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Abstract While the concept of project success remains largely open nowadays, we introduce here the Phoenix phenomenon, namely a project being both a success and a failure. Our analysis of an automotive vanguard project exhibits key characteristics of a Phoenix phenomenon: the very innovative and ambitious nature of the project; a project management approach that hybridizes causal innovative project development and effectual approaches; the strategic and operational capacity of the company to recover and valorize after the initial failure; and the learnings from and the achievements of the project in renewed scenarios. We conclude that project evaluation must now combine retrospective and prospective assessments methods to evaluate both achieved outcomes and potentialities of a project. Keywords project evaluation, success and failure, innovative development, effectual approach, causal approach, Phoenix phenomenon, serendipity, exaptation process, prospective assessment, retrospective assessment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the quest to improve projects, project actors rely on sound project evaluation. However, project evaluation can be complex and challenging. This study aims to explore and define project evaluation and reveal how it can promote continuous improvements within and across projects and organizations. A review of extant literature finds four constitutive properties for project evaluation: criteria, times, evaluands, and evaluators. Based on the action design research of 75 projects in 21 organizations, the study finds three evaluation perspectives: process, outcome, and learning. Understanding the multidimensionality of project evaluation through the seven identified dimensions offers a meaningful conception of project evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The feasibility process of public construction projects is under the influence of stakeholders, who give direction to public resource allocation. Therefore, the analysis of stakeholders in this process is critical. An inductive qualitative approach was adopted using the grounded theory method to provide a theoretical explanation of stakeholders' behaviors. Under the insight of structuration theory, the results indicated that the challenges are derived from various interrelated factors, leading to the emergence of improper participation as a macro-structural phenomenon with multilateral interaction with a power-oriented relationship as a micro behavior in the feasibility process at the agency level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Closing is a strategic but frequently overlooked project phase, in which project managers play pivotal roles as project team leaders. This study pinpoints project managers’ competences underpinning the effective management of project closing, defined as project managers’ closing competence (PMCC). A conceptual model of how PMCC contributes to project closing performance (PCP) was developed from related literature. Based on questionnaire data from 163 project management practitioners, partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test the model and identify the most influential PMCC dimensions and indicators. The results reveal four PMCC dimensions (i.e., knowledge and skills, external stakeholder management, leadership in project team, and organization-level ability) significantly affecting PCP. The PLS-SEM results also quantify the relative importance of the indicators in each PMCC dimension. Comparing the findings with recent literature, we found that risk awareness, closing contract relationships, helping staff with career planning, participating in project closing decisions, and obtaining support from other departments are crucial aspects of PMCC that deserve more attention in research and practice. The findings heed the call for identifying competences according to project tasks, and operationalize PMCC and PCP into detailed indicators. The proposed PMCC framework also provides practical implications for project manager evaluation and selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose that the project manager is implicitly expected to participate in and contribute to continuous improvement in project-based organizations (PBOs). This article explores how project management literature treats the project manager in relation to improving overall PBO performance. The results, supported by case study insights, indicate implicit expectations of the project manager to contribute to organization-level PBO improvement. We argue that if organization-level improvement should be part of project management practice in PBOs, as promoted in project management literature, the role of improvement agent needs to be formalized for the project manager. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to explore the relationship between the critical success factors (CSFs) and the performance of integrated project delivery (IPD) projects based on empirical data from IPD projects. Data from 16 projects, in relation to 25 success factors and four performance areas (schedule performance, cost performance, defects, and change orders), were gathered and analyzed according to the qualitative comparative analysis method. As a result, this study identifies 17 factors as conditions that frequently occurred in successful IPD projects. This study also derives combinations of factors that led to IPD project success regarding each of the four performance areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personal competencies have been shown to be increasingly reliable predictors of successful project managers. This research studies whether executive coaching is effective in strengthening personal competencies in the project management field. An experiment with 30 project managers and 30 observers has been conducted to determine, by means of a quantitative and qualitative approach, the impact of coaching on different competencies based on the Project Manager Competency Development Framework – Third Edition (Project Management Institute, 2017a). The conclusions reveal interesting insights, such as the finding that executive coaching has the greatest impact on behaviors related to leading, managing, and finding strategies for coping with challenging situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines success factors for a team project. The influence of three success factors—(1) project management tools, (2) project management best practices, and (3) managerial