One in Three Enterprise Projects Fail to Deliver ROI, Tempo Research Finds

Enterprise project portfolios are growing in size and complexity — but new research suggests execution discipline is not keeping pace.

According to the 2026 State of Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM) Report from Tempo Software, nearly one in three enterprise projects fail to deliver meaningful return on investment. The findings point to a widening performance gap between organizations that have modernized their planning practices and those still relying on traditional portfolio models.

Based on a global survey of 667 planning and PMO leaders across 43 countries, the report highlights a structural issue: strategic intent alone does not guarantee measurable outcomes.

The ROI Divide

High-performing organizations report achieving measurable ROI or strategic value on 81% of their projects. In contrast, organizations using more traditional planning approaches report success on just 45% of initiatives.

Tempo’s modeled scenario suggests that this performance gap could translate into as much as $260 million in lost annual value for large enterprises.

The implication is not simply project underperformance — but systemic inefficiency in how strategy is translated into execution.

Visibility and Alignment Remain Structural Weak Points

While 90% of organizations say they encourage adaptability and alignment, cross-functional alignment remains the top improvement area, cited by 27% of respondents.

Only 37% of organizations report good or complete visibility across projects. By comparison, 82% of organizations with fully integrated portfolio processes report strong visibility — underscoring the operational impact of siloed systems.

Understanding team capacity emerged as the top execution barrier, cited by 30% of planning leaders, followed closely by prioritization and resource allocation challenges.

Together, these constraints suggest that many enterprises struggle less with strategic ambition and more with portfolio discipline.

Scenario Planning and AI Adoption

The report also draws a connection between structured scenario planning and adaptability.

Organizations using scenario planning are nearly twice as confident in their ability to respond to change (85% versus 46%) and are three times more likely to use AI extensively in planning workflows (36% versus 12%).

This suggests that AI adoption in portfolio management is closely linked to process maturity rather than experimentation alone — a pattern increasingly visible across enterprise transformation initiatives.

Execution, Not Intention, Defines 2026

The broader takeaway from the research is clear: organizations are paying a measurable financial price for outdated planning processes, limited visibility, and misaligned priorities.

Frequent portfolio re-evaluation, early cancellation of low-value initiatives, and tighter cross-functional coordination appear to differentiate high-performing enterprises from those experiencing strategic drift.

For CIOs, PMO leaders, and CFOs, the findings reinforce a recurring theme in enterprise technology strategy: portfolio governance is becoming a competitive lever, not a back-office function.

As enterprise investments continue to accelerate in areas such as AI, automation, and cloud modernization, the ability to translate strategy into measurable value may determine not just ROI — but long-term organizational resilience.