Your strategy is only as good
as your ability to deliver it
and right now,
the odds are not in your favour.
0.5%
of projects deliver on time, on budget and on benefits (Flyvbjerg, How Big Things Get Done, 2023)
36%
software projects are delivered on time, on budget and to scope (Standish Group CHAOS, 2015)
5x
small, well-scoped projects (61%) are 5 x more likely to succeed versus large ones (11%) (Standish Group CHAOS, 2015)
18%
large projects succeed just 18% even when run with agile. Size and scope outweigh methodology (Standish Group CHAOS, 2015)
Not significant
the difference in project success rates between agile, hybrid and predictive approaches (PMI Pulse of the Profession, 2024)
You have approved the business cases and benefits.
You've invested in the teams. You've hired consultants. You've adopted new tools and changed the methodology more than once. You have copious principles, standards, policies and processes and folders full of templates.
But projects still run over time and deadlines slip.
The benefits promised in the business case don't materialise. Your best people are exhausted and somewhere in a boardroom or budget meeting, someone is thinking the question that no-one will verbalise: What is going wrong? Yet, you cant quite put your finger on it.
The research holds the answer and it's not what most organisations expect.
The evidence, from more than 25,000 software projects (Standish Group, 2015) to Flyvbjerg's base rates from 2,062 projects (2021), is consistent: the primary causes of project failure is not always technical. The causes are human, organisational, and most importantly - fixable. When you know what to look for.
Achieve P3M exists to help leadership
teams see what is actually happening
inside their delivery system
We aim to help you close the
gaps that matter most and build the
capability to deliver your strategic vision.
The Problem
The gap between strategy and delivery is costing your organisation more than you know
Most leadership teams know their projects are struggling. What they don't know is why. And that distinction is everything.
The conventional response is to change the methodology. Adopt Agile. Go back to Waterfall. Try hybrid. Add more governance. But the data tells a different story. PMI found the difference in performance between predictive, hybrid and agile approaches to be not statistically significant (PMI, Pulse of the Profession 2024).
The real drivers of
project failure
The evidence points to four real drivers:
-
Executive sponsorship quality: how well your organisation's leaders understand what they are sponsoring, and whether they remove obstacles or create them
-
Behavioural discipline: whether your project teams are making decisions based on honest assessment or unconscious optimism and political pressure
-
Organisational capability: whether your project leaders have the capability, not just the certification, to navigate complexity
-
Benefits management: whether what you approved in the business case is still what you are building
These are not process problems. They are leadership, capability, and organisational maturity problems. And they are exactly what Achieve P3M is built to address.
How Achieve P3M helps
Expert Project Management Advice
Achieve P3M provides tailored solutions to enhance delivery performance, drive growth and achieve strategic goals.
Assess
Understand where your delivery system is mature and where
it is fragile, using the Achieve Delivery Maturity Framework
Understand where your delivery system is mature and where it is fragile, using the Achieve Delivery Maturity Framework
Plan
Design evidence-based roadmaps for closing
the capability gaps that matter most
Design evidence-based roadmaps for closing the capability gaps that matter most
Build
Develop your project leaders through structured
mentoring, coaching, and targeted capability programs
Develop your project leaders through structured mentoring, coaching, and targeted capability programs
Equip
Prepare your teams to use AI tools consistently
and effectively within your delivery standards
Prepare your teams to use AI tools consistently and effectively within your delivery standards
Grounded in evidence.
Proven in practice.
Most organisations don't have a project problem. They have a capability problem. The governance, processes and skills that worked for last year's portfolio were never designed for this one, and the investment leaks away slowly through rework, stalled decisions and benefits that never land.
​
Achieve P3M exists to close that gap. Our approach combines hands-on delivery experience with three decades of published research into why projects succeed and fail.
​
Our founder, Daniela Kellett, is a Fellow of IPMA Australia, a Chartered Project Professional with APM (UK) and a Certified Practicing Project Director (CPPD) with AIPM.
Daniela delivers IT projects and programs: software, systems
integration, data platforms and infrastructure. Her advisory work reaches wider, spanning PMO, portfolio and delivery capability uplift for organisations across government, law enforcement, utilities, telecommunications, financial services, superannuation and civil engineering.
She also hosts Powering ProjeX, a podcast for project professionals who want the honest conversation about what makes delivery work.
She is presently a volunteer with IPMA Australia and has previously been: ​
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President of the VIC Chapter Council – Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM)
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Councillor on the VIC Chapter Council – Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM)
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Member of the Professional Advancement Committee – Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM)
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Medal of Acknowledgement from the Governor General of Australia (2021) for volunteer services to the Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM)
