Driving Success in Challenging Times

Slow economic growth, shifting global market priorities and a push for innovation all make for a very complex and risky business environment and put additional emphasis on the need for excellence in project, program and portfolio management. This study found that organizations are increasingly using a wide variety of means to drive their projects and programs. The percent of organizations that have a project management office (PMO) stood just above the two-thirds mark (67 percent) and nearly that many (63 percent) have standardized their project management practices across all or most of their enterprise.
Other findings include:
- Frequent use of change and risk management techniques remains high, as does the use of formal program management.
- The use of portfolio management is increasing, with 55 percent saying they use it frequently.
- Use of agile project management methods (such as Scrum) is also on the increase.
- Formal “talent management” processes to develop project managers is decreasing, potentially a result of the challenging economy and popular austerity measures.
Twenty percent describe their organizations as having “high” overall project management maturity, up from 11 percent in an earlier survey.
Part of Pulse of the Profession®, Driving Success in Challenging Times 2012 series