support on the performance of individuals, teams, and projects was measured. We surveyed 121 business students with team project experience. Exploratory factor analysis confirms that success factors (project management tools, project management best practices, and managerial support) in a project tend to respond more to individual team members’ performance compared to team performance and project performance. Our findings indicate that project management tools, project management best practices, and support are equally important to success during project implementation. We also find that harmonious relationships among team members lead to extrinsic motivation within project teams and enhance team and project performance. However, most of the time, the system—not the individual—causes a project to fail. Therefore, this study suggests that project managers make a clear plan and agenda by utilizing project management tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frequent changes pervasively undermine project schedule performance. Despite voluminous research into project delays, however, the persistence of the problem demands that a systemic approach be adopted to investigate design change causation and to explore the efficacy of communications and knowledge as strategic project controls. Drawing on a hybrid research design, the critical variables are identified and mapped onto causal loop diagrams to enable practical holism. The findings indicate that effective project communications engenders collaborative team dynamics and collective learning, whereas project learning contributes to knowledge reuse and the improved expert judgment needed for transforming design change management and schedule control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article suggests a scenario-based approach to properly managing risks duringthe lifetime of a project. The proposal aims at giving the managers a structured processto predict the impact of the occurrence of multiple risks which can affect project performance.This is a product of combining Cross-Impact Analysis (CIA) and Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) mechanics, which improve predictive capacity of existing risk analysis techniques.

The article reports that Megaprojects are often associated with poor delivery performance and also poor benefits realization. This article provides a method of identifying the rigorousmanner, the characteristics related to project management success in megaprojects. Itprovides an investigation of how the stakeholders could use this knowledge to ensure moreeffective design and delivery for megaprojects.

The article reports that Coaching can play an important part in meeting the challenges of project management. However, there remains a lack of research into the project managers' perceptions of coaching and also the opportunities for using it. This grounded theory study explores the awareness and also application of coaching in project managementcontexts.

“There is no right life in the wrong one,” TheodorW. Adorno (1951/2006) concluded in the Minima Moralia. In project management, this idea calls for rethinking the contributions and implications of the discipline for the greater context of society and the life of the individual project manager. What does it mean to be a good project manager and to pursue the right life? And what are we doing to the world? In the end, we will have learned that there is no way to be a good project manager without a systemic perspective on the real world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial on the role of philosophy in project management is presented. Topics discussed include need to have the knowledge of philosophy for project management professionals and academics, changing nature of the world of projects, multiplicity of new philosophical perspectives in project management and need for professionals to define their professional philosophy and improve their profession and practice.

ABSTRACT Innovation project leaders have the challenging role of guiding their team by managing four intertwined processes: developing content, meeting project constraints, stimulating creativity, and guiding group dynamics. This article investigates the role narratives play in leading an innovation project and how an innovation project leader uses stories in practice. We found a variety of stories that relate to all four processes. We argue that the roles of stories can be divided into three different aspects: the story, the storytelling, and the storymaking. Together, these aspects of stories can support managing the four intertwined processes to deliver innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Although concurrency between project development stages is an effective approach to speeding up project progress, previous research recommends concurrent engineering primarily for less complex, incremental projects. As such, in complex radical aircraft development projects, managers opt for less concurrency; however, by using system dynamics modeling, this study shows that less concurrency can contribute to overall project delays, rather than preventing them. The time lost by rework due to early starts of project stages is more than compensated by the time gained by early feedback and faster learning, with positive effects on project completion and subsequent sales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whereas exploration projects stand as important drivers in renewing the assets of the firm and creating new business opportunities, it is well recognized that project evaluation and value management methodologies are likely to kill them. This paper provides elements to solving this paradox. We rely on a longitudinal study of three exploration projects and the projects conducted afterward in the automotive and space industries. The analysis suggests that the value creation process can be regarded and managed as a dual process of potential value creation and value realization. This paper discusses the linkages with existing practices and theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research presents the findings from an experiment that investigated to what extent decision makers suffer from optimism bias when escalating a commitment to failing projects; 345 individuals, involved in project decision making, participated in the experiment. A new form of optimism bias, namely post-project optimism bias, is defined. Post-project optimism bias is an overly optimistic belief that a project will