Survey Says: Delay Culprits

  ProjectsAtWork  

The latest snapshot of project management trends and opinions from the ProjectsAtWork community…

Changing or additional requirements are the leading cause of project delays, according to the results of a recent Survey Says online poll by ProjectsAtWork. Project management practitioners also cite lack of stakeholder involvement and poor communication as common reasons that projects fall behind schedule.

The September 2010 poll found that 41 percent of respondents said that “additional or changing requirements” were the No. 1 reason for project delays, followed by “lack of stakeholder involvement or knowledge” (30 percent) and “poor communication” (24 percent). Only 5 percent said “new or unfamiliar processes or technologies” were a cause for project delays.

Asked to choose the No. 2 reason for project delays, 35 percent of respondents chose changing requirements, followed by poor communication (29 percent), lack of stakeholder involvement (21 percent) and unfamiliar processes (14 percent).

Combining the answers, three out of four respondents (76 percent) said “changing requirements” was either the No. 1 or No. 2 reason that their projects fall behind schedule, followed by “poor communication” (53 percent) and “lack of stakeholder involvement” (51 percent). Only about one out of five…

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