About BudgetOverrun.com
An independent reference for project budget overruns. Cited statistics by industry, a working EVM calculator, famous case studies, causes, prevention strategies, and the legal and insurance context. No project-management software to sell, no consultancy to pitch.
Why this site exists
Project-overrun statistics are cited everywhere but rarely with named sources. The often-quoted "45% over budget" figure for large IT projects traces back to a specific McKinsey-Oxford study from 2012, with conditions that buyers should know about before quoting the headline number. The 85% construction overrun figure comes from Bent Flyvbjerg's megaproject research at Oxford Said Business School, with a defined selection criterion. The 66% IT failure rate is from the Standish Group CHAOS Report, which has a published methodology critique that should travel alongside the figure.
Most pages ranking for budget-overrun queries are written by project-management consultancies with governance services to sell. They quote the headline number without methodology, attach their own service pitch, and move on. This site does the opposite: every figure traces to a named publisher with the year, the sample, and the methodology context.
The other gap is a working tool. Earned Value Management is the industry-standard method for forecasting overruns on active projects, but most EVM material online is either PMP-prep theory with no calculator or vendor-software demos behind a sales gate. This site publishes a free EVM calculator that runs entirely in your browser, with the formulas shown and presets for the three sectors most readers come from.
Who builds this
Oliver runs Digital Signet, an independent reference-content studio that builds data-led cost and decision tools using public datasets. After two decades as a solutions architect and tech lead across media, utilities, satellite, and data, he founded Digital Signet to apply autonomous AI development methodology to real software at scale.
Reach Oliver at [email protected] or LinkedIn.
About Digital Signet
BudgetOverrun.com is part of a portfolio of cost-reference and calculator sites operated by Digital Signet. The portfolio sits inside the project-management and engineering-economics surface, so the sister sites cross-reference each other where the topics meet:
Rework cost as a share of engineering capacity. NIST $59.5B macro plus per-team math.
Technical debt economics: developer-velocity drag, refactor ROI math.
Independent CI/CD pricing comparison across GitHub Actions, CircleCI, GitLab CI, and self-hosted.
Cloud financial operations: cost-allocation, anomaly-detection, and FinOps tooling pricing.
Estimated cost of a production incident: lost revenue, engineering response time, customer churn.
Internal developer platform team economics: build vs buy, team-size sizing, productivity math.
Editorial position
This is a reference site, not a project-rescue consultancy, not a programme-governance practice, and not a software reseller. Digital Signet does not sell project-management software, does not take paid placements from PM-software vendors, and does not run a project-recovery service line.
Where sources disagree (e.g. the McKinsey-Oxford 45% IT overrun rate versus the Standish 66% IT failure rate; the Flyvbjerg 85% construction overrun versus PMI's lower industry-wide cross-sector average), both figures are presented with the methodology context that explains why they differ. The site does not pick a single headline number when the underlying research does not justify one.
What this site covers
Editorial principles
Every overrun statistic on this site traces back to a named publisher: PMI Pulse of the Profession, Standish CHAOS Report, McKinsey project-performance research, Bent Flyvbjerg's Oxford megaproject database, KPMG Project Management Survey, US GAO and UK NAO audit reports, or US BLS construction and IT cost data. The methodology page lists every source and what it informs.
There are no sponsored slots, no premium positioning, and no pay-to-rank. The site does not sell project-management software, does not act as a project-rescue consultancy, and does not run a programme-governance practice.
Outbound links to source publishers, vendor pricing pages, and reference documents are plain unaffiliated URLs. This site is a reference, not a lead-generation funnel.
Each cited percentage on this site (43% PMI, 85% construction, 66% IT, 98% megaproject) has a named source and a year. Where the underlying methodology is contested (the Standish CHAOS critique, the Flyvbjerg selection question), the page flags the limitation rather than quoting the headline number alone.
The verification date is held in one constant (LAST_VERIFIED_DATE) imported by every page. Footer text, schema dateModified, and visible "data verified" labels all read from that single source so cosmetic refreshes are not possible. Currently reads May 2026.
Where sources disagree (e.g. the 32% vs 70% scope-creep figure, or the McKinsey 45% vs Standish 66% IT overrun rate) the page presents the range with the methodology context, not a single point estimate. Calculator outputs are working bands, not predictions for a specific project.
Methodology in brief
Statistics come from named publishers: PMI Pulse of the Profession, Standish CHAOS Report, McKinsey project-performance research, Bent Flyvbjerg's Oxford megaproject database, KPMG Project Management Survey, Capers Jones software-measurement data, US GAO and UK NAO audit reports, US BLS construction and IT cost data. Each row in the source table lists what we use it for, the refresh cadence, and the source URL.
EVM formulas follow PMI/AACE standard notation. Calculator presets use overrun ranges from the cited publishers, not internal industry-trade folklore. Historic case-study figures (Sydney Opera House, James Webb, Big Dig, HS2) are triangulated from primary records (NAO/GAO reports, project final cost statements) not press summaries. For the full framework, see the methodology page.
Contact and corrections
Spotted a stale figure, a missing publisher, or a project case study with new audit data? Email [email protected] with the page URL and the source you would like cited. Substantive corrections are typically actioned within five business days.
Disclosures
- ●No affiliate links or referral fees on any URL on this site.
- ●No email-gated downloads, quote forms, or sales redirects.
- ●Not affiliated with PMI, the Standish Group, McKinsey, Oxford Said Business School, KPMG, Atlassian, Microsoft, Smartsheet, or any other named publisher or vendor.
- ●Calculator outputs are working bands; production outcomes depend on project-specific risks not modelled here.