MWH - a multinational company specialising in infrastructure projects, performed an analysis of all project budget variances for the years 2000-2004.

It was identified that for large projects (in excess of $100k) those that ran at a gain (against budgeted revenue) only made small gains (none larger that +1.5%) while those projects that ran at a loss often ran to significant losses -2% to -10%.

MWH has now embarked upon a long term strategy to improve their Project Management capability with the specific goal of mitigating those projects that run at high losses.

We think Project Management adds value. However it’s really hard to show how much value it adds. It’s impossible to do the same project twice, once with a project manager responsible for delivery and another time with a business manager – and compare the results.

Is it possible for those who have no formal Project Management training to out perform project managers? Yes in some circumstances – this is possible in situations where the manager has a lot of experience completing the same project many times – however we would argue that managers could improve their practice further by learning about Project Management and applying it to their specialty where it works best.

Do does Project Management add value? OR

Is Project Management just a knowledge area that is a subset of general management and general managers with enough experience will manage projects just as well as or better than certified and experienced project managers?

What do you think?