News | 17 Nov 2009 :
A recent survey of project management practices in Irish organisations has revealed a reduced focus on improving project management capability, where it ranked last in a list of top 10 IT priorities.
According to the annual into project management practices survey by Clarion Consulting, the growth of dedicated project management offices has increased again this year, to 63% from 46% in 2007. However, the report says that widespread inconsistencies in project management practices remain.
One third of organisations rate their project delivery capability as just satisfactory or poor, while 37% admit that up to half of all projects are delivered late.
The company said that the survey was carried out on-line across public and private sector organisations in July 2009.
The report indicates that there was a sustained level of project completion over the previous 12 months, despite the economic downturn. Over half of all respondents (54%) completed more than 21 projects in this timeframe, which represents a marginal decrease of 3% on 2008.
However, results also reveal an increase in the exclusive use of internal project managers over external ones, at 46% up from 29% in 2008. The report says that this suggests some companies are reducing their dependency on contract staff and hoping that existing permanent staff can sustain project delivery levels with fewer resources. Similarly, 17% of companies reported an overall decrease in the number of project managers employed compared to 2008.
"Many project management practitioners display a fundamental lack of understanding of how project management can help business transformation," said Pat Millar, managing director, Clarion Consulting. "While the bulk of organisations are focused on cost-cutting, business process re-engineering and new product or service introductions, they fail to see that these objectives can be achieved by applying the principles of project management. Project management can serve as a real driving force for organisational change in lean times and failure to invest in that capability can seriously hamper business transformation efforts," asserts Millar.
The report said that there is an increasing adoption of project management offices to deliver more predictable project outcomes, at 63% up from 46% in 2007. "We are delighted to see the continual growth in project management offices in this research," said Liam Dillon, president, Ireland Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI). "There is a growing trend in best-practice affiliated companies to place continual emphasis on suitable governance models incorporating appropriate processes and methodologies."
The findings highlight a steady increase in the number of organisations using project portfolio management (PPM) software, rising from 12% in 2007 to 29% in 2009. However, 37% of organisations said that they have no plans to introduce PPM in the short term while 50% were unsure of their plans.