PMI Study Links Project Success to Complexity Control, Urges Execution

Stories by Emma Okonji

A new global research from the Project Management Institute (PMI) has revealed that project complexity is emerging as a prominent threat to successful project delivery across sub-Saharan Africa.

According to PMI’s latest Pulse of the Profession report tagged: ‘Driving Success in Complex Projects: From Navigating Tasks to Navigating Systems’, the report findings showed that projects are increasingly facing missed deadlines, decision bottlenecks, and pressure on teams as organisations race to deliver transformation amid rapid change.

The report, based on insights from project professionals and senior leaders across 35 countries, showed that 81 per cent of project professionals globally believe projects have become more complex in recent years, with 37 per cent describing the increase as significant. According to the report, the increase in complexity is being driven by a combination of organisational, environmental, and human factors, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption, shifting stakeholder expectations, economic volatility, and increasingly interconnected systems.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the research highlighted a particularly strong pattern of delivery disruption. According to PMI’s regional findings, missed delivery deadlines (at 44 per cent) stand significantly above the global average (35 per cent), while delays in stakeholder decision-making (41 per cent vs 34 per cent for global) are emerging as another major friction point for organisations across the region. The findings suggested that complexity was increasingly slowing value alignment, approvals, and execution, creating governance bottlenecks that compound delivery challenges. 

Analysing the report Managing Director, PMI sub-Saharan Africa, George Asamani, said: “These findings reflect the realities many organisations across Africa are already facing. Africa is currently undertaking some of the world’s most ambitious transformation agendas, from infrastructure and industrialisation to digital inclusion, energy access, fintech innovation, and public-sector reform. But as the scale of ambition grows, so does the complexity behind execution.”

“As organisations attempt to deliver more projects faster, many are discovering that traditional approaches focused purely on timelines and tasks are no longer enough. Success today depends on the ability to navigate interconnected systems, align stakeholders quickly, adapt to change continuously, and build resilient teams capable of operating in uncertainty,” he added.