributing to hybrid’s rising popularity is the increase in uncertainty and complexity of projects.
The project management statistics from Pulse of Professional 2018 report indicate the proportion of projects with uncertainty and level of complexity has risen from 31% in 2013 to 41% in 2018.
20. Almost 40% of project teams are made of 6 to 10 people.
(Rebel’s Guide to Project Management)
30.5% of teams have five or fewer team members, while the rest 30% of teams have ten or more members.
So, the trend among project professionals is to have enough members to share responsibilities with, but not too many to lose the personal touch of engaging with the team.
However, managers prefer to keep their teams small. Nearly 60% of project managers run 2-5 projects simultaneously, while only 19% identify themselves as ’experienced’ to run more than one project.
Project Management Performance Statistics
21. Only 2.5% of companies complete 100% of their projects successfully.
(Gallup)
The project management stats based on over 10,000 projects from 150+ companies reveal that successfully completing your projects will rank you in the top 3% of best-performing organizations globally.
That is to say; most organizations do meet their initial business intent.
The significant drivers responsible for 97.5% of failed projects were change in organization priorities (39%), change in project objectives (37%), and lack of vision (29%).
22. 50% of projects fail because of communication breakdown.
(Project Management)
PM.com’s project management stats based on 102 companies in different industries found that 75% of teams do not report organizationally.
Given that most companies employ numerous teams on a single project, managers say that 59% work in separate groups. And 21% of teams are engaged by different companies.
In addition, only 15% of project professionals report that their projects are led by a team working in the same building; the other 85% of organizations outsource a part of a project to multiple project teams. As a result, 77% of teams work in different cities, while 49% collaborate from other countries.
Under such circumstances, it is not troublesome to see why most projects fail due to a lack of proper communication. For this reason, one of the proven project management practices is to have appropriate team collaboration tools in addition to incorporating reliable project management software.
Project Management Statistics on Project Timelines
23. Project management software saves the average employee 498 hours per year.
(PMI’s Pulse of Profession)
The project management success statistics indicate that workflow management software saves the average employee 498 hours per year. In addition, almost 49% of organizations with project planning software say the tool helps them estimate project costs accurately.
Not only this, companies having a project management system complete 66% of their projects within the allocated project budget. On the contrary, organizations without a project management system complete only 47% of projects within the project budget.
24. Almost 50% of project professionals spend a day or more each month manually collating project KPI reports
(Wellington)
Wellington’s project failure statistics report indicates 54% of organizations do not have access to real-time project KPIs and rely on manually collating project reports.
Today, almost any business intelligence software can help an organization stay on track by keeping the individuals accountable, providing additional training to underperformers, and giving insightful performance indicators.
Yet, most organizations do not have effective technology to collaborate and manage project resources.
25. 46% of project leaders say completing projects on time is their biggest challenge
(Wellington’s The State of Project Management Survey)
Setting clear deliverables, setting real deadlines, active involvement of team members and stakeholders is all it takes to meet project deadlines.
Yet, almost half of the project leaders say that time is the scarcest resource; in fact, time tracking is the second most-requested project management feature across organizations.
Wellington’s State of Project Management report states that only 40% of projects are completed on time. While only 36% of projects completed within the deadline mostly or always deliver full benefits.
Project Management Office (PMO) Statistics
26. 89% of organizations have at least one PMO (project management office), but only 45% of staffers have a Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification.
(PM Solutions)
Even 30% of organizations without a PMO are likely to implement one soon. So yes, considered a luxury a decade ago, PMO has become vital for organizations.
In fact, regarded as a strategic resource, most PMOs report to the Vice President or higher; 49% to the C-level executives.
There is also a direct correlation between the PMOs age and their capabilities, as high-performing companies are likely to have project management offices — on average — older than the underperformers (ten years to five years).
As of 2016, 45% of PMOs are five years old, while 20% of them are two years or less old.
27. 51% of PMOs say their biggest challenge is demonstrating the value-add a PMO represents
(PM Solutions)
A project management statistics based on 212 respondents report that almost all PMOs face more than one challenge.
But processes seen as overhead was the most prominent challenge of PMOs; as much as 51% of organizations surveyed report processes seen as overhead as their biggest challenge.
At least half of the PMOs were challenged with inadequate resource management capability. Resistance to change was faced by 47% of project management offices, and evolving/changing to meet organization needs was faced by (43%).
Again, project management offices in low-performing companies face more challenges than the PMOs in high-performing organizations (57% vs. 18%).
28. 44% of PMOs agree that their roles and responsibilities are clearly defined
(Wellington)
Whereas 25% of PMOs state their roles are not clearly defined. Out of the many roles and responsibilities, project status reporting is shared by 80% of PMOs.
Portfolio management is standard among 65% of PMOs. And facilitating the post-project benefit tracking is the least shared responsibility and is a common practice among only 18% of PMOs.
Project Management Training Statistics
29. 49% of organizations have a project management training program in place.
(PM Solutions)
49% of organizations invest in accredited project management training. 20% sponsor non-accredited project management training, and the rest, 31% of organizations, do not have any project management training program in their organizations.
30. 70% of project managers in SMBs have no certification; plus, most (small, medium, and large) organizations employ a project manager based on experience.
(Wellington)
As per another Capterra project management survey, only 56% of project managers have a PMI certification.
About 75% of organizations see PMI certification as an advantage but do not consider it essential. That is to say, only ¼ of firms employ a project manager who has a certification.
Even at the most reputable organizations like IBM — only 56% of project professionals hold a PMI certificate. Most organizations appoint a PM on the basis of experience.
Wellington’s project management stats based on 300 companies indicate that 60% of project managers have 11 years or more of experience, 21.4% have 6-10 years of project management experience, whereas 13% have five years or less experience.
It is consequential to realize that as much as 80% of successful projects involve project managers with formal training and a PMI certificate.
31. A poorly trained project manager is the largest project management challenge in organizations.
(Wellington)
More than 30% of organizations report that having poorly trained project managers is one of the prominent project management challenges they face.
Consequently, the demand for project management skills and the availability of talent continues to persist. As much as 51% of organizations say they will hire project managers with a certificate only.
Furthermore, the global economy needs 25 million new skilled project professionals by 2030, meaning 2.5 million people will have to enter project management-oriented employment every year.
Use These Project Management Statistics to Future-Proof Your Projects
These are not just the latest project management statistics that a project manager should know. Instead, as a project manager, you should use these insights to polish your project management processes.
For instance, it must be clear to you that organizations that undervalue project management report more failed projects than organizations following standardized project management practices.
Plus, organizations using project management software have more successfully completed projects than ones that undervalue project management software.
But above all, these project management statistics reveal the relationship between project management processes and project success or project failure rate.
Meaning incorporating effective project management can avoid poor project performance and increase the project success rate in your organization.
Sources
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Martin Luenendonk
Martin loves entrepreneurship and has helped dozens of entrepreneurs by validating the business idea, finding scalable customer acquisition channels, and building a data-driven organization. During his time working in investment banking, tech startups, and industry-leading companies he gained extensive knowledge in using different software tools to optimize business processes.
This insights and his love for researching SaaS products enables him to provide in-depth, fact-based software reviews to enable software buyers make better decisions.