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According to the feature article in the May 2009 PMI today titled Pulse of the Profession SURVEY – Shows Clear Trend Toward Better Project Performance, “More projects are being completed on time and within budget these days, and a larger percentage of projects are meeting their goals.”

This survey, conducted in late 2008 by PMI’s Market Research Department, compared the results with an identical 2006 survey. According to their survey comparisons, there has been an increase in projects finishing on time (+2%) and within budget (+3%).

In the survey’s look at centralization and project performance, 60% of the respondents work in a project management environment supported by a centralized Project Management Office (+7%), which naturally equates to more projects being completed on time and within budget then those managed in a decentralized PMO supported project environment. 

Are these results a surprise to anyone? 

Is it hard to fathom that a Centralized PMO (to bring under one control) performs better then a Decentralized PMO (to distribute powers or functions over a less concentrated area)? 

Somehow in a profession that exhorts control, methodologies, tools and techniques to initiate, plan, execute, monitor and control, and close projects, the distribution of control to a decentralized PMO goes against all good thought and practice. 

All poking aside, these (and their other) survey results are great in that they reinforce what the project management constituency has been advocating to their clients and stakeholders for years now; that the implementation of project management tools and techniques in and around a mature, robust, and centralized project management office, helps to increase the success of projects.  

Why then, during a time of difficult economic conditions, do project managers have to continually justify their value and the value PMI based tools and techniques to their clients, stakeholders and even their own management at times? 

In 2002, the Center for Business Practices conducted a survey (results posted on pmadvocate.com) that identified the percentage of increase in a variety of project support categories realized by the implementation of project management based tools and techniques. The increases were truly astounding. Based upon these astounding increases, why then aren’t project managers the first resources hired and the last resource fired during down economic times? An even a bigger question might be…how does the project management constituency make other industries aware of the enormous value that is gained through the hiring of project managers and the implementation of a centralized and robust project management office?

A 2006 survey conducted by PM Network magazine asked the following question of its takers:

Considering all of the projects you have worked on in the past three years, how long do they last, on average, from initial planning to completion? The results found that:

- 43% worked on projects that were less than two months long;
- 36% worked on projects that were more than a year long;
- 14% worked on projects that were six months to a year;
- 7% worked on projects two to six months.

The following year, another survey conducted by PM Network magazine asked the following question of its takers:

What length of project do you most enjoy and/or find most workable?

- 56% enjoyed projects that were six months to a year in length;
- 28% enjoyed projects that were two to six months;
- 16% enjoyed projects that were longer then a year;
- 0% enjoyed projects less than two months.

These studies indicate that the largest percentage of projects that are worked on (43%), last less then two months long and nobody enjoys managing them. Additionally, over one-third of the projects lasted longer than one year, and less then a fifth of the project managers surveyed (16%) enjoyed managing those.

If these studies are correct, only a very small portion (16%) of the project management community enjoys managing a majority (79%) of the projects of the duration that they are being asked to manage.

Does this give the project an unhappy aura to start with, and can this have an impact on the project, its team and the overall project culture?

Welcome to PMAdvocate.com!

PMAdvocate.com is dedicated to the betterment of project managers, their programs, projects and profession through the collaboration and sharing of relevant project management knowledge and information.

To that end, let me start off this inaugural blog by first stating some facts, and then, posing a thought provoking question for careful analysis. The Center for Business Practices conducted a study that found that through the implementation of project management tools and techniques, project performance in the following areas could be improved by the following percent:

- Schedule Estimating – 38.6%;
- Customer Satisfaction – 37.6%;
- Strategic Business Alignment – 37%;
- Cost/Hour Estimating – 32.8%;
- Time/Budget – 32.5%;
- Schedule Performance – 32.1%;
- Quality Improvement – 31.9%;
- Labor Hours Performance – 25.6%;
- Cost Performance – 23.8%;
- Response Time – 23%;
- Staff Productivity – 22.8%;
- Time to Market – 21.7%.

Based upon the following survey, shouldn’t project managers be the first employees hired, and the last employees fired, at any company or agency? Additionally, and even in this time of economic turmoil and plunging corporate and government budgets, aren’t companies and agencies obligated to take advantage of the substantial return on investment that could be realized by providing their employees with the appropriate level of project management training?