The results are in for the May PM survey on equipping the project manager. The response rate was very good – many thanks to our readers who responded because without you there would be no survey and no fun follow-up analysis.
In terms of surprises, in my opinion there were four key surprises that I will describe in my run down of the results below…
Formal PM Methodology
Here’s the first surprise: only 53% of the survey responders indicated that their organization followed a specific project life cycle or project management methodology. That means that 47% are basically ‘winging it.’ While that’s ok on occasion, it’s very difficult to realize long term organizational and project success without some sort of consistent, repeatable process in place. Nearly half of our survey responders don’t have that and that’s concerning.
PM Software
No big surprise here … 58% use Microsoft Project as their primary tool for managing projects. What was surprising is that a full 26% are not given any specific tool to use when managing projects. Back to the ‘winging it’ concept… not good. 11% indicated that they utilized a web-based PM tool and 5% indicated that they use some desktop tool other than MS Project to schedule and manage projects.
Smartphones
When asked if their organizations provided them with smartphones for managing calendars, email, and contacts with, a full 68% indicated that these are not provided. That is surprising to me. That number may be skewed by independent consultants responding as often they provide their own equipment, but I still find this to be a very high number of negative responses. Only 32% indicated that they are provided with smartphones as a tool.
Laptops
When asked if organizations provided project managers with company-issued laptops, the overwhelming majority said ‘yes.’ Indeed, 79% of responders indicated that they have been issued laptops by their organizations. Only 21% indicated that they were never issued laptops. I find that 21% number somewhat surprising in this day, but it’s not one of the four key surprises that I mentioned earlier and it may again be skewed somewhat by the independent consultant who often is responsible for their own equipment.
Travel
Finally, the travel question – which really doesn’t have much to do with equipping the project manager. I was just curious on the amount of travel that is required of our PM readers. And when companies are putting PMs and project professionals on the road, it’s important that they are well equipped to do their jobs.
This one was very surprising to me – mainly because a lot of PM jobs indicate 25-50% travel. I’ve been in those positions and that amount of travel has really never panned out – it’s always been much less. So it’s surprising, and good to see, that our readers match up well with that. 84% indicated that they travel only 0-10% of the time. 5% indicated they travel 11-25% of the time. 11% are required to travel approximately 25-50% of the time. And no one responded that they are required to travel more than 50% of the time.
Summary
Overall, I would say that our PM readers are moderately equipped to do their jobs. They have the computer hardware, for the most part, but they are lacking communication devices to tie everything together and they are sadly lacking in consistent, repeatable PM methodology and processes to run their projects successfully.