Project Success

This paper proposes a multilevel framework for defining project success that has wide application in practice. There has been much discussion in the literature on the definition of project success but no consensus has emerged. A key problem to be overcome is a multiplicity of expectations of projects and perceptions of their performance. A reference framework for project success would support development of the discipline by providing a common language for communication and comparison as well as facilitating focus on what stakeholders believe is important. The framework is developed from a synthesis of the literature and related stakeholder interests. The framework comprises five levels of success criteria: process success, project management success, product success, business success, and strategic success. Project success is defined as the highest level achieved at any point of assessment, regardless of performance at lower levels. Application of the framework is illustrated with case examples of information systems projects, but the framework is applicable to any discipline.

Foreign investment accounts for the largest proportion of project finance in the Cambodia’s
construction industry, where service providers are increasingly being tasked to be more productive.
Low labour productivity has been identified as a major challenge of the country’s construction
industry. Addressing the constraints to labour productivity in the residential projects is crucial for
improving the productivity of the sector. This study aimed to investigate the key constraints to
labour productivity in residential projects which are specific to the socio-cultural and operational
context of the Cambodia’s residential sector. SPSS-based results showed four principal components
extracted from 36 labour productivity inhibiting factors: Site management, external, workforce and
resource factors. They accounted for 40 per cent, 26 per cent, 16 per cent and 10 per cent,
respectively, of the variance that characterized poor labour productivity output in the sector.
Forefront players who play active role in the project delivery process could ensure successful
completion of projects to time, cost and quality targets by focusing efforts and resources on
addressing issues relating to the most influential constraints identified under the four principal
components as follows: providing good project leadership, ensuring better management of
change orders, eliminating or minimizing defective work and ensuring adequate cash flow.

Organisations are under constant pressure. Externally, they face a scenario of intense competition, coupled with a changing environment which is full of uncertainty. Internally, organisations have to deal with limited resources, whilst at the same time comply with increasing requirements and strategic demands. A key to success is the successful management of organisational projects. According to worldwide studies, information systems and information technology (IS/IT) projects have a relatively low success rate. To face these various business challenges, the authors suggest that emphasis should be put on the integration of various and disperse management tools. By combining project management maturity models with benefits management approaches, we expect to reinforce support for the drive to use organisational projects to fulfill organisations' strategic plans that will enhance the control techniques of project management, whilst recognising the need for organisational change and for ensuring the interpersonal skills necessary to orchestrate the successful completion of a project.

For improving the conditions of project intended purpose and reaching high score in the project success, project Stakeholders (including employer, contractor, consultant and its users) try to comply with the implementation of project Critical Success Factors(CSFs) at the beginning of each project. This implementation is in two terms: economic and executive. Artificial neural networks are one of the new methods which have been developed to estimate and predict parameters by using inherent relationship among data. In this research, it tried to propose a model to determine the project success score by using radial basis neural networks. For reaching this purpose, firstly, the key indicators of project success (employer, contractor and consultant) among the main elements involved in the industry of macro-civil construction projects in Iran reviewed. Secondly, ten CSFs key project success indicators were recognized in five categories: (i) financial, (ii) interaction processes, (iii) manpower, (iv) contract settings and (v) characteristic nature of the project (based on conditions of the present research in Iran). Then, some projects were selected by random sampling of projects operated during the last 5 years in the country's Ministry of Energy. Among those projects, project information was collected by managers of large projects. After training the designed neural network, the project success model was provided based on an assessment of project objectives including factors of Scope, Time, Cost, and Quality of the projects. For facilitating other researches' use, the applied equation of the model was presented as well. Outputs, calculated by the proposed model, were in good agreement with the actual number of projects assessed in Iran. The results of this study may be used as a tool in implementing projects for the rapid assessment of achieving project goals' facilities.

