Planning and Progress:
Estimation Challenges Facing U.K. Teams 

In the United Kingdom, 54% of professionals report being “somewhat confident” in their estimation process, yet 61% report budget overruns occurring at least occasionally. Only 7% say they are “very confident.” Timeline performance is slightly better, with 69% saying they miss deadlines only occasionally.

This pattern is not unique. While Canada pairs strong confidence with fewer overruns, other regions such as Japan and the U.S. show similar mismatches between perception and results. U.K. teams face many of the same systemic issues: tool silos, data misalignment, and lack of standardization.

Most U.K. organizations remain early in their automation journey. Sixty-two percent of teams report automating less than half of their estimates. Only 15% have exceeded the 50% automation threshold, and 69% say they do not currently use AI tools.

Despite this, interest in automation is high. U.K. respondents rank real-time data integration, automated reporting, and simulation-driven estimating among their most desired features. Progress will depend on improving data quality and enabling secure, validated automation pilots within regulated industries.

In the United Kingdom, 84% of teams describe their estimation systems as only partially integrated. Just one respondent reported full integration, and another said systems are not integrated at all. These results are in line with global averages, where disconnected tools remain a top barrier to performance.

Disconnected systems limit collaboration and create delays when adapting to project changes. Most teams still pass data manually between finance, engineering, and procurement. Each manual pass creates risk and uncertainty in high-stakes projects.

While 85% of U.K. respondents measure project cost adherence, only 54% track customer satisfaction, and even fewer report tracking team alignment. Compared to global averages, this puts the U.K. behind leading regions like the U.S. (43% track alignment) and Canada (33%).

Without tracking alignment across departments, it becomes harder to identify the source of missed estimates or delivery problems. Organizations that connect project execution to business goals are better positioned to adjust forecasts and avoid delays. 

Despite growing public interest in sustainability, most U.K. organizations do not prioritize ESG in their cost estimation processes. Only 15% say ESG is “extremely important,” and 30% rate it “not important.” Compared to Europe and APAC, U.K. responses show the least emphasis on integrating ESG. 

This puts U.K. teams at risk of falling behind on emerging standards and compliance mandates, especially for international programs and partnerships. 

U.K. respondents include cost analysts, project managers, engineers, and executives across industries. While estimation is still viewed as a technical process, there are signs that leaders are driving change by focusing on forecast accuracy and organizational visibility.