Project Management Statistics 2024

Are you wondering why your project keeps running behind the timeline and budget?

Projects can be complex, costly, and time-consuming. And to make sure they reach a successful outcome, business leaders need to stay up-to-date on the latest trends in project management.

Knowing the most current project management statistics can help organizations better understand the key challenges they face when planning and managing their projects.

With the ever-changing landscape of project management, it’s important for organizations to know the stats that are driving decision-making across industries.

Here we will present an overview of some of the most important project management statistics that businesses should be keeping an eye on.

General project management statistics

• 69% of project professionals say their senior leadership highly values project management, and almost half (46%) of organizations prioritize developing a culture that values project management.
• 70% of organizations have suffered at least one project failure in the prior 12 months.
• Undervaluing project management results in a 50% project failure rate.
• For every 1 billion USD invested in the US, 122 million USD is wasted due to lacking project performance.
• 56% of project managers don't have access to real-time project KPIs, with 43% spending 1 or more days manually collating project reports.
• 4 in 10 project professionals believe that the projects they worked on are a complete success.
• Team communication can be increased by 52% with the use of project management software.
• The global market size of the project management industry is 138,381 companies, and there are 196 companies producing project management technologies, as reported by Datanyze.
• 40% of projects mostly or always deliver their full benefits.

State of the Industry Statistics

• Organizations that use proven PM practices waste 28 times less money than their counterparts who do not have PM practices in place.
• Only 46% of organizations place a high priority on a culture that values project management.
• 8 out of 10 project managers believe that project portfolio management is becoming a critical factor in influencing business success.
• 52% of respondents are somewhat or very dissatisfied with the current level of PM maturity in their organization, more than the 45% rating in 2016.
• In addition, 48% of organizations in Australia always or often report project benefit tracking variations.
• 61% of projects have highly involved sponsors.
• 40% of the project and program governance activities of organizations are considered very effective.

Project Management Software Adoption 

• Only 23% of organizations use project management software.
• The project management software market is expected to register a CAGR of 10.67% from 2020-2025. 
• Currently, the project management software market share is led by Jira at 36.57%, Microsoft Project at 19.78%, and Smartsheet at 5.17%.
• 44% of managers do not believe in the use of software in managing projects.
• 35% of project managers use MS Excel to build resource plans.
• The percentage of organizations using spreadsheets to manage projects dropped from 66% in 2018 to 64% in 2019.
• Around 67% of projects of organizations that undervalue project management as an essential element for driving change result in failure.
• On average, 11.4% of investment is wasted due to poor project performance.
• 73% of businesses believe that reliability, ease of use, and ease of integration are the top three requirements to look for when investing in digital PM software, yet they believe that the solutions out there today do not have these three factors.
• 66% of project professionals admitted that their decision to invest in project management software was supported by the organization.

Project Management as a Career 

• 61% of organizations provide project management training while 47% have a clear career path for project professionals.
• An estimated 1,279,390 project management specialists and business operations specialists are employed in the United States.
• Project management Professional (PMP) certificate holders earn salaries that are 22% more than those without PMP certification.
• As of 2022, the average project manager earns roughly $80,000 annually. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the top 10% of project managers earn $135,220.
• Approximately, there were 6% more organizations with a project management office (PMO) in 2020 (89%) than in 2019 (83%).
• 74% of project professionals believe that more employees will work from home.

Project Performance Statistics

• 42% of survey respondents think their organizations don’t see the value of project management.
• The project management industry size was $4.2 billion in 2019.
• The project management software market is estimated to reach $9.81 billion by 2026.
• A mere 23% of organizations operate without project management software.
• The project management software industry is projected to grow at a CAGR of 10.6% between 2021 and 2026.
• Project management software saves the average manager 153 hours per year.
• A project management survey reveals that 89% of project managers said their organization implements hybrid project management practices.
• Standardized project management practices are used to some extent by 93% of organizations.

