Project Management Statistics: 33 Most Important Stats for 2024
Before starting a new project, building a strategy is an important part of overall preparation. And it’s better to learn from the mistakes of others rather than make your own mistakes.
Project management changes year by year, and it’s hard to go toe-to-toe with all the novelties without raw facts and numbers. What if your initiative is going to fail? How much does failure cost? Are agile methodologies better than traditional ones?
In this article, we’ll uncover the must-have statistics to consider while planning and running your project. Among other things, we’ll also take up the Agile statistics for all those who are fans of flexible ways of managing.
The Difference Between Traditional and Agile Statistics
Primarily, Agile differs from traditional in its values. Agile is focused on flexibility and customer feedback, so as the project grows, priorities can significantly change.
Nowadays, Agile is becoming more popular, and it’d be a mistake to rate traditional methodologies and flexible ones together because the way they work is completely different and the result of these two approaches is different as well. In that case, these approaches lead to different results and statistics, which is why we analyze them separately.
Traditional Project Management Statistics
1. Less than half of project management solutions give the expected results.
Among all businesses using PM tools, only 45% achieved all or most of the expected results.
2. Stakeholders’ feedback is important.
78% of respondents claimed that they’d like to see stakeholders more involved in the development process.
3. More than half of projects fail.
According to statistics, 70% of projects tend not to achieve the expected results.
4. Not even half of companies use PM tools and practices in their day-to-day operations.
42% of companies don't understand the need to implement PM solutions.
5. Money is not a guarantee of success.
55% of managers state that when the team overruns its budget, it’s the way to failure.
6. Documents are twice as important as personal meetings.
According to the survey, file sharing is the most important feature for managers, while video chat is less important.
7. A few projects are able to succeed without sponsorship.
Before starting a new activity and planning its budget, it’s important to consider if your team can handle it without support from the outside, because 62% of successful initiatives had sponsors.
8. Modern companies understand how important it is to manage projects properly.
89% of all companies have at least one PMO, and 50% have even more than one.
9. The minority of managers are running only one project.
59% of project managers run up to five projects at the same time, while only about 15% of all managers work on only one.
10. Only one manager can run up to 10 projects at once.
11% run 6 to 10 projects at a time, and 15% run more than 10 at a time.
11. Not every project can deliver the intended result.
More than half of initiatives can’t reach the results that were set, and about 40% of them mostly or never deliver their full benefits.
12. Sponsorship is vital to boosting your activities.
Indeed, sponsors are not only people who provide you with funds but can also show you the right direction and strategy. Anyway, 68% of all projects don't have an effective sponsor who can guide them.
13. Microsoft is the leader of the PM industry.
They cover almost 23% of the whole project management software market. The second place comes with Jira (about 20%), and the third is Trello at 5.5%.
14. Many companies are keen to cut risks by implementing risk management practices.
27% of all organizations regularly use practices to reduce risks, while 35% of all companies do it from time to time.
15. Seniors completely understand the value of PM methodologies.
Above that, 87% of managers with a senior grade completely understand the importance of PM practices and methodologies.
16. It’s vital to find a balance between business and project objectives.
Among all projects, 44% fail due to a lack of alignment between business objectives.
17. While setting deadlines,don’t forget to include the time for reworks.
80% of organizations report that they spend at least half their time on rework.
18. Even though money is important, it’s not always a guarantee of success.
50% of projects that fail have a budget of over $1,000,000.
19. Be prepared for unexpected expenses.
27% of projects exceed the budget that was set at the beginning.
20. Poorly performing businesses are facing more struggles when running a project.
Among all low-performing companies, only 36% of teams are successfully completing the project. Tip: Gain comprehensive knowledge about launching an online business at imminentbusiness.com.
21. High performance is equivalent to the adoption of PM practices.
77% of all high-performing companies are currently using PM practices, while for low-performing companies, it’s only 44%.
22. The bigger a company is, the more likely its projects are to fail.
Large companies are more likely to experience failure than small ones. For SMEs, the success rate is 80%, while for large companies, it is only 72%.
23. Middle-level project managers can earn up to $108,000 a year.
For the middle manager position, the average salary in the US is between $66,000 and $108,000 a year.
24. Soft skills are above hard skills for all, from junior to senior.
The most in-demand skills are communication, leadership, and problem solving.
25. Middle-sized teams are more common than small and large ones.
About 40% of teams consist of 6–10 people, while small (1–5 people) and large (more than 10) teams are about 30% each.
26. Only 14% of Waterfall projects end successfully without experiencing challenges, while for agile, it’s 42%.
Despite the fact that the traditional Waterfall is still popular, Agile has a higher success rate. Only 9% of Agile-based projects have failed, while for waterfall, it’s 29%.
Agile Project Management Statistics
27. Agile methodologies help maintain changing priorities and significantly increase visibility.
The top three benefits of agile project techniques include the ability to handle changing priorities (70%), visibility for stakeholders (65%), and business alignment (65%).
28. Scrum is the most popular PPM among all the Agile frameworks.
71% of US companies have implemented Agile as the main method of their project management, and 61% of them decided to mostly focus on Scrum.
29. Full-scrum teams are more than twice as successful.
The success rate of full Scrum teams and the quality of the final product are increasing by up to 250%.
30. Though Agile helps many companies grow, proper implementation and experience are necessary.
Among all failures while using Agile, 44% failed because of a lack of experience with flexible methodologies.
31. Agile practices help increase profit by up to 60%.
It’s important to note that Agile hardly brings any benefits when used partially. The best Agile practice is to implement it fully.
32. Starting in 2002, the Agile usage rate increased by 88%.
This number also depends on the industry, but in general, this rate for companies across different industries is 80–88%.
33. Jira is the most popular software for flexible project management.
If Microsoft takes its place among traditional project management software. Jira remains the most popular among Agile-based teams.
Project Management Statistics: Summary and What’s to Consider
Project management surveys provide us with many statistics, and only you can choose what to consider. In today’s article, we outline the most vital numbers and rates that every manager should be aware of.
To squeeze out exactly the information that you need, focus on your role in the team and also consider your methodology: is it mostly Agile or Waterfall-related?
Based on the statistics above, we can totally say that Agile has become popular, but traditional PMM is still popular and effective, so only you can choose which one to pick.
According to the Project Management Institute (PMI), the most common reasons for project failure are:
- Lack of clear goals and objectives
- Poor communication
- Lack of stakeholder buy-in
- Unrealistic timelines
- Inadequate resources
- Changes to the project scope
- Unforeseen risks
Project management tools can help organizations to improve their project success rates by providing a number of benefits, including:
- Increased visibility and transparency
- Improved communication and collaboration
- Reduced risk and uncertainty
- Improved efficiency and productivity
- Increased ROI
There are a number of different project management methodologies, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Some of the most common methodologies include:
- Waterfall
- Agile
- Kanban
- Scrum
- Lean
Note, that some methodologies are just a part of another one. For example, Scrum is a part of the Agile methodology.
A successful project manager needs to have a number of skills and qualities, including:
- Strong leadership skills
- Excellent communication skills
- Problem-solving skills
- Risk management skills
- Time management skills
- Organizational skills
- Flexibility
- Adaptability
