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Articles 1 - 17 of 17
Full-Text Articles in Business
Extending The Project Management Skillset To Encompass Change Implementation, Lynn Crawford
Extending The Project Management Skillset To Encompass Change Implementation, Lynn Crawford
Lynn Crawford
Project management standards address change control but are largely silent on change implementation. As the majority of projects involve some degree of organizational or behavioural change, and as project management is now applied to implementation of organisational changes as a specific project type, extension of coverage to recognise specific activities and competencies involved in effective change implementation should be considered in review of project management standards. As input to such a review, this paper presents results of research investigating the project and change implementation practices used, in practice, on projects requiring varying degrees of organizational and behavioural change.
Comparing Apples With Apples: Aligning Project Management Capability With Corporate Strategy, Lynn Crawford
Comparing Apples With Apples: Aligning Project Management Capability With Corporate Strategy, Lynn Crawford
Lynn Crawford
It makes little sense for an organization to invest in project management systems that are not directly suited to the nature of their business yet they need some form of guidance to tell them what good looks like. Generic project management maturity models can be a useful starting point but they take no account of differences in context and using them is like comparing apples with oranges. This paper presents results of research that investigates differences in strategic drivers and associated project management practices and outcomes between industries. Results of this research provide input to development of more compelling and …
A Vision For A Longer-Term Future: From Project Managers To “Synthesists”?, Alan Stretton, Lynn Crawford
A Vision For A Longer-Term Future: From Project Managers To “Synthesists”?, Alan Stretton, Lynn Crawford
Lynn Crawford
This paper first gives a snapshot of how some articulate contributors to a broader future-oriented non-management literature perceive the growth of specialization of avocations/ professions. A primary drawback is seen to be a resultant lack of people who are fluent in the language of many different disciplines, and who have the ability to expertly integrate them to achieve broader societal goals – i.e. “synthesists”.Project managers essentially integrate the contributions of many varied disciplines to achieve beneficial outcomes. Therefore project management appears to be extremely well placed to broaden its perspectives, and to develop and consolidate a role as “synthesists” in …
Fitting Project Management Capability To Strategy, Lynn Crawford
Fitting Project Management Capability To Strategy, Lynn Crawford
Lynn Crawford
Project management is now recognized as an organizational capability and there are numerous generic maturity models providing one size fits all approaches to what is considered to be best practice. Both maturity models and best practices are problematic. Maturity models typically suggest that all firms must strive to progressively achieve prescribed levels of practice across the same range of best practices. But what constitutes best practice for whom and under what circumstances? If we look at an organization’s project management systems, although they may have similarities across firms, they are operating in different contexts, driven by different strategies. What may …
Adding Change Implementation To The Project Manager's Toolkit, Lynn Crawford
Adding Change Implementation To The Project Manager's Toolkit, Lynn Crawford
Lynn Crawford
All change initiatives can be considered as projects or programs and the majority of projects involve some degree of organizational and behavioural change. The degree of this change can be expected to be greater in projects where the purpose is to achieve organizational change, but even where the focus is on other outcomes, achievement of desired benefits may require structural changes and will generally involve some change in the way people do things. Project management standards address change control but are largely silent on change implementation. This paper presents results of research investigating the project and change implementation practices used, …
Competencies For Managing Change, Lynn Crawford, Anat Hassner Nahmias
Competencies For Managing Change, Lynn Crawford, Anat Hassner Nahmias
Lynn Crawford
Organisational changes are recognised as a specific project type that can benefit from the application of project management skills, tools and techniques. Associated with this trend is evidence of rivalry in the marketplace between Project Managers and Change Managers concerning who should be managing business change. And these are not the only contenders. Corporate executives and senior managers, although they may engage the assistance of both Project Managers and Change Managers, generally see themselves as taking the leading roles in managing major organisational changes and transformations. As such endeavours are most likely to take the form of programs, comprising multiple …
The Role Of The Pmo, Lynn Crawford
The Role Of The Pmo, Lynn Crawford
Lynn Crawford
