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Articles 1 - 30 of 33
Full-Text Articles in Business
Project Management And Organizational Change, Lynn Crawford, Alicia Aitken, Anat Hassner-Nahmias
Project Management And Organizational Change, Lynn Crawford, Alicia Aitken, Anat Hassner-Nahmias
Lynn Crawford
Extract: Organizational changes have become recognized as a distinct type of project or program, and it may be argued that the majority of projects involve some degree of organizational and behavioral 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. However, while project managers claim to be implementers of change, current project management standards focus on change control …
Portfolio Management: The Australian Experience, Aileen Koh, Lynn Crawford
Portfolio Management: The Australian Experience, Aileen Koh, Lynn Crawford
Lynn Crawford
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 …
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 …
Beyond Competence: Developing Managers Of Complex Projects, Lynn Crawford, Ed Hoffman
Beyond Competence: Developing Managers Of Complex Projects, Lynn Crawford, Ed Hoffman
Lynn Crawford
Considerable attention and development activity has been devoted over the last 20 years to determining and codifying, in standards and certification programs, the knowledge and practices that are considered necessary for competent performance of project managers. Although not explicitly stated as such, these efforts are essentially geared toward threshold competence represented by minimum standards for project management knowledge and practice considered necessary for effective workplace performance. Further, they are primarily designed for management of single or stand-alone projects for which goals and methods can be well defined. On such projects, minimum standards for knowledge and practice can provide a shared …
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 …
Managing Projects In Context: Responding To Strategic Drivers, Lynn Crawford, Terry Cooke-Davies
Managing Projects In Context: Responding To Strategic Drivers, Lynn Crawford, Terry Cooke-Davies
Lynn Crawford
Project management as a field of practice initially focused on the standalone project and on development of generic standards, largely ignoring context. This has been challenged by attempts to provide useful categorizations of projects according to their different attributes, including aspects of context, and there is increasing interest in application of different project management approaches according to project type. Recognition of project management as an organizational capability has been a more recent development, but models and standards for organizational project management have been subject to a similar one size fits all approach. Recent research into the value of project management …
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 …
Perceptions Of Effective Project Manager Behaviour, Alicia Aitken, Lynn Crawford
Perceptions Of Effective Project Manager Behaviour, Alicia Aitken, Lynn Crawford
Lynn Crawford
Effective project management is as much about demonstration of appropriate behaviours as it is about the application of project management skills. Practitioners and researchers are interested in understanding the behavioural profile of “superior” project managers. Cheng and Dainty’s (2005) research into the behavioural profile of “superior” project managers is one of the first research steps into this field. This research identified twelve behavioural competencies that distinguished “superior” project managers in a sample drawn from the construction industry. Another aspect of the behavioural characteristics of project managers has been explored by Muller and Turner (2006) in their investigation of the differing …
Coping With Stress: Dispositional Coping Strategies Of Project Managers, Alicia Aitken, Lynn Crawford
Coping With Stress: Dispositional Coping Strategies Of Project Managers, Alicia Aitken, Lynn Crawford
Lynn Crawford
This study explores the relationship between project management practices, control appraisals and dispositional coping strategies used by project managers when dealing with stressful situations. Seventy-one project managers from a global sample participated by completing a web-based questionnaire. Results support the hypotheses that project managers apply more Active Coping and Planning strategies when dealing with stressful situations and that the level of maturity of the organisational practices is related to an increased use of Planning coping strategies. Findings and limitations are discussed. © Copyright Elsevier Ltd and IPMA, 2007
Global Body Of Project Management And Knowledge, Lynn Crawford
Global Body Of Project Management And Knowledge, Lynn Crawford
Lynn Crawford
Extract: This chapter presents an overview of the current principal project management standards and guides for project management knowledge and performance, including a comparison of their content and coverage and an indication of their use in assessment and as a basis for qualifications. Current developments and potential future directions are also reviewed. © Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2007
How Standard Are Standards: An Examination Of Language Emphasis In Project Management Standards, Lynn Crawford, Julien Pollack, David England
How Standard Are Standards: An Examination Of Language Emphasis In Project Management Standards, Lynn Crawford, Julien Pollack, David England
Lynn Crawford
In light of current work toward the development of global standards for project management, this paper analyzes differences between a selection of various countries’ existing project management standards. The analysis is conducted using computational corpus linguistics techniques, resulting in the identification of similarities and differences between the standards of five countries. © Copyright Project Management Institute, 2007
Professional Associations And Global Initiatives, Lynn Crawford
Professional Associations And Global Initiatives, Lynn Crawford
Lynn Crawford
Extract: Communities of practice (Wenger, 1998) are formed when people doing similar things realize they have shared interests. They recognize that there are opportunities to improve both their practices and their performance by sharing knowledge and experience. The project management professional associations as we know them today began in this way: as informal gatherings and forums for networking and exchanging ideas and information. © Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2007
Developing Project Management Capability Of Organizations, Lynn Crawford, J Turner
Developing Project Management Capability Of Organizations, Lynn Crawford, J Turner
Lynn Crawford
Extract: In the realm of multiple projects and programmes, the need for organizational capability becomes obvious if only because the management of outcomes is no longer within the confines of a single project or the responsibility and authority of a single project manager. When an organization recognises that business change and corporate strategy can be delivered through projects, there is realization that project management capability needs to be able to support doing the project right, doing the right projects and doing this consistently across all the organization's projects (Cooke-Davies 2004b). Organizational project management capability is therefore increasingly seen as a …
