Most Projects Fail

Due to the increasing importance of project work, its success is becoming more and more important.  It is therefore fatal that most projects fail.  Only 31 percent of software projects are successful, while 50 percent are not completed on time, over budget, or do not satisfy customers or users, and 19 percent fail completely—percentages that have remained nearly constant in recent years (The Standish Group 2015; Johnson 2020 as cited in Portmann 2021).  Nieto-Rodriguez (2022, p. 23) assumes that these orders of magnitude apply not only to software projects but to all projects undertaken worldwide.  In fact, a joint survey by KPMG, the Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM), and the International Management Association (IPMA) (2019) of nearly 500 participants with project and program leadership roles from 57 countries found that only 19 percent of organizations complete their projects successfully—at least most of the time.  The survey also found that …

  • only 46 percent of projects satisfy stakeholders,
  • only 44 percent of organizations deliver achieve the original goals and business purposes of their projects,
  • no more than 36 percent of organizations are very likely to meet their project budgets, and
  • only 30 percent of organizations are likely to complete their projects on time.

Some estimates put the failure rate of artificial intelligence (AI) projects as high as 80 percent (Bojinov 2023).  And according to Burke (2024), 88 percent of business transformations fail to achieve their original ambitions.

Only 2.5 percent of organizations successfully complete all their projects (PwC 2014).  In another survey, 40 percent of respondents said that only half or less of the projects in their respective organizations deliver the planned benefits (see Exhibit).

Exhibit

References

Bojinov I (2023) Keep your AI projects on track. Harvard Business Review 101(6):53–59.

Burke M (2024) 88% of business transformations fail to achieve their original ambitions; those that succeed avoid overloading top talent. Press release (April 15), Bain & Company, Boston, MA. Accessed January 24, 2025, https://www.bain.com/about/media-center/press-releases/2024/88-of-business-transformations-fail-to-achieve-their-original-ambitions-those-that-succeed-avoid-overloading-top-talent/.

Johnson J (2020) CHAOS report: Beyond infinity. Report, The Standish Group, Centerville, MA.

KPMG, Australian Institute of Project Management, International Project Management Association (2019) The future of project management: Global outlook 2019. Report, KPMG, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Nieto-Rodriguez A (2021) State of project management: First global study on the executives views on project management. Presentation. Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez, Madrid, Spain. Accessed January 09, 2025, https://antonionietorodriguez.com/harvard-business-review-in-spanish/.

Nieto-Rodriguez A (2022) Das Zeitalter der Projekte [The era of projects]. Harvard Business manager 44(2):21–29.

Portman H (2021) Review Standish Group – CHAOS 2020: Beyond infinity. Blog, Henny Portman, Randstad, the Netherlands. Accessed October 20, 2022, https://hennyportman.wordpress.com/2021/01/06/review-standish-group-chaos-2020-beyond-infinity/.

PwC (2014) Project Management: Improving performance, reducings risk. Presentation, PwC, London, United Kingdom. Accessed October 20, 2022, https://www.pwc.com/jg/en/publications/ned-presentation-project-management.pdf.

The Standish Group (2015) CHAOS report 2015. Report, The Standish Group, Centerville, MA. Accessed October 20, 2022, https://www.standishgroup.com/sample_research_files/CHAOSReport2015-Final.pdf.