For more than 50 years the so-called modern project management has been a continuously growing discipline. Initially developed for the management of major projects in special sectors, it is now part of most industries and organizations. In line with this development, the number and complexity of projects in organizations has increased substantially, enlarging the economic importance of projects. Today, managers not only need to know the basics of project management. Successful project management also requires knowledge of the complex interactions between projects and the permanent part of the organization and of the social processes within and between project teams. For …
A Study Of Project Categorisation Based On Project Management Complexity, Alicia Aitken, Lynn Crawford
A Study Of Project Categorisation Based On Project Management Complexity, Alicia Aitken, Lynn Crawford
Lynn Crawford
This study explores the use of project complexity categorisation as a means of understanding and applying the competencies required to manage projects across a portfolio of project types including projects of an innovative nature. The data for this study includes one hundred and twenty project descriptions and ratings of complexity by project managers of their current (or most recent) project according to project management complexity factors developed to support global project management competency standards. The data was collected as part of a global study into project management competence, complexity and behaviours conducted over the course of 2005 and 2006. This …
Governance And Support In The Sponsorship Of Projects And Programs, Lynn Crawford, Terry Cooke-Davies, Brian Hobbs, Les Labuschagne, Kaye Remington, Ping Chen
Governance And Support In The Sponsorship Of Projects And Programs, Lynn Crawford, Terry Cooke-Davies, Brian Hobbs, Les Labuschagne, Kaye Remington, Ping Chen
Lynn Crawford
Recent research has shown that project failure is often not directly attributable to the performance of project managers and project teams. Sometimes, project failure is caused by contextual factors, such as the breakdown of sponsor governance and support. This paper examines a research study looking at the governance and support issues involved in sponsoring projects and programs, noting the role a project sponsor must play to provide a project's required governance and support. In doing so, it discusses how the international standards for managing projects and the field's recent research perceive the project sponsor's role, particularly as it relates to …
Project Manager Or Change Manager? Who Should Be Managing Organizational Change?, Anat Hassner-Nahmias, Lynn Crawford
Project Manager Or Change Manager? Who Should Be Managing Organizational Change?, Anat Hassner-Nahmias, Lynn Crawford
Lynn Crawford
Projects are an increasingly popular approach to instituting organizational change. But do project managers possess the skills needed to realize significant change? This paper examines a survey of 134 project professionals who have participated in organizational change projects to determine the competencies needed to manage change projects. In doing so, it looks at how behavior influences organizational change efforts, noting the interventions which organizations must perform to change personnel behaviors. It overviews the literature of using projects and programs to realize organizational change, pointing out the practical shortcomings of project and program managers. It defines the role of change manager, …
We're Not In Kansas Anymore, Toto: Mapping The Strange Landscape Of Complexity Theory, And Its Relationship To Project Management, Terry Cooke-Davies, Svetlana Cicmil, Lynn Crawford, Kurt Richardson
We're Not In Kansas Anymore, Toto: Mapping The Strange Landscape Of Complexity Theory, And Its Relationship To Project Management, Terry Cooke-Davies, Svetlana Cicmil, Lynn Crawford, Kurt Richardson
Lynn Crawford
Recent scientific investigations into the behavior of complex dynamical systems are revealing insights that have major implications for expanding the uncodified, prevailing Cartesian/Newton/Enlightenment paradigm which underpins project management practice and research, insights amounting to new ways of thinking and talking about managing complexity and managing projects in ways that may resolve the intractable problems plaguing certain areas of project management. This paper examines a conceptual framework for understanding the complex responsive processes of relating (CRPR), a means of talking about how human beings interact and learn and how their interactions evolve over time and across space, discussing it specifically in …
Governance And Support In The Sponsoring Of Projects And Programs, Lynn Crawford, Terry Cooke-Davies, Brian Hobbs, Les Labuschagne, Kaye Remington, Ping Chen
Governance And Support In The Sponsoring Of Projects And Programs, Lynn Crawford, Terry Cooke-Davies, Brian Hobbs, Les Labuschagne, Kaye Remington, Ping Chen
Lynn Crawford
Several factors have combined to draw attention to the importance of sponsoring projects and programs. One factor is that after several decades of attempting to improve success rates of projects by focusing on project-based management and the project management competence of practitioners, convincing evidence demonstrates that success or failure of projects is not entirely within the control of the project manager and project team. Contextual issues are crucial in influencing the progress and outcomes of projects, and a key theme that has emerged is the importance of top management support. Another factor that has drawn attention to the sponsorship role …
