The Frontiers of Project Management Research
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Some modesty is necessary before attempting such a catalogue. Who, after all, can lay claim to speak authoritatively on all the contemporary issues that are of concern in the management of projects?
Indeed it is worth pausing here for a moment, for this question goes to the very heart of the issue being addressed. If project management is to be really relevant to the big picture of organizational performance then its scope is going to be broad indeed. Are all the issues that are relevant to all organizations involved in projects to be potential candidates? Is this practicable? Can it be correct?
A project can be characterized as a unique endeavor—in the sense of a one-off—undertaken to accomplish a defined objective. Yet in reality the most fundamental characteristic of a project is something that is a direct result of this uniqueness, namely the project life cycle. Although there are several detailed versions of this life cycle, as shown in A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) – 2000 Edition all projects, no matter how small or complex, follow a similar life cycle. Roughly this is something like Agree Concept; Prepare Definition/Design; Build; Complete (see Figure 1).
To develop a broad understanding of the generic discipline of the management of projects, scholars will therefore have to address the broad range of issues affecting all stages of the life cycle in all kinds of projects. This is certainly a tough challenge: it will require a substantial breadth of analysis and understanding. Maintaining a coherent conceptual view of the discipline at this broader level is genuinely difficult. But this, this chapter argues, is what the discipline's research agenda should be about.
Critically, however, the discussion must be about more than merely tools and techniques, processes and structures, people, or decisions. It has to relate to some measure of performance and success.
The Management of Projects
Initiating and accomplishing projects successfully should be the aim of the discipline.
Success is both an important concept and a difficult one. The Anatomy of Major Projects (Morris and Hough 1987) addressed the topic at length. It showed that:
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Success is a slippery concept to measure—and that it has different definitions depending on who you are and what your role in the project is (and when you attempt to measure it).
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Defining the project is critically important. Defining what the targets are is a major part of delivering a successful project.
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Many of the issues that caused projects to go wrong were not even addressed in most of the simpler, generic project management textbooks, not the least of these being those of technology, design, environment, and finance.
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A more holistic model of project management was needed—one that focuses on delivering successful projects rather than simply completing a task "on time, in budget, to scope." This model is called "the management of projects" (Morris 1997).
Figure 2 was an attempt, now somewhat dated, developed in The Anatomy of Major Projects to capture the factors that were seen to contribute to project success (and failure). At the heart of the model is agreeing on a robust definition of what it is that we are trying to achieve. (For if you cannot define this effectively, don't be surprised if you don't achieve it.) Developing this definition is not easy and is itself, of course, part of the process of managing a project. The definition interacts with a number of key factors: the sponsor's objectives, the financing available, the socio-political and environmental context of the project, and the scheduling requirements and possibilities. Optimizing all these so that the best value, most realistic definition is obtained is a real management skill. And just as project management has traditionally thought that delivering "on time, in budget, to scope" requires commercial, organizational, people, and systems (control) skills—as it does—so too does developing the project definition.
Within this framework of the world of managing projects, then, what are the issues that concern today's managers?
Current Issues in the Management of Projects
Table 1 categorizes issues that are typically current in a range of project-based industries. The examples are not scientifically derived but are drawn from current personal consulting and academic experience. The key point is, however, that any reading of the technical press, or interviews with executives in these industries, would, I believe, validate that it is issues such as these that are typically dominating management's attention in the projects' field.
| Industry | Issues | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Construction | Partnering, E-commerce, Design management, Standardization, VM and VE, Project management as a discipline, Finance/BOT, Continuous improvement, IT contracts, Organizational learning (OL) | European and US construction majors; Changing roles of UK quality surveying companies and construction management |
| Transport | Systems engineering, Design management, Program management, Health, safety, and environment (HSE), Partnering, Procurement strategy, Overruns | Railtrack; US Program management; Architecture and engineering firms; British airport authorities |
| Oil and Gas | Front end loading, Benchmarking, Partnering, E-commerce, Procurement strategy, HSE, Project management competencies | Shell; BP; DuPont; Chevron |
| Power and Water | BOT, Cost competitiveness, Competencies and joint venture relationships | Enron; PowerGen; Thames Water |
| Electronics | Requirements management, Time-to-market, Risk management, Systems engineering, Marketing, Technology | Nokia; Ericsson; British Telecommunications; WorldCom; Bowthorpe; Dell |
| Pharmaceuticals | Time-to-market, New product development, Project management as a discipline, Role of the project manager, Competencies, OL, Risk management, Portfolio management, Benchmarking | Pfizer; GlaxoWellcome; AstraZeneca; Merck |
| Finance/Banking | Project management as a discipline, Change management, Project support office, Project management methodologies/processes, E-project management (portal support), Benefits management | National Australia Bank Group; Lloyds TSB; Legal and General |
| Software | Requirements, Estimating, Change control, Overruns and poor performance, Competencies, Processes, Testing, Project management methodologies, Change control, Project management role and authority, Maturity models | Unisys; EDS; Andersen Consulting; Microsoft |
| Defense/Aerospace | Requirements, Systems engineering, Partnering, Integrated project teams, Overruns, Concurrent engineering, Processes, IT, Competencies, Processes, Configuration management | BAES; Rolls-Royce; Thomson CSF; Boeing; Lockheed Martin |
Generalizing, issues in today's world of project management might, therefore, typically include the following:
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How do we ensure that our projects develop and deliver successful products?
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How do we accurately capture requirements and effectively manage project development against them?
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How can we develop products more quickly (time-to-market, concurrent engineering) and securely (avoiding overruns and poor performance) and for better value (lower cost, better functionality)?
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How can we better manage design, including requirements capture (briefing), technology selection, documentation/information technology (IT), integration with manufacturing and marketing, and testing?
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What is the appropriate procurement strategy for our projects? Should we be using partnering and if so, where and with what financial incentives? Are we getting the best value for money from our procurement and contract management practices?
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Are we getting optimum productivity throughout the life cycle?
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What is the Internet doing to project management practice? What is e-project management? How will e-commerce affect us? What is e-learning?
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What really are the roles and authorities that we should have in our project management people? How do we build these competencies?
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Do we have the right project management processes and practices in place?
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How does our organization learn and continuously improve?
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Is project management really giving us business benefit? How do we know this?
And so on. The point is that answering these questions is not easy. Sometimes advice can be found that will help in moving things forward. Sometimes, however, research is needed to understand the issues, formulate the proper questions, and begin to get the answers.
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