PMI Pulse of the Profession 2021 Report Review

‘Beyond Agility’ is the latest edition of Pulse of the Profession by the Project Management Institute (PMI). I always look forward to reading this report and learning about how organizations all over the world are maturing their project management organizations. I was especially excited to see what the data would show as we endured a global pandemic.

There was one bit of information that absolutely stunned me. As organizations across the world were learning how to adapt to something we have not seen before, project outcomes endured and delivered the same results compared to previous years. That fact alone shows how project managers, project execution teams, and project stakeholders, all rose to the occasion. On top of project outcomes not suffering, there was a decline in the amount of wasted investment due to poor project performance compared to last year’s report. Organizations kept projects on track as they reduced wasteful spending.

The survey identified a type of organization and project teams that combine structure, form, and governance while having the ability to pivot and adapt wherever necessary. These gymnastic enterprises focus more on the outcomes than the process. Gymnastic enterprises go beyond adapting to change and make change happen. Change starts at home, in your own organization, and gymnastic enterprises trust their people to make the changes necessary to enable successful project delivery.

One-third of respondents identified that all methods were possible to resolve issues in their organization. These were classified as gymnastic enterprises. Traditional enterprises were categorized based on reliance only on methods that had been successful in the past.

The idea that there are two very different types of enterprises, I was particularly curious as to how that translated to success. Scope creep, as we all know, is one of the top drivers of project success and gymnastic enterprises reported a lower percentage of scope creep than their counterparts. Not surprisingly, gymnastic enterprises also reported higher rates of meeting original goals, completed within budget, and completed on time.

There is even more data to support the view that gymnastic enterprises are more successful than traditional enterprises. Gymnastic enterprises lead to increased productivity, high project management maturity, higher benefits realization, and solid project management office (PMO) performance.

Download the entire report.

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