Quantifying the Value of Project Management: Best Practices for Improving Project Management Processes, Systems, and Competencies

In today’s highly competitive marketplace, organizations want more from project management than on-time, under-budget delivery. Just like labor, technology and equipment, project management is seen as a corporate asset that is expected to contribute to the bottom line. It must deliver a profitable return on investment if it is to become a strategic business asset, and not just another drill press in the corporate tool crib.

In Quantifying the Value of Project Management, William Ibbs and Justin Reginato, from the University of California at Berkeley, explore real-world data from 52 U.S. corporations and find the key to a high return on investment. It is project management maturity. Mature project management departments have more on-time, under-budget projects; less variable schedules and expenses; and decreased cost ratios. Project management maturity benefits extend to the parent company where Dr. Ibbs finds lower utilization rates, higher production rates and lower operating costs. Dr. Ibbs shows how to assess project management maturity and track its development.

The details of these groundbreaking discoveries are presented in a style that combines the wit of Fortune magazine with the sophistication and rigor of an academic contribution to the Project Management Journal®.

If you are looking for a comeback to those who want proof of project management’s corporate value, Quantifying the Value of Project Management lays out all the evidence you need.

William Ibbs is Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of California Berkeley.

Justin Reginato is a doctoral candidate in Civil Engineering with an emphasis in Project Management at the University of California Berkeley.