30 September, 2024

Project Management Surveys: A Guide to Some of the Best to Read


Surveys are expensive to conduct – especially if you want to do them well. So, a good survey is like gold dust. While it’s easy to find plenty of good Project Management reports, there are fewer worthwhile project management surveys out there now.

Looking back, the last time I did a round-up of the best Project Management surveys was in autumn 2017 – seven years ago! It’s a time-consuming task to find and review them. But, I have scoured the web for the best recent surveys, so you don’t have to.

A ‘Project Management Survey’ survey, if you like!

Project Management Surveys: A Guide to Some of the Best to Read

In this article, I’ll divide the surveys up thematically. This will partly hide the fact that only one organization seems to have the resources to do many surveys (PMI). But, it will also allow you to select the survey topics that interest you. I’ll discuss:

Let’s dive in!

Why Surveys are Important

For project management organizations, surveys are a perfect way to demonstrate their eminence. Surveys show they are at the forefront of understanding, informing, and representing the profession. Their status allows them access to a large sample, which gives their surveys a high degree of credibility. This enhances their status.

Both the Project Management Institute (PMI) and Association for Project Management (APM) produce highly authoritative surveys. So too do many of the large consulting firms. They too use a project management survey to demonstrate eminence. But for them, it is more a piece of marketing. If they promote it well, it can gather good publicity.

But, its main use is to highlight their capability to clients and potential clients. The results are therefore varied. Often the sample sizes are lower and the promoters may frame the questions to elicit helpful responses. We must assess their results with care.

That said, neither APM nor PMI is above asking questions that elicit answers they want. These may back up a point of view or endorse their own certifications. And, I have often criticized elements of PMI’s analysis and interpretation of its results. We must not forget that they are also under commercial pressures. They need to recruit members, sell products and services, and promote their accreditations.

Salary Surveys: Everyone’s Favorites!

I have no data, but I am prepared to speculate that the most-read Project management surveys are salary surveys and other reports that help project professionals make career decisions.

Both PMI and APM conduct regular surveys, as do some more-commercial organizations. Sadly, Arras Services has closed since I last prepared an article on surveys. Their salary and job market surveys were excellent.

2023 gave us valuable data sets from both:

From PMI: Earning Power: Project Management Salary Survey—Thirteenth Edition

This covers 20,000 professionals spanning 21 countries

From APM: Salary and Market Trends Survey 2023

A quantitative online survey of 2,806 mostly UK-based project professionals

In addition, we have:

The Digital Project Manager: Project Manager Salary Guide: Average By Country & Role 2024

399 responses from across sectors and global regions.

Surveys on The State of Project Management

The Pulse of the Profession, from PMI

The biggest survey of the profession is PMI’s (mostly) annual survey, The Pulse of the Profession. It is so important that I have covered each one, in-depth, since 2016.

They are a mixed bag. Some have been excellent and others were, I have to say, flawed. This year’s is: Pulse of the Profession® 2024 The Future of Project Work: Moving Past Office-Centric Models.

Once again, I offered a detailed assessment: Future of Work: What’s in PMI’s 2024 Pulse of the Profession Report?

State of Project Management Survey from Elsewhere

I found only one other general Project Management survey. This was from consulting firm, KPMG: 2022 Project Management Survey. This is ‘just’ focused on the small European country of Cyprus. But I include it because it raises some interesting issues that have relevance more widely. I’d love to see KPMG throw its substantial resources behind a global survey on the same basis!

I cannot help thinking that there must be more, but I have struck out. If you know of any, please drop a link in the comments below, and I’ll update this section and credit you.

Project Management Statistics

Who doesn’t like a big old chunk of statistical data? Let’s end this section with two surveys that focus on offering us a load of Project Management statistics.

From software company, Plaky.com, we have Must-Know Project Management Statistics for 2024.

And, from the software company, Visual Planning, we have 55 Project Management Statistics of 2024.

