PMI Switzerland Chapter - Summer Event 2003

Presentation: "The Cost of Bad Project Management"

Presented by: Dr. Serge J. Schiltz, PMP

Abstract

At an increasing pace, organizations are forced to transform themselves for being able to survive in an ever-changing business world. For many organizations, projects have become the means of choice for implementing change. Numerous studies however identify a widespread discomfort with projects: too many projects fail to deliver.

Project management experts can easily identify a major reason for this situation, which is that project management best practices are ignored in many organizations. The extent of this causality, which is obvious for experienced project management professionals, is however difficult to fully recognize for the uninitiated. Project management best practices do not guarantee project success nor does their absence guarantee failure. Their presence just increases the chances for success ... but to what extent? To quantify the latter is the purpose of our study: to what extent does the application of project management best practices have a measurable impact on project success?

This correlation has been quantified by a research team at the University of California at Berkeley. The complexity of their process assessment however represents an obstacle for many organizations to determine where they currently stand in terms of project management best practices.

For our study, we have developed a very simple process (maturity) assessment which requires minimum time and effort from the participants. A field study with a sample of 23 projects has shown that the correlation between the determined project management process maturity (or application of best practices) and project success can be proved even with this simple assessment. The practical use of our research study is that, with this tool, project management experts can determine an organization's potential for project management process improvement and quantify the benefit of such an improvement, even if they cannot get the funds for carrying out a detailed study. Such a quick-and-simple evaluation can be used as a "door opener" to raise senior executives' awareness for the benefits of improving project management practices.

Biography

Click here for the biography of Dr. Serge Schiltz, PMP.