Kam Jugdev

A Retrospective look at our Evolving Understanding of Project Success

Our views on project success have changed over the years from definitions that were limited to the implementation phase of the project life cycle to definitions that reflect an appreciation of success over the entire project and product life cycle. This paper assesses our evolving understanding of project success over the past 40 years and discusses conditions for success, critical success factors and success frameworks. The paper concludes with a holistic view of project success and its implications for practice. This is an important topic because projects are an increasingly common way of work, and the lines between project and process work are harder to discern. Increasingly, more project managers work in companies using program and portfolio management as a means to organize project-related work. The success of individual projects, therefore, impacts the wider organization in several dimensions and makes the concept of project and project management success that much more relevant. The topic is also important because it has a bearing on the future directions of project management in the strategic context.

Distance Education MBA Students: An Investigation into the Use of an Orientation Course to Address Academic and Social Integration Issues.

Distance education programmes warrant the use of innovative intervention practices to enhance student learning experiences. Academic and social empathy by faculty has been shown to enhance student retention in programmes along with their critical thinking abilities. Using Holmberg’s theory of teaching–learning conversations as the guiding theoretical framework, the purpose of this study was to assess whether an intervention activity (a one‐week orientation course) increases academic and social empathy for students entering a distance‐delivered MBA programme. Empathy was measured through seven academic and social integration indicators. Using pre‐surveys and post‐surveys (n = 102), the results reveal that an orientation intervention can be effective for facilitating social and academic empathy.

Through the Looking Glass: Examining Theory Development in Project Management with the Resource-Based View Lens.

Project management is a young discipline and young disciplines tend to lack well-developed theories. This paper examines several topics that help with theory development – the use of a common terminology and holistic frameworks, the importance of avoiding tautologies, and the merits of analogies. To guide the process, the paper draws from a recent empirical study that used the Resource-Based View to study project management as a strategic asset. The paper discusses how these four topics that contribute to theory development were managed in the study. Applying theory construction practices enables us to be more aware of the challenges related to research and improves our understanding of variables as used in conceptual and empirical papers. By applying the Resource-Based View to project management, the paper also shows how we can improve our understanding of project management as a source of competitive advantage.

Looking again at current practice in project management

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a survey designed to: capture the “real world” experiences of people active in project management (PM) in Australia, Canada and the UK; determine the extent to which those involved in the management of projects make use of the methods and techniques that are available; and discover how effective the methods and techniques are felt to be.Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire comprising 24 questions with a mixture of yes/no, Likert‐scale, multiple choice and open questions was developed. These were designed so that the data gathered could be compared with the results of a similar survey conducted in the UK a decade ago. Professional networks and direct e‐mails were used to distribute the survey electronically to potential respondents who were actively involved in PM in the three countries. A total of 150 responses are used in the analysis, 50 from each country.Findings – The results show that there are many areas where the experiences,...

An exploratory study of project success with tools, software and methods.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between project delivery success factors, project management tools, software, and methods.Design/methodology/approach – A statistical analysis was undertaken using data from a survey from a purposive sample of 150 participants across three countries (Australia, Canada and the UK). The findings were used to consider the relationships between project success factors, project management tools, software, and methods.Findings – The findings reveal certain insights in the use of tools and methodologies. Of all the variables measured, the number of project management tools used and the number of risk tools used showed the highest direct correlation. It was therefore surmised that the use of tools from one of these categories is often coincident with the use of tools from the other category. Also, the use of project management tools exhibited less variability as compared to use of information communication technology support tools and risk manage...

Closing the circle: The knowledge management spiral of project management

Using Nonakas conceptual framework, we present empirical findings from a study on project management knowledge-sharing practices. Following a review of key concepts on competitive advantage and project management, we present our theoretical framework and methodology. The paper places our knowledge-sharing spiral findings in the context of an earlier multivariate study. Our findings support the Socialisation-Externalisation- Combination-Internalisation knowledge transfer model, as the majority of the correlations were highest as one moved between the four quadrants; the lowest correlation was between Externalisation and Combination. Although the correlations between the four modes of knowledge sharing did not consistently show strong enough relationships to support the view that project management as a whole was a source of temporary or sustained competitive advantage, the findings support the importance of emphasising knowledge development and sharing among all four quadrants.

Classifying project management resources by complexity and leverage

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual framework to classify project management resources as sources of competitive advantage.Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on the resource‐based view of the firm and project management literature to explore the level of competitive advantage from 17 project management resources based on their degree of complexity and level of leverage in the project management process. This exploratory study drew on a small sample of practitioners in the classification.Findings – The paper proposes a conceptual model to show the relationship between four categories of resources and their contribution to competitive advantage by being valuable, rare, inimitable, and organizationally supported.Research limitations/implications – This paper is exploratory in nature and uses a small sample of practitioners.Practical implications – The authors believe that the classification of project management resources based on complexity and leverage provides a usefu...

Project management assets and project management performance outcomes: Exploratory factor analysis

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine characteristics of project management assets and project management performance outcomes as a step towards exploring the link between assets being valuable, rare, inimitable, and having organizational support and the achievement of competitive advantage. Design/methodology/approach - This paper analyzes data from responses to an online survey by 198 North American Project Management Institute Findings - In total, six factors that comprised the characteristics of project management assets, three factors that comprised organizational support for project management assets, and two factors that comprised the project management performance outcomes were extracted. Research limitations/implications - Limitations of this study include sample size, response rate, and self-report bias, calling for a larger sample in ongoing research. This study is a step towards making the link between project management assets and performance outcomes. Practical implications - This study draws managerial attention to project management assets as sources of competitive advantage, applying the resource based view of the firm that assets are sources of competitive advantage if they add economic value, are rare, are difficult to imitate, and have organizational support. Originality/value - Few papers have applied the resource based view of the firm to examine project management capabilities as a source of competitive advantage. This paper contributes to the literature on the resource based view of the firm and contributes to an improved understanding of project management as a source of competitive advantage.

Bridging situated learning theory to the resource‐based view of project management

Purpose – This paper aims to present a high‐level conceptual framework to strengthen the conceptual bridge between project management and workplace learning by applying situated learning theory to project management practice to guide shared learning within and between projects.Design/methodology/approach – The paper bridges situated learning theory from the workplace learning literature and the resource‐based view (RBV) of project management from the strategic management literature, using them as lenses to view two learning mechanisms in the project management domain, project reviews and communities of practices.Findings – The paper finds that situated learning theory can be applied to project management to highlight processes that enable capability development through shared project learning.Research limitations/implications – This paper is conceptual in nature and intended to make a case for empirical research that draws on workplace learning literature which is useful to project management as there rem...

Debate as a Teaching Strategy in Online Education: A Case Study.

This reflective case study was based on our independent use of the debate as an online instructional approach and our shared interest in instructional techniques. Using narrative inquiry, we melded our data sources to analyze the findings, including our individual experiences with the technique. Our paper contributes to the field of research on instructional techniques (specifically debates), as well as online distance education. The findings suggest that the use of debates as instructional techniques in text-based paced and un-paced courses at the online undergraduate and graduate levels can contribute to improved learning outcomes and student satisfaction.