This study examines the impacts of knowledge governance, knowledge sharing and absorptive capacity on project performance, and the moderating role of social processes on the relationships between these variables. These key constructs are synthesized to develop a unique, integrated model of knowledge management in the context of project-based organizations (PBOs). To test the proposed model, cross-sectional data were collected from 133 PBOs in Pakistan’s IT/software industry. The data were analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method. The results indicate positive associations between knowledge governance practices and knowledge sharing, knowledge sharing and absorptive capacity, and absorptive capacity and project performance. Also, social processes are found to moderate the relationship between knowledge management and absorptive capacity and between absorptive capacity and project performance. Based on the results, we propose practical guidelines for PBOs to develop and implement a knowledge management system to improve bottom-line project performance.

This article objective is about to study the impact of project management in obtaining
success of project completion. . The study has three objectives which are to identify the
impact of feasibility study on project success, to examine the impact of managerial
activities on success of project, to identify the role of project manager in project success.
To study effect of human resource management (HRM) on project success the researcher
applied convenient sampling to collect 100 questionnaires from Warangal region. The
respondents of the Warangal region were provided with main constructs which are used
to measuring the feasibility of the study, Managerial activity such as planning, staffing,
coordination and controlling activities, Human Resource Management as well as success
of project. However, using regression analysis and correlation, the study found that all
dimensions of independent factors have positive relationship with dependent factor which
project success.

Healthcare organisations must improve their business practices and internal procedures in order to answer the increasing demand of health professionals and the general public for more and better information. Hospitals invest massively in information systems and technology (IS/IT) in the hope that these investments will improve healthcare and meet patients' demands. The main objective of our research is to study how organisational maturity, enhanced by investments in IS/IT, project management and best practices, leads to successful projects in public healthcare organisations. The rational of our model is that organisational maturity has a positive effect on IS/IT project success, and that this success is also positively enhanced by the use of project management practices. We emphasise that this combination of approaches can increase the effectiveness of projects. Furthermore, it can also improve the confidence that the results of investments will meet stakeholders' expectations.

El objetivo de este trabajo consistió en evaluar mediante juicio de expertos las relaciones entre proyectos exitosos y ciertos factores potencialmente asociados a dicho éxito entre los que destaca la influencia de la cultura organizacional, tal como se contempla en el modelo SPV (Centeno y Serafín, 2006). Para tal fin, se llevó a cabo una investigación de campo realizada a través de encuestas enviadas por correo electrónico (e-mail) a 1500 expertos a nivel mundial. La población se conformó con miembros de asociaciones profesionales de gerencia de proyectos, docentes e investigadores en las áreas de gerencia y cultura organizacional. Los miembros de la población se muestrearon por auto selección, obteniéndose 100 encuestas válidas que corresponden al 95,2% del total de 105 respuestas proporcionadas. El número de respuestas proporcionadas equivale a una muestra incidental del 7% de la población meta. Las variables objeto de estudio fueron: 1) factores de éxito en los proyectos, 2) interacción equipo de proyectos-gerente de proyectos, y 3) éxito en ejecución de proyectos; se midieron en un nivel ordinal y se analizaron con estadística descriptiva, a través de la mediana, desviación medianal y análisis de Pareto. Los datos se recolectaron a través de un cuestionario, en inglés o español, compuesto por 41 ítems para responder marcando una entre cinco opciones ordenadas. La validez de contenido facial del instrumento arrojó un coeficientes de proporción de rangos (cpr) total corregido de 0,884, también se realizó una prueba piloto del instrumento en español sobre 16 estudiantes de postgrado resultando un acronbach de 0,790. Así mismo, se efectuó una pregunta abierta a cuyas respuestas codificadas se les determinaron distribuciones de frecuencias absolutas y porcentuales para reflejar su importancia. Se concluyó que los argumentos que justifican las relaciones y elementos del modelo SPV son sólidos por la suficiencia y relevancia de las respuestas, así como la credibilidad de los encuestados. La investigación determinó que existe conciencia acerca del efecto de una cultura organizacional promotora de gestión por proyectos en la efectividad del equipo aunque con poco dominio en las teorías asociadas al tópico, por lo que se recomienda mayor difusión y formación al respecto. A la luz de los hallazgos, se exhorta a toda organización a evaluar su cultura corporativa como paso previo a la implementación de la gestión por proyectos en virtud del resultado favorable de la evaluación intersubjetiva efectuada al modelo SPV. Finalmente, se sugiere modificar el modelo SPV a fin de añadir manejo del cambio como competencia del gerente e incorporar a los clientes como elemento tangible del modelo.

