PMI Talent Triangle: The Key to Project Management Success

In today’s fast-moving and complex business landscape, project professionals are expected to deliver more than just projects that meet scope, schedule, and budget. The real measure of success isn’t just about execution—it’s about delivering value that is seen as worth the investment.

Research from our Maximizing Project Success report found that most professionals agree that successful projects deliver outcomes that benefit the organization, community, and society. But just as importantly, stakeholders must perceive those outcomes as worth the effort and expense.  

In other words, no matter how well a project is executed, success remains out of reach if stakeholders don’t recognize its value. That’s why project professionals must take a strategic and flexible approach that aligns with the M.O.R.E. framework:

• Manage perceptions – Help stakeholders to see value relative to the resources invested and feel aligned on objectives with measurable outcomes.
• Own project success beyond project management success – Be accountable for the project’s value, not only its execution.
• Relentlessly reassess project parameters – Adapt as needs, technologies or goals change to deliver value and manage perceptions.
• Expand perspective – Consider how the project integrates and aligns with broader business goals and impacts the world.

How to build a strong foundation for delivering M.O.R.E.

Delivering M.O.R.E. requires more than good intentions—it demands a strong foundation of skills that enable project professionals to lead, adapt, and drive meaningful impact. These essential skill sets are outlined in the PMI Talent Triangle^® and further explored in our Pulse of the Profession^® research:

• Power skills enable project leaders to communicate effectively, solve problems, and lead teams with confidence.
• Ways of working ensure adaptability in an evolving landscape of methodologies, tools, and team structures.
• Business acumen allow project professionals to connect their work to broader strategic and financial goals.

Each of these elements plays a crucial role in making the M.O.R.E. framework actionable. Now, let’s take a closer look at how these three areas drive project success.

Power skills: The driving force of high-performing teams

Often underestimated, power skills are the performance accelerators that distinguish high-performing teams. Our Pulse of the Profession^® 2023: Power Skills, Redefining Project Success report identified the four most critical power skills regardless of region, industry, or experience level:

• Communication
• Problem-solving
• Collaborative leadership
• Strategic thinking

Organizations that excel in these skills demonstrate measurably higher performance in key business metrics, including benefits realization management maturity, organizational agility, and project management maturity. They also:

• Achieve a 72% success rate in meeting business goals, compared to 65% for those that do not.
• Experience less scope creep with only 28% of their projects facing this challenge, compared to 40% for those without these skills.
• Minimize budget loss when projects fail, losing only 17% of the budget compared to 25% for those lacking these essential skills.

Despite these clear advantages, power skills remain underfunded. Organizations allocate just 25% of training budgets to power skills, while technical skills dominate at 51%— representing a significant missed opportunity to improve project outcomes.

Ways of working: Flexibility as a competitive advantage

The ways in which teams operate have evolved dramatically, requiring greater flexibility across multiple dimensions. Our Pulse of the Profession^® 2024: The Future of Project Work report highlights three areas where adaptability is driving greater project success:

• Work location flexibility: Remote, hybrid, and in-person teams perform at nearly identical success rates, challenging common perceptions that remote work is less effective. Research shows success rates of 73.2% (remote), 73.4% (hybrid), and 74.6% (in-person).
• Methodology flexibility: The use of a hybrid of agile and predictive methodologies has surged from 20% in 2020 to 31.5% in 2023, reflecting a growing need for project professionals to blend agile, predictive, and other approaches to meet the needs of different projects and industries.
• Investment in people development: Organizations that provide three or more enablers—such as mentorship, training, and communities of practice—experience an 8.3% increase in project success compared to organizations with no enablers. This underscores the importance of equipping teams with the right skills, resources, and support systems to succeed in a changing work environment.

Rather than focusing on where teams work, organizations should prioritize how they work--optimizing team collaboration, innovation, agility and talent retention through flexible frameworks that enable success.

Business acumen: The missing link to strategic leadership

In our latest report, Pulse of the Profession^® 2025: Boosting Business Acumen, research shows that business acumen empowers project professionals to move beyond execution—elevating them from a tactical role to strategic value creators. By assessing impacts from multiple angles—including business priorities and market dynamics—they navigate complexity with strategic thinking, adaptability, and innovation. This shift allows project professionals to align initiatives with organizational goals, ensuring lasting impact beyond project completion.

Professionals with high business acumen understand that project performance extends beyond the traditional iron triangle of budget, scope, and schedule. Instead, they continuously reassess performance parameters amid change and evaluate projects across multiple dimensions to ensure both business value and operational success.

Data highlights three ways business acumen drives project success:

• Facilitates strategic decision-making during project execution.
• Enhances stakeholder expectation management and conflict resolution.
• Strengthens risk management and mitigation strategies.

Project professionals with high business acumen are more likely to: 

• Achieve 83% of individual project goals, compared to 78% for those with lower proficiency.
• Meet organizational project goals 78% of the time, versus 72% for those with lower proficiency.
• Experience lower project failure rates (8%), compared to 11% among those with weaker business acumen.

Research found that 66% of project professionals fall into the moderate business acumen category, possessing proficiency in 4-6 skills and utilizing 3-4 roadblock mitigation tactics. And despite business acumen's proven impact, only 18% of project professionals demonstrate both high skill proficiency and strong strategic application—qualifying them as high business acumen professionals. Another 16% have low business acumen, with expertise in 3 or fewer skills and deploying just 1-2 mitigation tactics. Yet, organizations continue to allocate only 25% of training hours to developing business acumen, compared to 46% for technical skills.

Project success increasingly depends on professionals who can bridge the gap between execution and strategy. Developing business acumen enables project managers to influence leadership decisions and ensure their projects deliver real business impact.

The path to M.O.R.E. success

To drive project success, project professionals must go beyond execution and see the bigger picture—aligning their work with broader goals and long-term value. Expanding perspective is key to this, as it integrates all three domains of the PMI Talent Triangle^®—power skills, ways of working, and business acumen.

The PMI Talent Triangle^® provides the foundation that enables project professionals to lead, adapt, and deliver results, while M.O.R.E. transforms these skills into actionable strategies that ensure projects both deliver value and are perceived as valuable.

By embracing both the PMI Talent Triangle^® and the M.O.R.E. framework, project professionals unlock greater project success—driving impact, elevating stakeholder alignment, and ultimately elevating our world.

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