deliver better business benefits than what was planned or that can be proven. It is further confirmed that both post-project and in-project optimism biases have significant effects on the escalation of commitment to failing projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes stock of megaproject management, an emerging and hugely costly field of study, by first answering the question of how large megaprojects are by measuring them in the units of mega, giga, and tera, and concluding with how we are presently entering a new 'tera era' of trillion-dollar projects. Second, total global megaproject spending is assessed, at US$6 to US$9 trillion annually, or 8% of the total global gross domestic product ( GDP), which denotes the biggest investment boom in human history. Third, four 'sublimes'-political, technological, economic, and aesthetic-are identified and used to explain the increased size and frequency of megaprojects. Fourth, the 'iron law of megaprojects' is laid out and documented: Over budget, over time, over and over again. Moreover, the 'break-fix model' of megaproject management is introduced as an explanation of the iron law. Fifth, Albert O. Hirschman's theory of the 'Hiding Hand' is revisited and critiqued as unfounded and corrupting for megaproject thinking in both the academy and policy. Sixth, it is shown how megaprojects are systematically subject to 'survival of the unfittest,' which explains why the worst projects get built rather than the best. Finally, it is argued that the conventional way of managing megaprojects has reached a 'tension point,' in which tradition is being challenged and reform is emerging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International projects involve both uncertainties raised domestically and external risks in international transactions. Through a questionnaire survey and case studies among architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms operating in the Gulf, this study found 36.5% external risk factors that should be contemplated before the award of contracts and 53.9% afterward to ensure smooth running. An external risk breakdown structure (E-RBS) and a framework for foreign AEC firms operating in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states were developed for users to identify and respond to external risks in a more systematic manner. International firms outside Malaysia are strongly advised to use the framework for risk forecasting and mitigation when operating in the Gulf. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the benefits and supports provided by project management methodologies (PMMs) to project managers for the management and delivery of information technology/information system (IT/IS) projects. Using a qualitative approach, through case study strategy, the role of PMMs is examined in different business and project contexts. This article evaluates the benefit of PMMs based on their traits and characteristics and investigates PMMs in their operational context: where PMMs come from and how they support practitioners. The findings suggest a misalignment between the intended benefit of PMMs at the strategic level and the reported benefits by project managers at the project level. Additionally, it is shown that practitioners' expertise, accountability, and attitudes all have a direct influence on the extent to which PMMs contribute to and benefit the management of projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing use of projects and programs by organizations to achieve business strategy and goals has led to the need for understanding project portfolio management. Along with the increasing diffusion of portfolio management, a new managerial role has evolved: the portfolio manager. This new role is pivotal in planning and controlling complex project landscapes more effectively and efficiently. This study investigates the governance structures and the roles, responsibilities, and practices of portfolio managers. A sequential mixed-method approach under a realism paradigm is used. This article presents the first-stage qualitative study, using an inductive interview-based approach with six portfolio managers from six organizations in Australia. The results of six case studies from the qualitative study are used to validate the research model developed based on previous research. It developed the constructs for the concept of portfolio context and the roles, responsibilities, and practices of portfolio managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The management of uncertainty during a project's implementation is not well understood. In general, uncertainties are treated similar to project risks by practitioners and by scholars as negative events threatening a project's implementation. Following the arguments of economists, uncertainties are a necessary condition for the existence of opportunities. This research aims to identify specific classes of opportunities and specific contextual situations under which they occur during the implementation of projects. An exploratory case study of 20 projects was conducted. Different categories of opportunities and uncertainties were identified. All identified opportunities were connected with at least one situation of uncertainty but not every situation of uncertainty relates to opportunities. The cases unveiled that risks are misperceived as uncertainties and some situations of project improvements were misperceived as opportunities. Our study sheds light on the limitations of classic project management and suggests that future project management education needs to include a deeper exposure to business context to better equip project managers for the challenge and opportunity posed by uncertainty during project implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Answering the call for alternative approaches to researching project management, we explore the evaluation of project success from a subjectivist perspective. An in-depth, longitudinal case study of information systems development in a large manufacturing company was used to investigate how various project stakeholders subjectively perceived the project outcome and what evaluation criteria they drew on in doing so. A conceptual framework is developed for understanding and analyzing evaluations of project success, both formal and informal. The framework highlights how different stakeholder perspectives influence the perceived outcome(s) of a project, and how project evaluations may differ between stakeholders and across