The project manager’s personality traits directly impact the success of the projects to a great extent. The literature reveals that all the famous projects were led and managed by great personalities. Big Five Personality Traits of the project managers at all tiers have an overriding role in deciding the project performance. This paper endeavors to unearth the impact of project manager’s personality through Five Factor Model upon the project success. Regression analysis of the empirical data; collected from 170 people, engaged with projects, validates the hypothesized research model. The results suggest that Big Five Personality Factors i.e. Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability and Openness to Experience can be used as determinants of the project’s success. The research can be applied in two ways, firstly to ascertain the success of the project and secondly, it may be helpful in selection of the project managers. This research is based on a limited and narrow sample size and demands further validating exploration through a larger and wider sample size.

A comprehensive answer to the question of which factors are critical to project success depends on answering three separate questions: ''What factors lead to project management success?'', ''What factors lead to a successful project?'' and ''What factors lead to consistently successful projects?'' This paper draws on new empirical research from more than 70 large multi-national or national organizations to answer each of these three questions, and to identify 12 factors that are, in one way or another, critical to project success. #

Over the last decade, health systems have faced growing challenges, due mainly to population-ageing and an increase of chronic diseases, which lead to a significant rise in costs and difficulties in accessing healthcare. Countries have made a huge effort that has mainly consisted in significant increase in health financing the expansion of health services facilities, the adoption of new information systems and technology (IS/IT), improving access to medicines, and continued endeavours to enhance organizational management and the sustainability of healthcare services. IS/IT will undoubtedly represent an important tool for providing adequate answers to all these challenges and these systems have the potential to reduce healthcare costs, as well as to improve outcomes. The recognition of project management and maturity models has been evidenced over the last years by the large investments made by health organizations to develop competencies and skills. This paper proposes a new approach, which assumes that project management will mediate the relationship between organisational maturity and the success of IS/IT projects. The questionnaire developed for this research was pre-tested. The advantages of this procedure are discussed in detail. The results allowed for a more reliable definition of the three scales that support the analytical model.

The project management profession is growing rapidly. There are different project management methodologies available in the world. Different companies follow different methodologies. However, in all these methodologies, some common steps are followed such as project planning, project execution, progress tracking, status reporting and closing project, etc. This article explains these common project management steps followed by the majority of the organizations.

Project management information systems (PMIS) usually acquired by organizations as software packages are meant to provide managers with the decision-making support needed in planning, organizing, and controlling projects. However, the actual contribution of PMIS to project success or performance is still unknown. The purpose of this study is to empirically assess the quality of the PMIS presently used in organizations and to examine their impact on project managers and project performance, based on a PMIS success model. This model is composed of five constructs: the quality of the PMIS, the quality of the PMIS information output, the use of the PMIS, the individual impacts of the PMIS and the impacts of the PMIS on project success. Analysis of questionnaire data obtained from 39 project managers confirms the significant contribution of PMIS to successful project management. Improvements in effectiveness and efficiency in managerial tasks were observed here in terms of better project planning, scheduling, monitoring, and control. Improvements were also observed in terms of timelier decision-making. Advantages obtained from PMIS use are not limited to individual performance but also include project performance. These systems were found to have direct impacts on project success, as they contribute to improving budget control and meeting project deadlines as well as fulfilling technical specifications.

