Four stages of making project management flexible: insight, importance, implementation and improvement

Increased project complexity, project dynamics and changes in clients’ requirements are a few examples that suggest the necessity for flexibility in project management in order to deliver successful projects. Despite the fact that literature suggests adding flexibility to project management, there is no existing framework that provides a practical method for adding flexibility into the practice of project management in the construction industry. Therefore, this research is aimed at proposing a practical framework that helps practitioners in embedding project management flexibility into their project management practice. The research question is as follows: how to embed flexibility in the practice of project management in the early project phases? To answer the research question, four sub-questions have been formulated, which have been separately researched. The main question is answered by proposing a flexibility framework. This framework comprises four stages: understanding the current situation, practitioners’ perspectives on flexible project management, choosing enablers to become flexible and applying selected enablers to improve project performance. The framework is validated using the examples given by practitioners from 24 cases. Considering the movements towards flexibility and adaptability concepts, this research fills the gap in literature by providing a practical framework for project management flexibility. Moreover, it provides a step-by-step guideline for practitioners to embed flexibility in practice

Moving goals and governance in megaprojects

Project management is known for its tools and techniques that are used to plan and deliver projects in a controlled context. Megaprojects don't always fit well into this paradigm due to their size, complexity and longevity. Megaprojects often start without precisely defined goals and without a detailed knowledge of how the project will progress or the outcomes will be delivered. We examine the requirements for governance of megaprojects by reviewing the literature and reflecting on practice. We use the analytical model of where, how and what to illustrate different units of analysis (i.e., context, governance and goals) in megaprojects in three countries and to illustrate how goals and governance move. Building upon the governance and performance management literature, the paper contributes to the understanding of moving goals and governance for ensuring performance. We propose a framework for diagnosing goals and we list six systemic errors that result in a misfit

Public Perspectives on Project Success – Influenced by National Culture?

AbstractProject success, both the determination and the achievement, is a widely discussed subject. Literature seems to agree on one thing: whether a project is considered a success depends on the perspective taken to judge it. But how the public project manager determines the success of his project is not clearly discussed in literature. In 2013 we conducted a research using Q-methodology to reveal which success criteria are important to Dutch public project managers who are in charge of construction projects. In the follow up research, described in this paper, we will extend the research to several European countries. Within the European Union national governments are the largest initiators and clients of large infrastructure projects, which are put up for tender in an international market. In this international context it is essential for private companies, consultancies or contractors, to better understand their public client, in order to come up with internationally competitive bids, successfully collaborate and complete complex projects. The objective of this follow up research is to expose managerial viewpoints on project success in different European countries. The respondents in the research performed early 2014 are governmental project managers, who are responsible for the execution of an internal assignment and who are the representative of the client to the contractor. The position of the respondents in the government organization is similar to the research already carried out in the Netherlands. Based on the research (Hofstede, 2001) into differences in the national culture of countries variations between these countries can be expected. This paper describes the set-up of the study and hypotheses, based on literature, influences of culture on the perception of project success

The interplay of formal integrative mechanisms and relational norms in project collaboration

Collaboration can bring multiple benefits to projects. Real collaboration appears, however, complex to implement. So far, there is no scientific agreement on the importance of the formal and relational (behavioural) sides of project collaboration. Through a qualitative study of two collaborating teams in large engineering and construction projects we uncover the roles of these two sides of collaboration and analyse their interplay. We find that relational and formal aspects of collaboration are complementary, yet each has a distinct role. The formal integrative mechanisms provide an arena for relational norms to be established, and for collaborative behaviours to be practiced and implemented. Relational norms transform traditional project management activities into collaborative, integrative ones. We advance theory of collaboration by offering a holistic and at the same time fine-grained view on it, and stress that project teams need to pay equal attention to both formal and relational sides for collaboration to succeed

Four stages of making project management flexible: insight, importance, implementation and improvement

Increased project complexity, project dynamics and changes in clients’ requirements are a few examples that suggest the necessity for flexibility in project management in order to deliver successful projects. Despite the fact that literature suggests adding flexibility to project management, there is no existing framework that provides a practical method for adding flexibility into the practice of project management in the construction industry. Therefore, this research is aimed at proposing a practical framework that helps practitioners in embedding project management flexibility into their project management practice. The research question is as follows: how to embed flexibility in the practice of project management in the early project phases? To answer the research question, four sub-questions have been formulated, which have been separately researched. The main question is answered by proposing a flexibility framework. This framework comprises four stages: understanding the current situation, practitioners’ perspectives on flexible project management, choosing enablers to become flexible and applying selected enablers to improve project performance. The framework is validated using the examples given by practitioners from 24 cases. Considering the movements towards flexibility and adaptability concepts, this research fills the gap in literature by providing a practical framework for project management flexibility. Moreover, it provides a step-by-step guideline for practitioners to embed flexibility in practice

Integrating Sustainability into Major Infrastructure Projects: Four Perspectives on Sustainable Tunnel Development

Although sustainability is on the agenda of many countries and agencies, it is still a great challenge to properly integrate sustainability into major infrastructure projects, like tunnels. This is remarkable, as it is commonly accepted that the construction and operation of these civil infrastructures have a heavy impact on environmental, economic and social sustainability. In academia, the foregone conclusion seems to point to a lack of vision about sustainability with respect to tunnels. This article presents an empirical study that investigates sustainability ideas amongst tunnel practitioners in the Netherlands. The case was used as a practical environment to get access to tunnel practitioners, to explicitly define the meaning of a sustainable tunnel in its development phase. Perceptions of sustainable tunnels were extracted by means of a commonly accepted research methodology called Q-methodology. By applying this method, four perspectives were obtained: perspectives with a focus on energy, resilience, social or a transitional focus. Each perspective highlights distinct focal points on how to operationalize sustainability for tunnel projects. Each perspective is also accompanied by an anti-focus; how sustainability should not be approached, sometimes contrary to other perspectives. These insights help project practitioners in creating awareness for the existence of different perspectives, and subsequently help to focus project management efforts to implement sustainability in specific projects

Performance measurement in project management

This special collection of papers on performance measurement reports a diverse and broad spectrum of research that challenges conventional views on the ‘age-old’ problem of reconciling tensions between ‘project success’ and ‘project management performance’. A project is often seen as an agent transforming something from a problem to a solution (Locatelli et al., 2023), but the problem of understanding performance remains. Problematisation typically begins with a process to integrate disintegrated areas, value different perspectives that may seem puzzling; present concepts that may seem at odds; introduce coping strategies and increase awareness of biases