time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider identification of early warning signs (EWS) in projects. Project professionals are not good at detecting or acting on EWS. Barriers that lead to this are identified. The nature of EWS and their detection change with the evolving situation. Project assessments, typically part of gateways, are useful in identifying EWS connected to the formalities of the project. As complexity increases, assessments have more limited use, and the project is increasingly dependent on detecting EWS by informal 'gut feeling.' Thus, knowledge, experience, and communication skills are increasingly important in complex situations. We conclude with a list of early warning signs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strategic project management is gradually becoming a popular and growing trend within the discipline of project management. The general idea is that project management teams must learn how to deal with the business aspects of their projects, as well as better support their company's business strategy and sustainability, rather than just focus on meeting traditional time, budget, and performance goals. Although this approach has been gaining popularity, strategic project management has not yet become an explicit and widely used approach in the practice of project implementation. One of the concepts mentioned as an important element is project strategy; however, no universal framework or even a clear definition of what project strategy is has so far emerged. The goal of this article is to fill in this gap and provide a useful definition and a framework for the further study and implementation of the project strategy concept. Specifically, to achieve this goal, we first look at the origins of strategy in military and business research to discuss the question of what, exactly, project strategy is; we follow this discussion with an explicit definition of a project strategy. We then outline a framework for building a dedicated project strategy document for an individual project, and show how this framework can guide the project planning and execution processes. Using a case study approach, which included an action research phase, we demonstrate how project teams can adopt the strategy concept in a natural way that would lead their project to better business results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is difficult to evaluate complex, publicly sensitive nuclear project proposals. Scientists, subject matter experts, politicians, and citizens often differ on scope, budget, time, and quality priorities. There are numerous qualitative factors and quantitative variables. Experts could widely disagree on criteria or neglect to discriminate between seemingly identical alternatives. An ineffective portfolio selection method could lead to safety problems, budget overruns, or outright project failures. This case study develops and examines a mixed-method, integrated qualitative and quantitative portfolio selection model, applied to a 'tritium extraction facility' project concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Logical Framework Approach (LFA) has proved to be a valuable tool for project approval, design, and evaluation. However, a few pitfalls make it hard to use within today's project management framework and to integrate with other project management tools. This article proposes an updated version of the LFA to improve its compatibility with today's corporate culture, project management framework, and tools. We propose to call the updated tool the Logical Framework Approach–Millennium (LFA-M). The LFA-M is a seven-step approach leading to the development of the Logframe-Millennium (LF-M), a five-column and four-line matrix describing major project commitments and providing an overall understanding of the project. It was successfully implemented at the Canadian Space Agency and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. The LFA-M fits well within today's project management framework and corporate culture and leads easily to other project management tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Project failure in information systems development continues to plague organizations. A lack of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards for developers may be a cause of such failure. A survey instrument was created using existing project success scales and items based on structured interviews with 12 IS project managers. Two hundred two members of the Project Management Institute completed the survey. After rigorous validation, path analysis (an extension of multiple regression that simultaneously tests more complex relationships) showed that use of intrinsic rewards predicted client satisfaction and perceived quality (but not on-time and within-budget implementation success), whereas use of extrinsic rewards predicted implementation success (but not satisfaction or quality). Future researchers might investigate reasons for these complementary findings. Managers might use the findings in efforts to improve information systems project success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many projects fail, especially IT projects. The only way that companies can get better at performing projects is by learning from projects they have carried out. But traditional practice of holding a lessons-learned session during or following a project may not allow organizations to examine the deep and ‘messy’ reasons why projects fail, particularly with complex projects. Complex projects can best be understood by using modeling, such as cognitive mapping. Cognitive mapping aids identification of causal chains and where these close in on themselves to form positive feedback loops, which helps to understand not only what went wrong, but also the reasons. Cognitive mapping is used to understand the impacts of management decisions on a project, both intended and unintentional. This approach is used here to examine a large software development project carried out by an insurance company which overran its original plan by several years. Some suggestions are made both for using such methods and lessons to be learned for future projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Project management literature treats projects as fundamentally similar. However, empirical studies show that projects are systematically managed differently. Thus, theories on how to manage different types of projects should be developed. This paper focuses on internal renewal projects that are seen as temporary