The main purpose of the study was to determine the effect of project managers' transformational and transactional leadership on Project Success in County governments. The study adopted explanatory research design. The target population of the study was 57 project managers in county governments of north rift Kenya. The primary data for the study was obtained using questionnaires. Data was analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis. The findings showed that transformational leadership (β 1 = 0.361, P<0.05) and transactional leadership (β 2 = 0.457, p< 0.05) had significant effect on project success. This implies that it is important for supervisors to understand the project managers' situation and give them encouragement and assistance. Additionally, project managers need to be encouraged to take up the challenges and think about problems from a new perspective. There is therefore need for supervisors to ensure that the rewards offered to project managers capture their attention so that it can provide effective motivation to work towards attaining project success.

This article contributes to understanding of the role of strategic project management as a pillar of organization success. Successful project management appears to be deliberate strategic choice of organization's decision makers in order to survive in the fast changing external environment. The general idea is that project management teams must consider other project success criteria, as well as better support their organization's business strategy, rather than just focus on meeting traditional time, budget, and performance goals. This paper reviews the literature relevant to strategic project management, with emphasis towards project strategy as a link between business strategy and project plan.

Nowadays the investments made by the health system to get better organizational performance are crucial and difficult to perform. So, it´s more and more important that the business-cases underline not only the short-term objectives, but also the long-term benefits that promotes good services for organizations and their users. The main objective of our research is to study how organizational maturity, enhanced by investments on information systems and technology (IS/IT) and project management best practices, leads to successful projects in health system organizations. The rational of our model is that organizational maturity has a positive effect on projects success, and that this success is also positively mediated by project management practices. We emphasize that the combination of a maturity model and a project management approach can increase the effectiveness of projects. Besides, it can also improve confidence that the results of investments meet the stakeholder's expectations, by collecting benefits and allowing a perceived value for the organizations.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show that project success is dependent on the project management approach selected, relative to the challenges posed by the project, and to develop an analytical model for analyzing the performance of the project organization. Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on literature review, model development, interviews, and case studies.Findings – The findings define two different approaches in project management: The prescriptive approach focusses on the formal qualities of the project organization, including governing documentation and procedures. The adaptive approach focusses on the process of developing and improving a project organization, project culture and team commitment. The two approaches have been identified through studies of three different case projects. An analytical model, referred to as the Pentagon model, has been applied for analyzing the performance of the project organization and explaining the project management approach. The model focusses on five different organizational aspects: structure, technologies, culture, social relations and networks, and interaction.Research limitations/implications – The research is limited to megaprojects and to project management success.Practical implications – It is suggested that project teams consider and select their project management approach at project initiation, and accordingly decide on relevant success factors to focus on. The adapted Pentagon model can be applied to develop the project management organization and assess its performance in the course of project delivery.Originality/value – The contribution of the research is the application of the analytical model, and the identification as well as illustration of the prescriptive, vs adaptive management approach

Despite the growing interest in the study of project management, little research has explored the complexity of project success criteria, critical factors of project success and failure, and project management and monitoring tools, even less in a context of management and protection of sub-watersheds. Given the current situation, questions are asked about the contribution of management and monitoring tools to the success of watershed management and protection projects and about the definition of the best means to reduce the factors of failure and increase the success factors of sub-watersheds management projects of the Citadelle/Sans-Souci/Ramiers National Historic Park (PNH-CSSR). Faced with these questions, the main objective of this research is to propose a model to assess the factors of success and failure in the management of organizational and municipal projects for the development and protection of the sub-watersheds of the Citadelle/Sans-Souci/Ramiers National Historic Park (PNH-CSSR).

A review of the literature on the success and failure factors of organizational and municipal watershed management or protection projects was carried out. This review highlights the main lines of project management and its main approaches. Also, it highlights the factors of failure and success of projects and watershed management followed by their main approaches. To do this, a mixed (qualitative and quantitative) approach is favored by means of a scientific method of systematic observation, with the use of three (3) data collection methods (direct observation, the survey by self-enumeration and questionnaires assisted by interviewer). The data collected from the two samples (project managers and project beneficiaries) were processed according to the Statistics Canada approach.

