Workfront Survey Finds That Project Managers' Workloads Have Increased Significantly

SILICON SLOPES, Utah, Feb. 18, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Workfront, formerly known as AtTask, the leading provider of cloud-based Enterprise Work Management solutions, has announced results from a study that looks at a day in the life of a project manager. Results showed that 55% of project managers stated that in 2014 their workload increased significantly, resulting in 38% of project managers having to say "no" to projects, work overtime, or outsource at least 6–10 hours of work per week.

According to the findings, project managers are being inundated with too much work, lack of visibility into the work being done, and the use of disconnected tools to do the work. As a result, project managers are left without insights into the work they are doing and are stretched too thin.   

One reason for the increased workload may be that nearly a third of the workweek is spent updating project statuses instead of working on projects. Of the survey respondents, 27% listed "project information scattered across too many disconnected tools" as their biggest problem at work, leading to a lack of visibility into the work that is being done.

Other findings from the survey include:

• You use what? —Surprisingly, 33% of project managers use spreadsheets and email as their primary project management tool.
• The rise of Agile—58% of project managers are beginning to use Agile methodologies, including Scrum, Kanban, and Extreme Programming, to complete their projects. But 62% state that more than half of their projects are still completed using traditional project management methods.
• Double the work, but not double the fun—Of those project managers using mixed methodologies, 34% are using separate tools to manage the different work methodologies, resulting in 18% double-entering data into two systems, and half are using a spreadsheet to compile the data.
• In for the long haul—82% of project managers have been in a project management role for over 5 years with 53% stating they had been in longer than 11 years.

"The survey shows that project managers are slammed like never before," said Shawn Dickerson, Director of Enterprise Solutions Team Go-to-Market. "Too many tools, cumbersome spreadsheets, Agile transformations, and manual status updates are constantly stealing their focus from the things that matter most. That's why Workfront, solves many of these challenges by managing the full lifecycle of work, from initial request, prioritization, and planning through coordination, delivery, and measurement in a single tool. By providing a single system of truth, teams are able to collaborate in the context of work and gain complete visibility into the work that is being done. This eliminates the need for unnecessary status meetings and gives teams time back to be more productive."

This survey ran as a two-part survey within North America by ProjectManagement.com on behalf of Workfront. The first survey ran from August 5, 2014 through September 3, 2014 and was conducted online within North America by ProjectManagement.com on behalf of Workfront; 384 project managers answered ten questions on the ProjectManagement.com website.

The second survey was presented on the ProjectManagement.com and Workfront webinar "What the State of Project Management Today Means For You: The Results of the 2014 State of Project Management Survey," on December 4, 2014; it had 336 live attendees.

All survey respondents varied in industry, career level, and/or leadership position and age.

View the full report.

About Workfront

Workfront is a cloud-based Enterprise Work Management solution that helps marketing, IT, and other enterprise teams conquer the chaos of excessive email, redundant status meetings, and disconnected tools. Unlike other tools, Workfront Enterprise Work Cloud is a centralized, easy-to-adopt solution for managing and collaborating on all types of work through the entire work lifecycle, which improves team productivity and executive visibility. Workfront is trusted by thousands of global enterprises, like Cars.com, Cisco Systems, Comcast, Covario, Schneider Electric and Trek. To learn more, visit www.workfront.com or follow us on Twitter @Workfront_Inc.

Contact: Shelbi Gomez
[email protected]
801-477-9813

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SOURCE Workfront

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