Project Management Adoption Statistics 

• 93% of organizations report using standardized project management practices. 
• 68% - more than 2/3rd - of organizations in PMI's annual survey said that they used outsourced or contract project managers in 2018.
• Only 23% of organizations use standardized project management practices across the entire organization. 33% use standardized practices, but not across all departments. While a small portion - 7% - of organizations don't use any standard practices at all. 
• Organizations are often guilty of not using standardized PM practices, especially across the whole organization
• PM software adoption remains low. As per Wellingtone's survey, only 22% of organizations use PM software. Coincidentally, 55% of organizations don't have access to real-time KPIs. As a result, 50% of respondents said that they spend one or more days manually collating project reports - highlighting the immense productivity gains on offer by using project management software. 
• PM software adoption is changing, slowly but surely. Between 2017 and 2018, the percentage of organizations using spreadsheets to manage their agile projects dropped from 74% to 67%. Instead, these organizations moved to specialized PM tools. 
• 77% of high-performing projects use project management software. Despite its impact, adoption rates for PM software remain low (22% - see above). 66% of project managers say that they would use PM software more extensively if they had adequate support from their organization.
• File sharing, time tracking, email integration, Gantt Charts, and budget management are the top five most used and requested features in project management software. 
• As this chart shows, social media and video chat are among the least-used PM features
• 56% of organizations have used only one project management system. On average, organizations spend $861/month on PM software. A majority - 54% - use on-premise PM software, though this is quickly changing. 

Project Planning Statistics 

• 39% of projects fail due to a lack of planning, inadequate resources, and insufficient work activities.
• 60% of project managers use hybrid methods to deliver their projects.
• Almost 40% of project teams are made of 6 to 10 people.
• 20% of project managers find all forms of documentation too overwhelming and pointless, as mostly nobody reads weekly reports and progress updates. 11% of project managers wish they could stop running regular meetings.
• Organizations that are highly mature in project management capabilities outperform those that aren't, as they met their goals 77% of the time.
• 60% of project managers report that they always apply a defined project methodology, and 67% of companies also include project change management in their actions.
• Half of the organizations mostly or always control their project schedules.
• According to 37% of executive leaders, a lack of clear goals is the most common factor behind project failure.
• It is estimated that almost 54% of all organizations working on projects fail to effectively track their KPIs in real-time. Organizations generally waste 12% of their resources due to ineffective project management.
• One common complaint among many project managers is the time wasted on repetitive and tedious tasks. More than 54% of workers spend the majority of their time on tedious tasks that require no creativity and could be handled by a less expensive resource.
• 85% of CEOs believe that AI will completely change the landscape of their organization in the next 5 years.
• 54% of managers believe that they can save 5 hours a day by implementing AI-based solutions for menial and repetitive tasks.
• 42% of project managers don't use any formal methodology. Only 52% of projects regularly have a scoping document.

Project Budget Statistics 

• 91% of US CEOs believe that skill directly affects a company's financial performance. 
• 43% of companies mostly or always accomplish projects within the budget. 
• Meanwhile, 27% of projects go over budget.
• Failed IT projects cost the United States $50–$150 billion in lost revenue and productivity. 
• Also, IT projects with budgets exceeding $1 million have a 50% higher failure rate than projects with budgets below $350,000. 
• 24% of project professionals believe that unrealistic budgets hamper projects.
• 20% of project professionals believe that adopting agile techniques can lower project costs.
• 47% of project managers believe that they are expected to deliver more value with a reduced budget and timeline.
• Organizations with high maturity value delivery capability accomplish 67% of their projects within the allotted budget. On the other hand, organizations with low maturity value delivery capability do the same for only 46% of their projects.

Project Failure Statistics

• If management takes five hours or longer to make decisions, the failure rate of agile projects is 22% while the likelihood of projects producing unsatisfactory results is 53%.
• 58% of organizations admitted that the impact of COVID-19 has been moderate or significant, causing project delays and cancellations.
• 25% of organizations sometimes or never create scoping documents for projects.
• Organizations with low-value delivery maturity have a project failure rate of 21%, much higher than those of organizations with high-value delivery maturity, which have a failure rate of 11%.
• Organizations that do not leverage or have outdated project management technology have a project failure rate of 18%.
• The number of project professionals who believe that poor resource management is a significant problem in project management increased by 60% in 2019.
• A more recent report shows that 25% of organizations do not leverage technology suitable for team collaborations on informal projects despite this consuming 20% of their productive time at work.
• The biggest challenges to adopting agile techniques in an organization are resistance to change (48%), lack of leadership participation (46%), and inconsistent practices across teams (45%).
• Almost one in five project managers has thought of leaving their jobs.
• Organizations with low maturity on project management technology lose the budget from failed projects 42% of the time.
• 54% of the projects of companies with low project management technology maturity go over budget.
• 47% of agile projects are late, have budget overruns, or result in unhappy customers.
• Furthermore, 11% of agile projects fail outright and end up delivering nothing.
• The PMI survey revealed that an average of 11.4% of investment is wasted due to poor project performance. And organizations that undervalue project management report an average of 67% more of their projects failing outright.
• 43% of companies mostly or always accomplish projects within the budget, while, 27% of projects go over budget, as stated in Wellingtone report.
• 61% of projects have highly involved sponsors.
• Failed IT projects cost the United States 50–150 billion USD in lost revenue and productivity, according to FinancesOnline.
• Organizations that invest in proven project management practices waste 28x less money.
• 9.9% of every USD is wasted due to poor project performance, that's 99 million USD for every 1 billion USD invested.