Indeed, the results revealed that stakeholder satisfaction and the use of a socio-economic development approach for farms and homes in the project area are the two (2) main key success factors of management and protection of sub-watersheds projects. They also revealed new elements in the factors of failure, in particular free breeding, burning practices, illegal extraction of rocks from sub-watersheds, scope of sub-watershed management projects on farms in indirect tenure mode, the rainfall dependence of agroforestry sub-watershed development projects, the divergence of the potentialities and the physical, economic and social characteristics of the PNHCSSR with the nature of the projects, the use of stakeholder participation as targets or means of mplementing decisions taken without them, the scope of projects on subsistence farming, ignorance of environmental protection measures by the populations of the watersheds, and limiting factors related to soil nutrient quality and water resources.

In addition, if the use of the Excel planning and design tool and the Benefits Realization, Critical Chain Project Management, Critical Path Method and LEAN approaches have been the most identified with regard to the management and monitoring of these projects, it emerges that the tools and approaches for project management and monitoring are relatively little used and sometimes even unrecognizable in all the development and protection projects of the sub-watersheds studied.

This research brings two (2) major contributions. It enriches the theoretical corpus on the critical factors of success and failure of projects, including the use of project management and monitoring tools. Then, it offers project managers a model to assess the success and failure factors in the management of organizational and municipal projects for the development (management) and protection of the sub-watersheds, which model can be adapted to different types of projects depending on the modeling of the factor breakdown structure (FBS).


RÉSUMÉ EN FRANÇAIS

Malgré l'intérêt grandissant pour l'étude de la gestion de projets, peu de recherches ont exploré toute la complexité des critères de succès des projets, des facteurs critiques de succès et d’échec des projets, et des outils de gestion et de suivi des projets, encore moins dans un contexte d’aménagement et de protection des sous-bassins versants. Vu la situation actuelle, on se pose des questions sur la contribution des outils de gestion et de suivi dans la réussite des projets d’aménagement et de protection des bassins versants et sur la définition des meilleurs moyens pour diminuer les facteurs d’échec et augmenter les facteurs de réussite des projets organisationnels et municipaux d’aménagement des sous-bassins versants du Parc National Historique Citadelle/Sans-Souci/Ramiers (PNH-CSSR). Face à ces questions, la présente recherche se donne pour principal objectif de proposer un modèle pour apprécier les facteurs de succès et d’échec dans la gestion des projets organisationnels et municipaux d’aménagement et de protection des sous-bassins versants du Parc National Historique Citadelle/Sans-Souci/Ramiers (PNH-CSSR). 

Un examen de la littérature sur les facteurs d’échec et de réussite des projets organisationnels et municipaux d’aménagement ou de protection des bassins versants a été effectué. Cet examen fait ressortir les grandes lignes de la gestion de projets et ses principales approches. Aussi, il fait apparaitre les facteurs d’échec et succès des projets et la gestion des bassins versants suivie de leurs principales approches. Pour ce faire, une approche mixte (qualitative et quantitative) est privilégiée au moyen d'une méthode scientifique d’observation systématique, avec l’utilisation de trois (3) méthodes de collecte des données (observation directe, l’enquête par auto-dénombrement et questionnaires assistés par intervieweur). Les données recueillies auprès des deux échantillons (gestionnaires de projets et bénéficiaires des projets) ont été traitées selon l’approche de Statistique Canada.

