Lavagnon A. Ika

Project success as a topic in project management journals

This article highlights the characteristics of articles on project success published between 1986 and 2004 in the Project Management Journal (PMJ) and the International Journal of Project Management (IJPM). The analysis covers references, concepts like project management success, project success, success criteria, and success factors; features of the samples, data collection, and analysis techniques used; and professional disciplines. The results show that research on project success is characterized by diversity except in epistemological and methodological perspectives. The article suggests a shift to project, portfolio, and program success and concludes with a discussion on the traditional state of the research, criticizes its assumptions, and offers alternative metaphors and recommendations for future research.

Project management in the international development industry

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the empirical relationship between project management (PM) efforts (the extent to which national project coordinators (NPCs) – the project managers in the aid industry sector – make use of available PM tools), project success, and success criteria.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected by way of questionnaires delivered by mail to 600 recipients in 26 different countries in Africa.Findings – The research results suggest that project success is insensitive to the level of project planning efforts but a significant correlation does exist between the use of monitoring and evaluation tools and project “profile,” a success criterion which is an early pointer of project long‐term impact.Research limitations/implications – This paper contributes to PM research by exploring the relationship between the use of PM tools and project success in the non‐traditional PM – although project oriented – aid industry sector. The paper highlights self‐perceptions of...

Foundations of Project Management Research: An Explicit and Six‐Facet Ontological Framework

This article proposes a new, explicit, and integrated ontological framework to stimulate project management research. It suggests that the ontological question should be viewed as a six-facet diamond that represents a set of root assumptions about projects. The article conveys the idea that whenever a project management researcher emphasizes a specific facet, he or she knowingly or unknowingly leaves the other five facets in the dark in his or her research. This article calls for attention on the ground ontological assumptions of project management research in order to transcend the abstract epistemological and methodological debates and concentrate on what really divides the different theoretical positions.

The project planning myth in international development

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to improve understanding and practice of project management by assessing whether two of its core myths also prevail in international development (ID): first, that project managers (PMs) plan fully for project success, including implementation success and end‐user satisfaction; and second, that they can focus on “getting things done”, free of concern for strategic issues.Design/methodology/approach – The analysis of a high‐profile World Bank project and of the policies and rules under which their PMs operate serves as a means to carry out the research. The authors uncover certain “facts” that challenge the myths that prevail in standard project management. Furthermore, they examine how these facts and the corollaries they produce guide the behaviours of PMs differently in the ID field.Findings – In the ID field, and contrary to the standard practice in project management, it is found that: PMs are not involved in overall planning, and are limited to implementation pla...

The empirical relationship between success factors and dimensions

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on a PhD thesis that examined the empirical relationship between a specific set of critical success factors (CSFs), project success, and success dimensions (criteria) from the perspectives of World Bank project supervisors (task managers or task team leaders) and project managers (the national project coordinators). Also, the PhD thesis authors journey and motivation are explained.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected by web questionnaires addressed to 1,421 World Bank task team leaders and paper‐based questionnaires delivered to 600 national project coordinators in 26 different countries in Africa. Principal component and confirmatory factor analyses, multiple correlation and regression analyses, as well as structural equation models were used for data analysis in this study.Findings – First, research findings highlight a specific set of World Bank project CSFs (monitoring, coordination, design, training) and the existence of a second‐order la...

The “management-per-result” approach to international development project design

Results-based management (RBM) has proved to be a valuable tool for international development project management; however, there are some inconsistencies that limit the use of RBM at the design phase to manage for results. This article presents a “management-per-result” approach to reinforcing the project design function of RBM and illustrates its application to a real-life project. Shying away from a technocratic approach, it emphasizes a “quick-and-dirty” approach and proposes an updated version of the logical framework to include success criteria and factors and very rough estimates for both project costs and benefits for targeted project results for different types of projects (infrastructure development, “process” type of project, and so forth).

Rethinking revisited: insights from an early rethinker

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to review and analyze Albert Hirschman’s landmark book Development Projects Observed, share its insights for managing big projects, discuss its theoretical implications and how it may contribute to the current understanding of project behavior, project management (PM), and in what way it may encourage the rethinking of PM. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on an in-depth analysis of Hirschman’s book. The paper draws on the writings of Jeremy Adelman who authored Hirschman’s biography, Cass Sunstein and Michele Alacevich who, respectively, wrote the foreword and afterword of the Brookings Institution classic published in 2014. It also profits from the work of Robert Picciotto who first met Hirschman in 1964, and Bent Flyvbjerg who recently offered a test of validity for Hirschman’s “Hiding Hand” principle. Findings Albert Hirschman was an original thinker and, the authors argue in many ways, a father of PM scholarship. His ideas had profound implications for social sciences and lasting influence in academy, policy, and practice. Although, to a great extent based on studies of projects, his ideas have had surprisingly little impact on modern writings of PM. This paper contributes to amending this weakness in current literature on PM. The authors identify in Hirschman’s book a set of core ideas that possess analytical power for explaining problems in contemporary PM. They include the principle of the Hiding Hand, the power of context, the role of complexity and uncertainty, the unexpected project effects, project traits, and latitudes/disciplines. For all his work and way of research, the authors conclude that Hirschman is not only an early behavioral theorist in PM but equally an early rethinker of PM. Originality/value This is the first paper that offers a discussion of Hirschman’s ideas on contemporary projects, how to understand them, their behavior, including the principle of the Hiding Hand and other important nuggets of wisdom in his research such as the significance of project traits, latitudes, and disciplines. The authors discuss in what respects these ideas may enlighten PM practice and theory. This paper also conveys the novel idea that Hirschman is an early rethinker of PM.

Special Issue: Why Do Projects Fail in Africa?

The question of “Why do projects fail?” is complex and is likely to provoke debate. But if you ask “Why do projects fail in Africa,” the question may trigger passionate responses that can also be t...

The Metaphysical Questions Every Project Practitioner Should Ask

Project practitioners become so familiar with the word project that they think about it more in terms of how it is used, and less in terms of what it really is. But is there such a thing as the project being managed? Whats most real in the project? Whats a project? We raise these questions to contribute a subtler understanding of project management, and to help project practitioners see that their metaphysical stance informs their project management style: A thing-based understanding leads to a planned project management style, and a process-based understanding leads to an emergent management style.