This hugely informative and wide-ranging analysis on the management of projects, past, present and future, is written both for practitioners and scholars. Beginning with a history of the discipline's ...development, Reconstructing Project Management provides an extensive commentary on its practices and theoretical underpinnings, and concludes with proposals to improve its relevancy and value. Written not without a hint of attitude, this is by no means simply another project management textbook. The thesis of the book is that 'it all depends on how you define the subject'; that much of our present thinking about project management as traditionally defined is sometimes boring, conceptually weak, and of limited application, whereas in reality it can be exciting, challenging and enormously important. The book draws on leading scholarship and case studies to explore this thesis. The book is divided into three major parts. Following an Introduction setting the scene, Part 1 covers the origins of modern project management – how the discipline has come to be what it is typically said to be; how it has been constructed – and the limitations of this traditional model. Part 2 presents an enlarged view of the discipline and then deconstructs this into its principal elements. Part 3 then reconstructs these elements to address the challenges facing society, and the implications for the discipline, in the years ahead. A final section reprises the sweep of the discipline's development and summarises the principal insights from the book. This thoughtful commentary on project (and program, and portfolio) management as it has developed and has been practiced over the last 60-plus years, and as it may be over the next 20 to 40, draws on examples from many industry sectors around the world. It is a seminal work, required reading for everyone interested in projects and their management.
Avoid common pitfalls in large-scale projects using these smart strategiesOver half of large-scale engineering and construction projects—off-shore oil platforms, chemical plants, metals processing, ...dams, and similar projects—have miserably poor results. These include billions of dollars in overruns, long delays in design and construction, and poor operability once finally completed.Industrial Megaprojectsgives you a clear, nontechnical understanding of why these major projects get into trouble, and how your company can prevent hazardous and costly errors when undertaking such large technical and management challenges.Clearly explains the underlying causes of over-budget, delayed, and unsafe megaprojectsExamines effects of poor project management, destructive team behaviors, weak accountability systems, short-term focus, and lack of investment in technical expertiseAuthor is the CEO of the leading consulting firm for evaluating billion-dollar projectsCompanies worldwide are rethinking their large-scale projects. Industrial Megaprojectsis your essential guide for this rethink, offering the tools and principles that are the true foundation of safe, cost-effective, successful megaprojects.
PRINCE2 Study Guide Hinde, David
2012, 2012., 2012-05-01T00:00:00, 2012-03-22, c2012
eBook
Everything you need to be fully prepared to take the PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner examAs an internationally recognized certification which focuses on the Foundation and Practitioner levels ...along with being recommended by the Project Management Institute, the PRINCE2 accreditation gives a bolster to any resume.The author, David Hinde, has trained hundreds of individuals from many different backgrounds to prepare for the PRINCE2 exams. The book provides explanations of all parts of the PRINCE2 approach, lots of practical examples, and a whole range of mock examination questions to test your knowledge.Explains all the PRINCE2 themes, processes, principles, roles and management products for the very latest version of PRINCE2 (PRINCE2 2009 Edition)Features full coverage of all Foundation and Practitioner level exam objectivesPresents real–world scenarios, showing how the method is used in business and the public sectorIncludes challenging review questions and electronic flashcards to sharpen your knowledgeCovers tips and techniques for tackling the PRINCE2 accreditation examinations and shows you how and where to take the examsIncorporates over 300 sample Foundation-level and over 100 sample Practitioner-level questions, with answers and full explanationsContains a glossary of all PRINCE2 terminology and a quick reference to all the PRINCE2 management productsGives a web link to a set of on-line tools with more bonus examsPRINCE2 Study Guidecovers all the necessary topics you need to know in order to confidently take the PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner exams.
Changes in technologies and practitioner approaches to project management have led to a mix known as hybrid. This research identifies approaches practitioners currently use and determines possible ...influences on how a project manager selects an approach for a project. Four hundred participants completed a survey questionnaire to help identify methodologies in use. Additionally, participants reviewed a list of 39 specific project management tools and techniques to indicate their level of use for each of them. Our findings indicate that few project managers exclusively employ agile methodologies without the incorporation of predictive techniques and tools. Chi-square analysis was used to analyze industry, project manager experience level, and type of project to determine the influence on approach selection. The results showed that industry and type of project were important to selection, but a project manager's level of experience was not. A qualitative analysis identified two additional important factors of company policy and team experience. Overall, the study supported that there is no best approach to managing projects, but hybrid is emerging as a predominant approach to exploit the benefits of multiple approaches. Additionally, the data implies a need for greater support, resources, or education to facilitate the successful implementation and longevity of adaptive project management approaches.
This paper presents the results of a structured review of the rethinking project management (RPM) literature based on the classification and analysis of 74 contributions and in addition takes a ...critical look at this brave new world. Through the analysis, a total of 6 overarching categories emerged: contextualization, social and political aspects, rethinking practice, complexity and uncertainty, actuality of projects and broader conceptualization. These categories cover a broad range of different contributions with diverse and alternative perspectives on project management. The early RPM literature dates back to the 1980s, while the majority was published in 2006 onwards, and the research stream appears to be still active. A critical look at this brave new world exhibits the overall challenge for RPM to become much more diffused and accepted.