En effet, les résultats ont révélé que la satisfaction des parties prenantes et l’utilisation d’une approche de développement socioéconomique des exploitations agricoles et des habitations de la zone des projets constituent les deux (2) principaux facteurs clés de succès des projets d’aménagement et de protection des sous-bassins versants. Ils ont aussi révélé des éléments nouveaux chez les facteurs d’échec, notamment l’élevage libre, les pratiques du brulis, l’extraction illicite des roches sur les sous-bassins versants, la portée des projets d’aménagement des sous-bassins versants sur des exploitations en mode de tenure indirecte, la dépendance pluviométrique des projets d’aménagement des sous-bassins versants à caractère agroforestier, la divergence des potentialités et des caractéristiques physiques, économiques et sociales du PNH-CSSR avec la nature des projets, l’utilisation de la participation des parties prenantes comme des cibles ou des moyens de mise en œuvre des décisions prises sans eux, la portée des projets sur des exploitations d’agriculture vivrière, l’ignorance des mesures de protection environnementale par les populations des bassins versants, et les facteurs limitants liés à la qualité des sols en termes d’éléments nutritifs et aux ressources en eau.

En outre, si l’utilisation de l’outil de planification et de design Excel et des approches Benefits Realization, Critical Chain Project Management, Critical Path Method et LEAN ont été les plus identifiés en qui concerne la gestion et le suivi de ces projets, il en ressort que les outils et les approches de gestion et de suivi des  projets sont relativement très peu utilisés et parfois même méconnaissables dans l’ensemble des projets d’aménagement et de protection des sous-bassins versants étudié.

Cette recherche apporte deux (2) contributions majeures. Elle permet d'enrichir le corpus théorique sur les facteurs critiques de succès et d’échec des projets y compris de l’utilisation des outils de gestion et de suivi des projets. Ensuite, elle propose aux gestionnaires de projets un modèle pour apprécier les facteurs de succès et d’échec dans la gestion des projets organisationnels et municipaux d’aménagement et de protection des sous-bassins versants, lequel modèle peut être adapté à différents types de projets selon la modélisation de l’organigramme technique des facteurs.

Purpose: This paper explores the relationship between an ISO 9000 certified quality management system (QMS) and elements of performance in construction project environments. Design/methodology/approach: A survey based approach is used to collect data from project managers working in the Malaysian construction sector in both ISO 9000 certified and non-certified organisations. Three elements of performance are explored: project management (PM) practices, financial management (FM) practices and Project Success. The Project Management Performance Assessment model (PMPA) is used as the framework for assessing PM Practices. 336 completed questionnaires are analysed, with a group of 73 being from ISO 9000 certified companies (a response rate of 48.3%) and a group of 262 being from non-certified companies (response rate = 32.6%). MANOVA are used to explore differences in levels of performance between the two groups. Findings: Overall there is significance difference in mean scores at the 5% level in respect of each of the PM and FM Practice elements of performance, indicating that ISO 9000 certified companies have enhanced levels of performance in their project environments compared to those in non-certified companies. The two exceptions are the PM Practice related to establishing partnerships and managing resources and the FM Practice related to allowing for inflation and price escalations. The results also indicate that ISO 9000 certification has a positive moderating effect on the casual relationship between PM Practices and Project Success. Based on the survey results a Project Management Performance Assessment for Construction (PMPAC) model is developed, which extends the PMPA to include performance enablers linked to financial management activities.

Currently, many organisations experience challenges as a result of uncertainty, fast-changing environments, globalisation, and increasingly complex work tasks. In order to adapt to these challenges, a shift in leadership style may be needed. Traditionally, leadership has been seen as a vertical relationship (top-down influence). For a number of decades, this vertical leadership model has been the principal one in the leadership field; but lately, shared and balanced leadership have gained importance, especially in the project management literature. This theoretical study highlights some differences between 'leadership' and 'management', and explores current trends in the leadership literature. It especially focuses on vertical, shared, and balanced leadership in project management, and identifies future opportunities for research. OPSOMMING Baie organisasies ervaar vandag uitdagings as gevolg van onsekerheid, vinnig-veranderende omgewings, globalisering, en toenemend komplekse werkstake. 'n Verskuiwing in leierskapstyl mag nodig wees om aan te pas by hierdie uitdagings. Tradisioneel was leierskap gesien as 'n vertikale verhouding (bo-na-onder invloed), en hierdie vertikale leierskapsmodel was die vernaamste een in die leierskapsveld vir baie jare. Gedeelde en gebalanseerde leierskap het onlangs begin om belangrik te word, veral in die projekbestuursliteratuur. Hierdie teoretiese studie bespreek sommige verskille tussen leierskap en bestuur, en ondersoek die onlangse rigtings in die leierskapsliteratuur. Dit fokus veral op vertikale, gedeelde, en gebalanseerde leierskap in projekbestuur, en identifiseer toekomstige geleenthede vir navorsing.

