Key Figures

Product and Scope

It typically takes 15% of the total project time to define the product including requirementsWiegers and Beatty, 2013, Software Requirements – Third Edition, Microsoft Press
It can cost as much as 10-20 times more to change a requirement once it has been developed.Wiegers and Beatty, 2013, Software Requirements – Third Edition, Microsoft Press
Product definition and requirements defects is often accountable for more than 50% of project reworkWiegers and Beatty, 2013, Software Requirements – Third Edition, Microsoft Press
20% of features are used often50% of features are hardly ever or never used. CHAOS Manifesto, 2013,  The Standish Group)
Studies show that lack of user involvement is a main factor (15% of the cases) in projects that fail. ref (Chaos manifesto, 2013)CHAOS Manifesto, 2013,  The Standish Group)
There are surveys indicating that non-functional tasks including testing often takes up  more than 50% of total time in projects and up to 65% in big projectsJones, 2007, Estimating Software Costs, Bringing realism to estimating, Mc Graw Hill
There is rarely full overview of requirements when product development is started. Often only 50% of the requirements are knownJones, 2007, Estimating Software Costs, Mc Graw Hill
Surveys suggest that a rough average of 20% of requirements are delayed to later releases in software projectsJones, 2007, Estimating Software Costs, Mc Graw Hill
Typically there is a 2% growth rate in requirements in software projects per calendar monthJones, 2007, Estimating Software Costs, Mc Graw Hill

Market

Several studies have found a consistent positive relationship between market orientation and user orientation. Projects that go this way may improve economic performance by over 50%
Maydeu-Olivares & Leno, 2003

Business Case

A global  survey of IT projects in 212 companies in 21 countries  reported the following significant findings
Projects stopped before launch 30%
Projects with budget overrun 40%
Projects that are being delayed 50%
Projects delivering real benefits 30%
Bennet p. Lientz and Lee Larssen, 2006, Risk Management for IT Projects, Routledge
The larger the project, the smaller the chance for obtaining success. As few as 2% of big projects  (more than $10 million) are realized within schedule and budgetCHAOS MANIFESTO – The laws of CHAOS and the CHAOS 100 best PM practices, 2010, The Standish Group

This document contains a selection of project key figures collected from a number of different sources. Consider the key figures as a source of inspiration rather than statistical precise and valid information.