I was recently reading an article on a management blog which was commenting on the poor track record of IT projects.

It cited a study by the management consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers, which reviewed 10,640 projects from 200 companies in 30 countries and across various industries, and found that only 2.5% of the companies successfully completed 100% of their projects. A similar study published in the Harvard Business Review, found that the average overrun was 27%, but one in six projects had a cost overrun of 200% on average and a schedule overrun of almost 70%.

The point that the blog made was that when it comes to project management, organisations tend to put their practices before their people. They put more emphasis on factors such as the process itself and less focus on emotional drivers that could actually lead to more project success, such as their employees' engagement with the project and company.

The piece argues that forcing team members to adapt to project management processes and procedures makes it more likely that the project will fail.