How Generic Are Project Management Knowledge And Practice?, Lynn Crawford, Julien Pollack
How Generic Are Project Management Knowledge And Practice?, Lynn Crawford, Julien Pollack
Lynn Crawford
At the heart of managing projects is a complex paradox: Projects are widely considered unique endeavors, yet the effort to implement a project usually involves using a generic set of standardized practices. This article examines the complexity involved in relying on standardized practices to manage projects, focusing on conflict of using generalized processes to realize unique endeavors. In doing so, it identifies three types of standards and overviews the literature on the benefits and the problems involved in standardizing project management practices and in implementing these practices to manage projects. It then outlines the responses to a survey that the …
Developing Individual Competence, Lynn Crawford
Developing Individual Competence, Lynn Crawford
Lynn Crawford
Extract: The competence of project management personnel is a subject of concern to businesses and individuals. Businesses realize that the competence of their employees is vital to corporate performance. When coupled with an increasing recognition of the importance of projects in achieving business goals, organizations become concerned with the project management competence of their people. For individuals, job opportunities in project management and increasing demand by business for evidence of project management competence fuels concern for professional development in the interests of employability, career development and job satisfaction. Further, project management professional associations see the certification of the competence of …
Exploring The Role Of Formal Bodies Of Knowledge In Defining A Discipline/Profession, P Morris, L Crawford, D Hodgson, M Shepherd, J Thomas
Exploring The Role Of Formal Bodies Of Knowledge In Defining A Discipline/Profession, P Morris, L Crawford, D Hodgson, M Shepherd, J Thomas
Lynn Crawford
Since the mid 1970s, project management associations around the world have made serious attempts to conduct themselves as professional associations. Traditional professions distinguished themselves by emphasising standards such as service to the public and competence in their field, and by ensuring that their membership meets these standards. An important element of a profession is ownership of a body of knowledge that is distinctive to the professional group. Project management associations have spent considerable time and effort in developing Bodies of Knowledge (BOKs) and their associated certification programs, and indeed the popularity of these has been notable. Yet there are problems, …
Practitioner Development: From Trained Technicians To Reflective Practitioners, Lynn Crawford, Peter Morris, Janice Thomas, Mark Winter
Practitioner Development: From Trained Technicians To Reflective Practitioners, Lynn Crawford, Peter Morris, Janice Thomas, Mark Winter
Lynn Crawford
The EPSRC funded Rethinking Project Management Network produced several insights into new directions for project management theory and practise, highlighting gaps between current theory and practise in several areas. This paper reviews the discussions around project management practitioner development that arose out of this rethinking process where project management is seen as growing from a predominantly technical skill-set to a broader practise of reflectively managing the things needed to provide a successful project outcome. In particular, the paper identifies and addresses the challenges of developing competent project managers in a world exhibiting increasingly complex project challenges, and when skilled resources …
Developing Organizational Project Management Capability: Theory And Practice, Lynn Crawford
Developing Organizational Project Management Capability: Theory And Practice, Lynn Crawford
Lynn Crawford
This paper traces the evolution of conceptions of project management from the use of tools and techniques on standalone projects to the conceptualization of project management as an organizational capability. Working from the premise that project management is a socially constructed field of practice that has developed through the conversations and deliberate efforts of practitioners, principles of discourse analysis are used as a framework for studying the extent to which practice reflects the espoused theories of organizational project management capability development. The actuality of practice is represented by periodic reports over a five-year period by the "owners" of project management …
Aligning Capability With Strategy: Categorizing Projects To Do The Right Projects And To Do Them Right, Lynn Crawford, J Hobbs, John Turner
Aligning Capability With Strategy: Categorizing Projects To Do The Right Projects And To Do Them Right, Lynn Crawford, J Hobbs, John Turner
Lynn Crawford
Organizations achieve project success by both doing the right projects and doing projects right. This article examines the relationship between using project categorization systems and achieving project success. In doing so, it defines the purpose of project categorization systems and describes the challenges in developing such systems. It also reviews the field's literature on categorizing projects. It then outlines this study's six-step methodology to develop a holistic project categorization system, a process that involved a literature survey, focus group meetings, and Web-based questionnaire. It analyzes the findings from both the focus group and the questionnaire; it evaluates the three multi-dimensional …
Uncovering The Trends In Project Management: Journal Emphases Over The Last 10 Years, Lynn Crawford, Julien Pollack, David England
Uncovering The Trends In Project Management: Journal Emphases Over The Last 10 Years, Lynn Crawford, Julien Pollack, David England
Lynn Crawford
The field of project management continues to develop in response to changing emphases in the management community and the demands of new project management application areas. This paper uncovers the trends of emphasis within the project management literature over the period 1994–2003, by analysing articles in the International Journal of Project Management and the Project Management Journal. Trends identified in this study are then compared to trends of emphasis identified in a variety of previous studies of changes to the field. These results are then synthesised to provide a overall impression of how the field is changing. © Copyright Elsevier …
Senior Management Perceptions Of Project Management Competence, Lynn Crawford
Senior Management Perceptions Of Project Management Competence, Lynn Crawford
Lynn Crawford
As more organisations adopt project management approaches and the demand for project managers grows, there is increasing interest in the competence of project managers and in standards for development and assessment of project management competence. Project management standards are being used extensively throughout the world in training and development, professional certification programmes and corporate project management methodologies on the assumption that there is a positive relationship between standards and effective workplace performance. However, there has been no empirical research reported that supports or indeed questions this assumption. This paper reports on research that explores the relationship between performance against standards …