•We have reviewed and categorized the Rethinking Project Management (RPM) literature•Categories are contextualization, social & political aspects, rethinking practice•...complexity & uncertainty, actuality of projects, and broader conceptualization•RPM literature dates back to the 1980s, but majority was published in 2006 onwards•The overall challenge for RPM is to become much more diffused and accepted
Perspectives on Projects Turner, Rodney J.; Huemann, Martina; Anbari, Frank T. ...
2010, 20100610, 2010-06-10
eBook
Modern project management had its genesis in the field of operations research in the late 1940s, but today it is a much more diverse subject. It has evolved and developed a much wider range of ...methods, techniques, and skills that the project manager can draw upon.
Not all these skills are relevant to every project, but an assortment of them will be relevant to most. This book aims to describe for students, researchers and managers the full range of skills that project managers can use to develop their methodologies.The authors group the skills into nine perspectives, representing nine schools of project management research and theory. By attaching a metaphor to each of these perspectives, students, researchers and managers are better able to understand each approach and decide whether it is best suited to the development of a strategy for managing their project.
Perspectives on Projects builds upon the various theoretical orientations that the field of project management has developed. Featuring several case studies, drawn from a variety of settings, to illustrate how the different schools can provide different perspectives on projects, this book is an ideal text for anyone involved in project management.
1. The Diversity of Projects and Project Management Part 1: The Nine Perspectives 2. Optimization: The Project as a Machine 3. Modelling: The Project as a Mirror 4. Success: The Project as an Objective 5. Governance: The Project as a Legal Entity 6. Behaviour: The Project as a Social System 7. Marketing: The Project as a Billboard 8. Process: The Project as an Algorithm 9. Decision: The Project as a Computer 10. Contingency: The Project as a Chameleon Part 2: The Three Case Studies 11. Using the Nine Perspectives 12. The North-South Metro Line: Managing in Crowded Historic Amsterdam 13. The LAS Story: Learning from Failure 14. ABS International: Sustainable Project Management
Rodney Turner is Professor of Project Management at the Lille School of Management, France and at the Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick, Ireland. He has also authored or edited thirteen books, written numerous articles for journals, conferences and magazines and is editor of The International Journal of Project Management.
Martina Huemann is a Researcher at Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria.
Frank Anbari is Professor of Project Management at Drexel University, USA. He is a board member on several journals on project management.
Christophe Bredillet is Deputy Director General and Dean of Postgraduate Programs & Research, at Lille School of Management, France. He is editor of the Project Management Journal.
"If you are looking for a nice overview of the generic and most common contemporary approaches to project management, or if you are quite sure that you are managing fairly well-known projects with little uncertainty, the book by Turner et al. will be a good choice." – KJELL TRYGGESTAD, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
The evaluation and selection of novel projects lies at the heart of scientific and technological innovation, and yet there are persistent concerns about bias, such as conservatism. This paper ...investigates the role that the format of evaluation, specifically information sharing among expert evaluators, plays in generating conservative decisions. We executed two field experiments in two separate grant-funding opportunities at a leading research university, mobilizing 369 evaluators from seven universities to evaluate 97 projects, resulting in 761 proposal-evaluation pairs and more than $250,000 in awards. We exogenously varied the relative valence (positive and negative) of others' scores and measured how exposures to higher and lower scores affect the focal evaluator's propensity to change their initial score. We found causal evidence of a negativity bias, where evaluators lower their scores by more points after seeing scores more critical than their own rather than raise them after seeing more favorable scores. Qualitative coding of the evaluators' justifications for score changes reveals that exposures to lower scores were associated with greater attention to uncovering weaknesses, whereas exposures to neutral or higher scores were associated with increased emphasis on nonevaluation criteria, such as confidence in one's judgment. The greater power of negative information suggests that information sharing among expert evaluators can lead to more conservative allocation decisions that favor protecting against failure rather than maximizing success.
Like many other OECD countries, Greece has embarked on an ambitious digital transformation of its public sector to make it more effective, sustainable, proactive and people-centred. However, digital ...transformation projects present challenges in terms of governance, procurement, implementation and institutional capacities.
Many believe that project complexity reduces project management performance. However, so far research has failed to establish this causal relationship conclusively. We extend research on project ...complexity by introducing the concept of team-level absorptive capacity and by studying its role as mediator between project complexity and project management success. Applying structural equation modelling to a sample of 285 respondents, we find an unequivocal, direct and positive statistical association between project complexity and delays and overspending. Further, we show that team-level absorptive capacity is critical for successful project management, but also that absorptive capacity can only partially offset the harmful impact of project complexity. Beyond adding to project management theory, the paper contributes to the wider management literature. We establish complexity as an antecedent of absorptive capacity and demonstrate how each dimension of absorptive capacity has unique determinants and outcomes.
•Project complexity increases the risk of unscheduled delays.•Project complexity makes cost overruns more likely.•Team-level absorptive capacity mitigates delays and overspending.•Project-team capacities cannot fully offset the effect of project complexity.