organizations with assignments from a mother organization. This leads to an extended concept of project success. The propositions put forward to identify project success constitute a theory for renewal projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the critical success/failure factors in project management and to examine the relationships between critical success factors and organizational background variables. This study also aims to gain an understanding of how project clients, owners, and sponsors present their needs and expectations to ensure project success. On the basis of the survey responses received, it is possible to identify critical success factors in project management that are significantly related to company/organization size, project size, organization type, and project managers' work experience. The project implementation profile is also analyzed on average and by phases. The results indicate the importance of project communication that is related to company size, however. In contrast to some prior studies, communication was ranked highest in most project phases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A project control system aims to minimize the gap between project planning and project execution in order to achieve project aims, i.e., cost, time, and content. This paper reviews the current literature on project control systems. The first part provides an overview of the nature and importance of project control. The second part deals with current project control tools and techniques, followed by a discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of these systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines and identifies core dimensions of assessment frameworks, including five core requirements for conducting assessments, two key processes of assessing organizations (audit and self-assessment), and two dimensions of improving performance (delivering data and applying data). It discusses the evolution of using maturity models to assess organizational capabilities and the development of maturity models to assess project management competencies. It then outlines a five-level project management maturity model that the authors used to assess the way 550 international organizations practice project management. The paper lists the challenges, advantages, and disadvantages of using this model; it identifies the practices synonymous with improvements in demonstrated maturity. It also compares the results of data collected since this benchmarking study's inception, results that show underlying project management trends, such as changes in organizational capabilities and performance. It reviews the impact of these trends on the studied organizations and the way they manage their projects, it concludes by detailing four key—and unexpected—results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exploratory study focuses on the problem of inter-project integration and how the perceived uncertainty and structural complexity affect the importance of different integration mechanisms used. Four case programs from four companies were chosen as a source of empirical data. Data collection in the selected case programs was multifaceted and included in-depth interviews, questionnaires, and documents and archives. Fifteen integration mechanisms were identified and further categorized into five different classes based on the formality of the mechanism and whether the integration mechanism is personalized or impersonalized in nature. This study provides valuable insights for both researchers and program managers challenged to introduce strategic or large-scale changes in organizations. The study demonstrates that proper mechanisms for inter-project integration are dependent on the uncertainty and complexity of the program, and that the proper integration strategy in multi-project programs should allow the use of various alternative mechanisms for information delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author presents the part 1of the results of ongoing research undertaken in order to investigate the dynamic of evolution of the field of project management. He states that the research will focus on the role within and between organizations of the project, program, and portfolio management discipline. He mentions that the research results of a study are based on the analysis of the EBSCO Publishing database.

An introduction is provided in which the editor discusses topics in the issue including project management, project evaluation, and outsourcing.

ABSTRACT Public-private partnership ( PPP) projects may be organized in a variety of ways, depending on the level of integration of the so-called Special Purpose Vehicle. Based on the analyses of four major PPP light rail projects in Spain, this article outlines two fundamentally different models of organizing the Special Purpose Vehicle in PPP projects; moreover, the article examines the central principles of these two different models of organizing the private sector Special Purpose Vehicle and their implications for risk sharing and project management in large-scale infrastructure PPP projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT When projects fail to adequately meet requirements, organizations are forced to either abandon the project or to initiate a new project to address the original project requirements. Because the organization already has experience with and exposure to many project details, it is possible that the second attempt to address the original requirements (a rework project) will create different challenges for the project team. The purpose of this study was to examine risk indicators for rework projects and to determine whether or not risk indicators were the same or different for rework projects. A risk indicator is a factor that has predictive power about the likelihood of a risk occurring in the course of a project's life cycle. The projects studied for this research were undertaken by a large engineering design organization. The results show that there are some important differences in the types of risk indicators experienced by project managers and project teams in rework projects. Specifically, the risks associated with project urgency, quality, and technological changes were more common in rework projects. By understanding and attending to these differences in rework project risks, project managers will be better equipped to successfully guide rework projects to completion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]