Developing A Basis For Global Reciprocity: Negotiating Between The Many Standards For Project Management, Lynn Crawford, Julien Pollack
Developing A Basis For Global Reciprocity: Negotiating Between The Many Standards For Project Management, Lynn Crawford, Julien Pollack
Lynn Crawford
Professional standards are a significant issue for professions such as IT and Project Management, where certification and licensure are either necessary to practice or to demonstrate individual competence and capability. In many professions there is no basis for international reciprocity of professional standards. This paper documents the development of a standard for global reciprocity between already existing professional standards in the field of Project Management. Data are based on personal involvement by the authors and interviews with participants. This discussion addresses different approaches to standardisation, how common issues in the standardisation process have been addressed, and how the hindering influence …
Project Management Systems: Moving Project Management From An Operational To A Strategic Discipline, Terry Cooke-Davies, Lynn Crawford, Thomas Lechler
Project Management Systems: Moving Project Management From An Operational To A Strategic Discipline, Terry Cooke-Davies, Lynn Crawford, Thomas Lechler
Lynn Crawford
This article illustrates one aspect of the concept of fit between an organization's implementation of project management and its organizational context by exploring how the underlying drivers of an organization's strategy might influence not only the nature of the projects that it undertakes, but also the appropriateness of the arrangements that it makes to manage those projects. Using a model conceptualized from the literature on strategic management, an analysis of four organizations that have made significant investments in project management over the past 5 years supports the hypothesis that the degree of fit between an organization's strategic drivers of value …
Government And Governance: The Value Of Project Management In The Public Sector, Lynn Crawford, Jane Helm
Government And Governance: The Value Of Project Management In The Public Sector, Lynn Crawford, Jane Helm
Lynn Crawford
Governance is an emerging theme that has been associated in the public sector with a real political need to satisfy stakeholders by demonstrating accountability and transparency while effectively implementing policy. Many initiatives relating to governance are generated by a need for improvement of organizational performance and ability to implement and adapt to change. These generally take the form of projects and programs encouraging a variety of project management implementations in the public sector. This article reports on examination of the expectations and realization of value from investment in project management in four Australian public-sector organizations with particular reference to the …
Exploring The Complexity Of Projects: Implications Of Complexity Theory For Project Management Practice, Svetlana Cicmil, Terry Cooke-Davies, Lynn Crawford, Kurt Richardson
Exploring The Complexity Of Projects: Implications Of Complexity Theory For Project Management Practice, Svetlana Cicmil, Terry Cooke-Davies, Lynn Crawford, Kurt Richardson
Lynn Crawford
Exploring the Complexity of Projects: Implications of Complexity Theory for Project Management Practice explores the process and findings of the implications of the complexity theory for project management theory and practice. The golden triangle (project deadline, budget and output) makes the standard definition of project management processes, skills and knowledge paradoxical and divorced from practice. This monograph contains research of management processes and capabilities in innovative project settings and highlights the challenges in contemporary project management practice. This research suggests that in order to define and conceptualize project complexity, the building blocks of project must be more properly defined. These …
Senior Management Perceptions Of Effective Project Manager Behavior: An Exploration Of A Core Set Of Behaviors For Superior Project Managers, Alicia Aitken, Lynn Crawford
Senior Management Perceptions Of Effective Project Manager Behavior: An Exploration Of A Core Set Of Behaviors For Superior Project Managers, Alicia Aitken, Lynn Crawford
Lynn Crawford
Successful project managers continually demonstrate a core set of behaviors that enable them to effectively lead project teams. This paper examines an exploratory study attempting to distinguish the core behaviors--as determined by senior managers--of effective project managers. In doing so, it defines the study's six interview questions that 41 senior managers were asked to answer in relation to 32 personality dimensions and 20 behavioral competencies. It overviews the key previous studies on the behavioral profiles of superior-performing project managers; it explains the authors' research methodology and reports the research findings, identifying the seven necessary personality characteristics common among successful project …