Project Management Survey - August 2002 Newsletter

Project Management Survey

[From newsletter August 2002]

Do you know what the answer is to successful project management? We have been carrying our survey’s on this since the 1980’s. A very widely referred to survey we carried out in 1989 (our second of many) is still quite current. At the time it was written up in PC Week (click to see original report) amongst a range of journals.

The graph included here was published at the time and we believe is still very relevant over 12 years later.

Of those that have used project management techniques, 84 per cent received improved results, however, an executive of a large bank claimed: “Skilled project managers for multi-million dollar projects are a rare commodity".

“Of those surveyed who volunteered comments, not one raised the matter of risk as an element of a project. Risk, according to PSA, is a very real factor in most projects and the more the project deviates from the norm the larger the risk.” ¹

It is relevant to note that checking a projects feasibility (which involves the assessment of risk) did not rate as a high priority for survey respondents, and neither did planning sufficiently ahead. Both these points work to obviate risk.

“There is also a plethora of project management software packages available. Careful selection is necessary to obtain the most suitable and cost efficient, said the PSA report. Purchasing an off the shelf project management package will not help to solve project management problems overnight.” ¹

According to PSA, “an obvious point arising from the survey is that the quality of the methodology used on project management varies from poor to reasonably good. As indicated in the above chart, good methodology is essential to good project management.” ¹

¹ Quotes from PC Week Article.

Personnel is also an important aspect to be considered, according to the PSA report. If a company has good personnel it should let them utilise good project management methodology . When working on complicated and demanding projects, a good manager without the necessary methodology and tools – notably, effective project management software and the required number of personal computers – could quickly get swamped in irrelevant matters that would be to the detriment of the project.

The survey concluded.

With the project planning and the correct tools, project management is beneficial discipline which offers better control, smoother operation, better results and better working relationships.

Our latest survey aims to deal with the more relevant questions for project management in 2002. We are very interested in your view and would appreciate your feedback, so please take our latest project management survey. We will even email you with the results if you want so that you, too, can gain insights from it.

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