Only 50% of projects succeed – and 13% fail completely.
In a world where only half of all projects succeed, how do the best professional services firms stay ahead? The Project Management Institute (PMI), the world’s leading authority on project management, set out to answer exactly that. In this research-backed white paper, PMI reveals how forward-thinking firms are moving beyond backward-looking delivery metrics to predict customer success before it’s too late. You’ll discover the six leading indicators that signal project health early, a proven framework to embed them across your organization, and a practical 90-day roadmap to put them to work.
Why are half of all projects still failing?
Most services firms measure success using trailing indicators: schedule variance, budget performance, resource utilization. These tell you how the work was done, but nothing about whether the project actually succeeded: Was the customer happy? Did users adopt the solution? Were business objectives met?
By the time those answers become clear, the work is complete and it’s too late to fix anything. The cost is real: rework, write-offs, lost future opportunities, delayed or cancelled phases, inaccurate forecasts, and margin erosion.
What are the leading indicators and why do they matter?
Leading indicators provide insight into what is likely to happen next, giving you an early warning before the material impact is felt. That means corrective action is simpler, faster, and less disruptive.
Inside the white paper, you’ll learn the 6 leading indicators that reveal project health early:
- Engagement rates — the level of participation from customer stakeholders at every level.
- Time to decision — how long decisions take, and how many stay open.
- User reaction — how end users respond to prototypes, testing, and feedback loops.
- Risk trends — whether overall risk exposure is getting better or worse over time.
- Team metrics — hours worked, overtime, absence, and turnover as early stress signals.
- Resource capacity vs. demand — the gap between consultant hours available and planned.
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How do you build a predictive operating model?
The white paper walks through PMI's M.O.R.E. vision and a practical, phased roadmap to embed leading indicators enterprise-wide:
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Manage Perceptions
Manage Perceptions
Align everyone on what success looks like in business terms.
Own success
Own success
The team succeeds when the client achieves business benefits, not just on-time delivery.
Relentlessly Reassess Project Parameters
Relentlessly Reassess Project Parameters
Manage real-time performance data.
Expand Perspective
Expand Perspective
Look beyond a single project to the full customer relationship.
You’ll also get a 90-day implementation plan — from identifying 3–5 measurable indicators to standardizing and automating predictive metrics across your entire portfolio.
How does professional services automation make this possible?
How does professional services automation make this possible?
Modern professional services automation (PSA) platforms already contain the data needed to power leading indicators: connecting time and resourcing, collaboration and portal activity, approval workflows, risk logs, and pipeline-to-delivery flow. Increasingly AI-enabled, these tools automate predictive metrics so insight is always available to every stakeholder.
What you’ll take away from this paper:
✔ The 6 leading indicators every services firm should track, with example triggers and potential impacts
✔ A proven framework (PMI M.O.R.E.) to shift from reactive to predictive management
✔ A 30/60/90-day roadmap to operationalize predictive metrics
✔ How PSA and embedded AI turn scattered data into early-warning insight
FAQs
FAQs
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Leading indicators are forward-looking metrics that predict what is likely to happen on a project, such as customer engagement rates, time to decision, and risk trends. Unlike trailing indicators like budget and schedule, they give services firms an early warning to correct course before problems become costly.
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According to the latest PMI Project Success Report, just 50% of projects succeed and 13% fail completely – a Net Project Success Score of 37%, only one point better than the prior year.
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Lagging (trailing) indicators like schedule variance and budget performance describe what has already happened. Leading indicators predict future outcomes, allowing teams to act proactively. When you manage the right leading indicators well, the trailing indicators tend to look after themselves.
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The white paper identifies six: engagement rates, time to decision, user reaction, risk trends, team metrics, and resource capacity vs. demand – each with defined measurement approaches, example triggers, and potential impacts.
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M.O.R.E. stands for Manage Perceptions, Own Success, Relentlessly Reassess Project Parameters, and Expand Perspective – a mindset framework encouraging firms to measure success by business value delivered, not just on-time, on-budget completion.
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The white paper outlines a phased 90-day plan: identify 3–5 measurable indicators immediately, set out-of-range thresholds and escalation workflows within 30 days, validate metrics by 60 days, and standardize across the portfolio by 90 days.
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Professional services automation (PSA) platforms already capture the data leading indicators depend on — time and resource logs, customer portal activity, approval timestamps, and risk registers. Upland PSA applies embedded AI to that data to automatically flag engagement drops, decision-time creep, and risk-trend shifts within the workflows teams already use — turning reactive status reporting into proactive, predictive management.
About the Project Management Institute (PMI)
About the Project Management Institute (PMI)
The Project Management Institute (PMI) is the world’s leading authority on project management and the definitive voice trusted by a growing community of millions of project professionals and changemakers worldwide. As a global standard-setter, PMI empowers people to turn ideas into reality: advancing careers, strengthening organizational success, and equipping changemakers with new skills and ways of working to maximize their impact.
Building on a proud legacy dating to 1969, PMI operates in nearly every country around the world as a “for-purpose” organization. Through global advocacy, networking, collaboration, research, and education, PMI prepares organizations and individuals to work smarter and drive success in a world of constant change.
This white paper was produced in partnership with Upland PSA and is available exclusively here, offering original PMI research and insight you won’t find anywhere else.