Project Management Software Key Developments 

• 56% of organizations have already developed a digital transformation strategy that incorporates AI.
• Organizations believe that the main roles of AI would be PM assistant (52%), PM advisor (42%), and PM substitute (3%).
• 54% of organizations leverage agile practices but are still maturing in that regard.
• Only 23% of organizations use project management software, according to Wellingtone research.
• Jira is the project management software market leader with a share of 42.09%.
• 73% of businesses believe that reliability, ease of use, and integration are the top 3 requirements to look for when investing in digital project management software. Yet, they believe that the solutions out there today do not have these 3 factors.
• 44% of managers don't believe in the use of software in managing projects.
• Only 35% of marketers are satisfied with the current level of project management tools in the market.
• 63% of users spent less than six months choosing their PM software, and 61% spent less than six months implementing the software, according to information from Capterra.
• At the moment, the project management software market share is led by Jira (37%), Microsoft Project (20%), Kanban (5.4%), and Smartsheet (5%).
• According to Capterra's research, the main benefits of using project management tools are improved timeline estimation (60%), more effective use of project resources (55%), enhanced team communication (49%), and improved budget estimation (48%).
• Only 35% of project managers are happy with their technology. 77% of high-performing teams use project management software.
• The use of project management software improves team communication by 52%.
• Despite the numerous benefits of the best project management software, only 1 in 4 companies use them in any capacity.
• Within an organization, project team members (55%) and dedicated project managers (27%) are the main users of the actual software.
• 49% of executive team members pick Notion for high-level tasks and Jira for tactical tasks. 60% of teams have members in Slack or Google Workspace, while 75% of people use email to collaborate with other people in a team.

Project Management Training Statistics 

• Soft skills are increasing in importance for project managers. 51% of respondents in PMI's 2018 survey said that soft skills are more important today, while only 19% said that this skill requirement is unchanged. 
• Technical and leadership skills remain the most important priorities for top-performing organizations. 81% of these organizations prioritize the development of technical skills (vs 13% of underperformers), 79% prioritize leadership skills, and 70% focus on developing strategic and business management skills.
• Despite low maturity levels, only 48% of organizations have invested in accredited project management training. 15% use non-accredited training or courses, while more than 25% don't invest in any training at all.
• The success of the PMO often lies in its approach to training. 60% of PMOs now have a formal project management training program, up from 11% in 2014. Incidentally, high-performing organizations are far more likely to have a training program than low-performers (85% vs 38%). On average, these organizations spent 5 days per year in training. 
• Most PMOs (79%) offer onsite, classroom-based training using in-house trainers. However, a significant - and growing - number (51%) are now relying on external trainers for onsite classes as well. Larger organizations are also more likely to use on-demand, online training.
• High-performing organizations use a variety of PM training strategies. 79% use PM software tool training, 76% offer training on PM basics, 67% offer advanced PM skills development, and 61% offer leadership training. 
• 49% of organizations have a project management training program in place.
• 70% of project managers in SMBs have no certification; plus, most (small, medium, and large) organizations employ a project manager based on experience.
• A poorly trained project manager is the largest project management challenge in organizations.

The future of project management and the latest trends

• As reported by Findstack, project management software will reach a value of 9.81 billion USD by 2026.
• The global project management software market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.1% to reach a value of 20.42 billion USD in 2032, according to SelectHub.
• There will be a requirement of around 25 million new project management professionals by 2030.
• 51% of organizations are raising the bar on expectations and require project professionals to hold some type of certification for their role.
• 58% of organizations say that project success rates have improved over the last 2 years.
• Emotional intelligence and soft skills will be critical to the project manager's role, as reported by SelectHub. By 2025, global cybercrime will cost 10.5 trillion USD annually, making investments in cybersecurity measures crucial.

Source: blog.gitnux.com, Workamajig, Abdalslam, Finances Online