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?