New Research Study: How Do Project/Program Processes Impact Strategy Execution?

This blog was updated October 2026.

Last week we launched our newest research initiative, The Strategic Execution Process Benchmark: Integrating Projects, Programs, and Portfolios for Strategic Success, and we are very excited about it. Over the 20 years that PM Solutions Research has been collecting data about project management processes, we have seen an increasing confluence of strategic planning and management with program and portfolio management processes. In 2017, our newest study will focus on this confluence, asking: What is the impact on strategy execution for companies that excel at implementing processes to plan and carry out key initiatives?

For decades, business research has shown that only a fraction of the strategic plans that companies form are ever fully implemented. A 2012 Gartner CFO Advisory Forum stated that portfolio investment success rates are less than 60%; considering only investment in projects that directly relate to revenue growth, the success rate was under 50%; and only 25% of projects considered to be transformational for the organization’s future achieved success. A 2015 study covered in the Harvard Business Review explored in depth the specific reasons why carefully crafted strategies nevertheless falter in the execution phase. A 2016 PMI study indicates $122 million is wasted for every $1 billion invested in strategic initiatives.

And this is to say nothing of the opportunity costs to organizations when strategies are not implemented fully.

This research study bridges the perceived gap between strategic planning and the processes that make strategy execution a reality. The study combines aspects of our groundbreaking 2006 Strategy and Projects study with batteries of questions from previous Project Portfolio Management, Project Manager Skills Benchmark, and State of the PMO studies, along with a new set of queries into benefits realization management practices.

Similar to our book, Seven Steps to Strategy Execution, the study questionnaire is organized around various aspects of strategic execution, with sections of questions related to:

• Strategy Management
• Project Portfolio Management
• Organizational Structure (Project Management Office)
• People and Culture
• Benefits Tracking

As always, we will ask participants to gauge their maturity/capability on a range of functions related to each of these areas, as well as asking them to rate their company’s overall organizational performance in order to determine the combination of processes that yields higher organizational performance. The research can be used to benchmark your organization against others as well as to help build your business case to justify the value of effective strategy execution processes.

This survey should take 12-15 minutes to complete. Full research results (including the full data and cross-tabulations) will be sent to all those who finish the survey. All data will be held strictly confidential, including interview content for those who elect to be interviewed during the qualitative follow-up portion of this study.