At RAIDLOG, we believe in developing the community of practice around RAID management. As we do our own research, we encounter a lot of great material developed by some amazing professionals. This page is a place where we share some of our favorite research on project management, risk management, and all things RAID related.
Do you have a favorite resource you’d like to share? Let us know at hello@raidlog.com
Project Challenges
The main cause of project failure is Decision Latency.
According to the Standish Group’s 2022 CHAOS Report, for the organizations surveyed:Â
- 31% of projects were successfulÂ
- 50% were challengedÂ
- 19% failedÂ
More mature organizations were almost 10 times more likely to see their projects succeed (87%) than those that were not mature (10%).
Standish Group. (2022). CHAOS Report 2022. The Standish Group International, Inc.
Risk Management
Investing in Risk Management is shown to have an ROI as high as 23:1.
Hall, E. M. (1999). Risk management return on investment. Systems Engineering, 2(3), 177-180. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1520-6858(1999)2:3<177::AID-SYS5>3.0.CO;2-6
“17 percent of [large] IT projects go so bad that they can threaten the very existence of the company”
Bloch, M., Blumberg, S., & Laartz, J. (2012, October 1). Delivering large-scale IT projects on time, on budget, and on value. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/delivering-large-scale-it-projects-on-time-on-budget-and-on-value
Projects with timely risk responses saw substantial benefits. For example, 84% of senior stakeholders were completely satisfied when the risk response was timely, compared to 41% when it was delayed.Â
Of projects with a timely risk response, just 44% ever fell behind schedule and 55% were completed ahead of schedule. Of those without, 80% were late, and only 25% finished early.
van der Meulen, R. (2020, July 17). How ERM can improve strategic project success rates. Gartner. https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/how-erm-can-improve-strategic-project-success-rates
There is a strong, direct correlation between Project Portfolio success and both:
- Risk Transparency, and
- Risk Coping Capacity (the ability to be resilient and respond to risk)
Unger, B. N., Kock, A., Gemünden, H. G., & Jonas, D. (2014). An empirical investigation on how portfolio risk management influences project portfolio success. International Journal of Project Management, 32(4), 613-624. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.09.007
Of the project failures in the last 12 months, 31% of organizations surveyed cited inadequate risk definition as a primary cause
Project Management Institute. (2016). Pulse of the Profession 2016: The High Cost of Low Performance. Project Management Institute. Retrieved from https://www.pmi.org/learning/thought-leadership/pulse/pulse-of-the-profession-2016
Lessons Learned
“Less than half of organizations have a formal knowledge transfer process in place, and only 31 percent report that they always or often use lessons learned”
Project Management Institute. (2016). Pulse of the Profession 2016: The High Cost of Low Performance. Project Management Institute. Retrieved from https://www.pmi.org/learning/thought-leadership/pulse/pulse-of-the-profession-2016
Survey results indicate that 96% of respondents recognized the importance of lessons learned in project management, yet only 8% felt they put enough effort into conducting them. This highlights a gap between recognition and implementation that organizations need to address
Williams, T. (2008). How do organizations learn lessons from projects—and do they? IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 55(2), 248-266.
Lessons learned are essential for capturing and retaining organizational knowledge, especially in the face of staff turnover and retirements. As more Baby Boomers retire, lessons learned practices mitigate the loss of institutional knowledge
Jugdev, K. (2012). Learning from lessons learned: Project management research program. American Journal of Economics and Business Administration, 4(1), 13-22.