Benchmarking of project planning and success in selected industries

Purpose – To identify the industry in which projects are best planned and executed and use it as a benchmark for improving project planning in other industries. Design/methodology/approach – Based on data collected from 280 project managers, project success and quality of project planning were evaluated and analyzed for four industries – construction and engineering, software and communications, services, and production and maintenance. Findings – Quality of project planning was found to be the highest in construction and engineering organizations and the lowest in manufacturing organizations. This is a result of a few factors, among them the intensive organizational support which is offered to project managers working in construction and engineering organizations. The other three industries limit their support mostly to tactical aspects, such as the purchasing of project management software. The high quality of project planning in the construction and engineering organizations resulted in their ability to complete projects by almost half the cost and schedule overruns, as compared to organizations belonging to the other industries. Finally, results of the industries in Israel and Japan are compared and analyzed. Research limitations/implications – Findings are limited to the four industries included in the study. Practical implications – If organizations, not belonging to the construction industry, wish to improve the probability of success in project planning and execution, they should follow methodologies commonly used in the construction industry. Originality/value – This paper introduces a valid field study, exploring project management practices in four industries and identifies the one which may be used as a benchmark for the others. It also identifies specific strengths and weaknesses in project management within the explored industries.