The Perceived Value and Potential Contribution of Project Management Practices to Project Success

This paper contributes to the ongoing work and debate on the value of project management, accomplishing this through an empirical investigation of practitioner perceptions on the relative value of different project management practices and their potential to contribute to improved project performance. This investigation is based on a large-scale survey of 753 project management practitioners. This paper aims to answer four questions relating to the value of project management. By identifying the most valued practices, practitioners and organizations can identify their priorities when developing their project management competencies. This can also guide the profession in selecting priorities for future development. When choosing priorities to develop and implement, organizations can look to the tools that practitioners identify as most valuable, as having the most potential for increased contribution to project performance, and as presently under-utilized. In order to fully understand the nature of project management practices, and the mechanisms through which these create value, researchers must better clarify the distinction between the project phases and project processes. These findings can help project management professionals in selecting priorities for future development.