68% Of All Projects Not Successful

Standish Group stated in their Chaos Report of 2009 that ~68% of all projects are not successful.

Standish Group - Chaos Report 2009 Summary

For sure, the Chaos Report has recently been discussed controversially. Stefan Hagen has looked behind the numbers published the findings on his blog (German). At the bottom line of many articles, the conclusion is that there is lots room for improvement in order to increase organization’s maturity in project management.

In the last weeks I did lots of Web research on the reasons why projects have been challenged or even failed. I have been overwhelmed by the diversity of reasons that have been split into hard facts and soft facts. Here’s a brief summary (unsorted):

  • Incomplete Requirements
  • Lack of Involvement
  • Moving Targets (a.k.a. Scope Changes)
  • Lack of Resources
  • Insufficient Communication

Resource management has always been addressed as reasons. Here are a few similar key words I have found: Lack of Resources, Inappropriate Resource Allocations, Overbooked Resources, Missing Skills, and Missing Availability.

I spent the last years in the field with many clients and can truly assist this finding. Resource allocation has always been an issue. Think of your last projects! Who can truely tell that there has been no issue on availability?

This is why I have decided to write a series of posts about ‘Resource Management’. I’d like to share my experience and my view on this topic how to cut the Gordian Knot in managing resource allocations.

If this article caught your attention, stay tuned on this site. In addition, I will talk about this subject in a session on the upcoming Microsoft Project Conference (#mspc12) in Phoenix, AZ, March 20th to 22nd (abstract for session #pc309).

In the next article, I’d like to provide a common understanding on the underlying conflicts. I’ll share my observations on day-to-day situations I ran into (not only once).

Ingo Meironke, PMP – Manager at Campana & Schott@meiroTweet