Five Strategies To Increase Project Delivery Success

 

 

It is well documented that consistently delivering projects successfully isn’t easy – just take a look at the Project Management Institute’s most recent Pulse of the Profession Report on project management. They found that across all industries, only 64% of projects are delivered successfully, wasting $109million in every $1billion invested in projects or programmes (or 11 cents in every dollar). 

 

So if it’s so difficult to deliver projects successfully, how do some organisations do this successfully time and time again? How do they ensure they minimise the risk to investment budgets. And how do they strengthen their ability to consistently delight their customers? This is where project management can shine a light into the darkness that chaos from a badly run project can cause. 

 

 

When high performing project teams share the following qualities, then project delivery magic can happen! 

 

1.Project teams are highly trained, and have the tools and processes to help them to be efficient,

2.The strong project leader pulls the team together towards a shared vision,

3.Project goals are aligned with strategy, 

4.Sponsors are actively engaged, 

5.Project teams understand how they need to operate within their industry. 

 

Organisational culture and approach are the other pieces of the puzzle. The PMI’s research show the five elements all contribute to successful project delivery. 

 

 

This means project management has to be valued within the organisation from the top down and from the bottom up. 

 

 

All projects and programmes are measured for alignment to strategy, are tracked for progress and monitored for benefits and quality     

 

 

Project Management Offices (PMO’s) which are actively aligned and goaled on strategy delivery can strengthen this approach by providing quality assurance, supporting status reporting and standardising approaches, as well as ensuring the project management skill level is appropriate for the organisation through training and development plans.   

 

 

Having a supportive sponsor can be the difference between success and failure for a project. The sponsor is the person who cares about the projects success and will help ensure it is successful. 

 

 

A ‘one size fits all’ approach will not work because organisational culture varies so much – what one organisation finds too flexible, another will find too restrictive. By finding an effective approach that works within your environment and industry and then replicating that approach across your organisation, you can create a repeatable, quality focused standard approach to

delivering projects. 

 

Backed Up By Evidence from the Pulse of the Profession Report: 

 

 

If Financial Services CFO’s, CEO’s and senior leaders knew the true cost of project failure, wouldn’t they all be clamouring for a reliable structured and consistent delivery approach to be implemented?