PMI Pulse of the Profession® 2024 – Summary & Key Insights

The 15th annual Pulse of the Profession® report by PMI explores the adoption of many new project management approaches and their evolution over the past years. It also sheds light on the impact of on-site and remote work arrangements on project delivery and performance. The report emphasizes that adaptability to the changing environment is crucial for achieving top project performance. Organizations that adapt to the evolving landscape, improves the performance of their project teams and invest in continuous learning are more likely to thrive in this environment. The use of hybrid approaches has also increased which has been covered in this report and as a result, project management professionals are dealing with significant changes to conventional ways of working, including the adoption of “work from anywhere” arrangements. Let’s look at the key data points from this report.  

Key Data Points:

1. The use of hybrid project management approaches has increased from 20% in 2020 to 31% in 2023.  
2. Approximately 61% of project management professionals work remotely at least some of the time.  
3. Project teams perform equally well using predictive, hybrid and agile project management approaches.  
4. Project teams also perform equally well within on-site, hybrid and remote work arrangements.  
5. Organizations that offer supportive programs see an 8.3% increase in project performance compared to those that don’t.  
6. The average project performance rate across all respondents is 73.8%.  
7. Project performance is calculated as the mean percentage of an organization’s completed projects that met business goals, as reported by the respondents in the survey.  
8. Projects with higher levels of performance also demonstrate lower rates of scope creep and lose less budget if the project fails.  
9. Hybrid management frameworks are gaining ground as the fit-for-purpose approach.  
10. The use of hybrid approaches in projects has increased by 57% from 2020 to 2023.  
11. Predictive approaches have declined by 24% from 2020 to 2023.  
12. Agile use is up 6% over the same period (2020 to 2023), but has changed negligibly over the last two years, dropping 8.8% from 2022 to 2023.  
13. Overall, growth trends toward using hybrid project management approaches are expected to continue, with 76% and 73% of respondents expecting an increase in their organization’s usage of agile and hybrid approaches, respectively, over the next five years.  
14. 34% expect a decline in their organization’s usage of predictive approaches over the same period.  
15. Financial services organizations are most likely to report using agile always or often (58%) and least likely to use predictive (45%).  
16. Construction organizations are least likely to use agile (27%) or hybrid (37%) and most likely to use predictive approaches (76%).  
17. IT (55%), healthcare (53%), and financial services (53%) are most likely to use hybrid approaches.  
18. Agile approaches can be incorporated into most project functions; the most common are team management, communication, planning, and monitoring.  
19. The average project performance rate varies only marginally across predictive, agile, and hybrid approaches.  
20. Organizations seem to be aware that combining approaches can help balance the needs for predictability, adaptability, and innovation.  
21. Most organizations have reached a level of project performance that indicates they have a general command of the key requirements for effective project management.  
22. Focusing on project management approach alone will yield minimal additional gains.  
23. Organizations that use a particular approach always or often report performance rates that are slightly above the global average.  
24. A study published in the Project Management Journal® concluded that there are no statistically significant differences in terms of project performance metrics (budget, time, scope, and quality) when comparing different management approaches.  
25. The study considered a global sample of 477 cross-industry projects, in which 52% of projects could be categorized as using hybrid approaches.  
26. The average project performance rate is 73.8%.  
27. New work arrangements that include remote and hybrid-location arrangements, referred to as “work from anywhere,” have been the number one factor contributing to the different ways teams are working and delivering projects in the last three years, as reported by 61% of senior leaders.  
28. Only 10% of organizations expect in-person work all the time, and 90% of organizations have embraced a range of flexible work models that allow employees to work remotely from off-site locations some or most of the time.  
29. 61% of respondents to the survey say they work remotely one day a week or more.  
30. Project managers in construction (63%) and manufacturing (51%) are most likely to work entirely in-person and least likely (3% and 10%, respectively) to work fully remote.  
31. More than one-third (39%) of project managers say they work in-person all the time (five or more days per week), whereas only 16% of leaders say this is a requirement of their organization.  
32. Senior leaders are significantly less likely (25%) than project managers (33%) to say that remote work is more effective than in-person work.  
33. Data from the PMI 2023 Annual Global Survey on Project Management suggests that work location has no negative impact on project performance.  
34. Fully flexible companies significantly outperformed their peers (companies with office time required) in revenue growth at a rate of 21% versus 5% (16 percentage points difference) based on three-year, industry-adjusted revenue growth.  
35. PMI research shows that the way organizations can improve is to invest in capabilities-building for both individuals and teams.
    

Conclusion

The Pulse of Profession report concludes that organizations should embrace flexible work arrangements and empower their project teams by providing the resources necessary for evolving landscape of project management. It emphasizes that choosing the right project management approach is not the goal but just the beginning and organizations must also focus on factors such as employee skills, capabilities, culture and work environment to drive greater project performance. You can check out a project management training program for skill development. To download and read the full report by PMI, check out the official website here.