We further examined the respondents that agreed that these types of communication were evident on their projects, and found that projects that employed effective and efficient communication methods were performing better in the areas of delivering project scope (68%), meeting quality standards (66%) and delivering intended business benefits (58%). While these results are encouraging, the data also showed that projects employing effective communication mechanisms are only finishing within budget 37% of the time and finishing on schedule only 27% of the time. This is the same trend noted in the use of employing an organisation’s “typical” project management approach. As mentioned earlier, respondents indicated that the number one reason for project failure is poor estimates in the planning phase. Effective communication may not alleviate project failures due to budget and scope estimating. Figure 17: Use of Effective Communication and its Impact on Key Performance Indicators (All Respondents) To provide a deeper understanding of the use of communication methods, the Executive Management level responses to the questions related to employing effective and efficient communication methods were examined. Based on their responses, the five key performance indicators improved. There was a 7% increase in delivering of scope, 4% increase in meeting quality standards, 4% increase in delivering intended business benefits, and 8% increase in finishing within or ahead of schedule. The largest increase in the use of effective communication methodologies was found in finishing within budget, which increased by 17%. This suggests that Executive Management agrees that the use of communication methods have a higher positive effect on success and failure of projects than the others groups within the survey population. Figure 18: Use of Effective Communication and its Impact on Key Performance Indicators (Executive Management Responses) Insights and trends: Current Portfolio, Programme and Project Management Practices 23