I have no way of assessing the validity of their data.

Demographics Surveys

I’m not sure the first of these is well-described as a demographics survey, but it does cover a vital topic for anyone interested in ensuring the project profession can access the full scope of potential talent (rather than approximately half).

Women in Project Management

PMI offers us: The State of Women in Project Management, 2023

PMI looked at data from over 1,900 female project professionals who responded to their PMI Annual Global Survey on Project Management in 2022. They documented this in their 2023 Pulse of the Profession report: Power Skills: Redefining Project Success, which I refer to above and assessed in detail.

If you are wondering about APM., they don’t do surveys on women in project management. They hold a sell-out conference every year. This year’s was last week (if you are reading this in the week of publication!)

Generations in the Project Workplace

Consulting firm Deloitte, offer us their 2024 Gen Z and Millennial Survey: Living and working with purpose in a transforming world. This surveyed nearly 23,000 respondents across 44 countries to track their experiences and expectations at work and in the world more broadly.

Artificial Intelligence and Project Management Surveys

Artificial Intelligence and Project Management is a central topic of current conversation among project professionals. So, while there are a slew of reports from all the big players and numerous articles and blogs, I only found one report.

This is from the IPMA – the International Project Management Association. Working in collaboration with international consulting firm, PwC, they offer us a 50-page report with lots of interesting data: Artificial Intelligence Impact in Project Management. It’s a little old now (2020) but still worth a look.

Special Interest Surveys in Project Management

Finally, we need an ‘everything else’ category! In this section, we have surveys covering:

PMO: Project or Program Management Office

These two reports from the PMI include interesting survey data:

Measuring What Matters
Measurement is key to demonstrating the impact and value of projects. Measurement provides project visibility and delivers the data to strengthen the future business case for a program or project management office (PMO).

PMO Maturity
PMI and global professional services firm, PwC, teamed up to address the current state of project management office (PMO) maturity through the creation of a bespoke PMO maturity index.

Sustainability and Green Project Management Surveys

Green Project Management is my go-to website for all matters Project Management and Sustainability. So, I have to recommend their survey, Insights into Sustainable Project Management 2024.

Change and Transformation

Not surprisingly, the big consulting firms (who make a lot of money selling services in this category) are keen to offer us surveys.

From Deloitte, we have: Change Management in Project Work.

The trends in Change Management which influence project work streams and organisations’ management processes.

From EY (Ernst & Young), we have: Transformation Delivery Client Survey 2021: Uncovering the future of programme and project delivery.

50 responses, compiled to gain an understanding of the challenges which impact organizations in the
delivery of their transformation projects.

But, PMI is in the game, supporting their own shift towards agile with: Change-Ready and Able: Building Agility Into the Organizational DNA.

More than half (53 percent) of COOs in a 2022 PwC survey said increasing agility was very important for their company to grow that year. Yet only 33 percent of respondents reported high organizational agility in PMI’s 2021 Pulse of the Profession survey (see above). Brightline PMI research revealed that increased organizational agility was the most expected outcome of transformation efforts in 2022.

What Project Management Surveys Have You Come Across?

Please share your favorite (recent) Project Management surveys with us all, in the comments below.

Reading these Reports

Recently, Bill Duncan took me to task for saying I would be printing out some articles to read. I find it hard to read on screen. However, I have taken the plunge and invested in a Kindle Scribe, which has a fairly paper-like screen and the ability to hand-write notes on the articles (and books) I download. Who knows? This may be the start of something big!

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Mike Clayton

About the Author...

Dr Mike Clayton is one of the most successful and in-demand project management trainers in the UK. He is author of 14 best-selling books, including four about project management. He is also a prolific blogger and contributor to ProjectManager.com and Project, the journal of the Association for Project Management. Between 1990 and 2002, Mike was a successful project manager, leading large project teams and delivering complex projects. In 2016, Mike launched OnlinePMCourses.
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