Leadership traditionally centred around the idea of a “person in charge” leading subordinates / team members (i.e. vertical leadership), however recent literature indicates that leadership may be shared in a team by assigning the leadership role to the person with the most appropriate knowledge, skills and abilities needed by the project at any specific time (i.e. shared leadership). Shared leadership does however, not substitute vertical leadership – the two concepts are extremes on a continuum and complement each other. Although the leadership responsibility formally rests with the project manager, it is regularly assumed by team members to lead temporarily in order to solve a technical or other issue, and then handed back to the project manager. A contemporary stream of literature defines this process as balanced leadership.

This thesis investigates how different project types and project life cycle phases may influence the choice of leadership style. It also confirms that an appropriate balance between vertical and shared leadership improves the likelihood of project management success. A new Leadership Style Model is proposed and the thesis contributes to answering the main research question:

How does the leadership style influence perceived project management success?

To answer the above over-arching question, three sub-questions were formulated and addressed in Chapters 3 to 6:

 How do different project types (pace, complexity, novelty and technological uncertainty) influence the balance on the continuum between vertical and
shared leadership?
 How do different project life-cycle phases (pre-execution, execution and post-execution) influence the balance between vertical and shared leadership?
 How does an appropriate balance between vertical and shared leadership influence the likelihood of perceived project management success?

A web-based, self-administered questionnaire was distributed to people working on South African projects, and 313 complete responses were received. The collected
data were analysed by applying hypothesis testing techniques and cross-tabulation.

The study confirms that an appropriate balance between vertical and shared leadership styles improves the likelihood of project management success. The more
complex, and the higher the levels of technology employed, the more shared the leadership style should be. On the other hand, the higher paced projects require a more vertical leadership style. Respondents indicated that highly novel projects callfor a more vertical leadership style – this contradicted the hypothesised leadership balance -possible reasons for this deviation are provided in Chapters 4 and 6.

A further finding of the study is that during the post-execution phase, the leadership style should move towards more shared leadership than in prior stages. However,
respondents were uncertain of the influence of the other project phases (pre-execution and execution) on the appropriate balance of leadership style. Various
reasons for this uncertainty are provided in Chapters 5 and 6.

The thesis presents a new perspective on the influence of project type and project life cycle phases on the appropriate balance between vertical and shared leadership. Furthermore, it gives insights into the influence of an appropriate balance of leadership on the likelihood of perceived project management success.

The Project Leadership Style (PLS) Model presented in this thesis, explains how the variables of project types and project life cycle phases relate to different leadership
styles (vertical and shared leadership), and it also guides the practitioner to selecting appropriate leadership styles for specific project situations.

The main endeavor of this study was to explore and uncover the correlations between Leadership competencies and productive performance in project management. The aspiration was to shed light on key leadership attributes critical for project success and to underline the significance of implementing these competencies in a project environment. This research study begins with a focus on the value of general Project leadership and elaborates on the effectives of leadership skills of a Project manager. In today’s world of multitasking and constant development, leaders are a fundamental component for any organization to succeed. Leaders take on large responsibilities and move organizations forward.

This research underlines that, in the field of project management, leadership is typically more crucial, due to the involvement and constant integration of multiple projects in organizations. The unique demand and integration of projects creates a need of having qualified project managers, in particular leaders that bring a set of positive attributes to the project and the organization. In principle, the research model along with an insightful survey has been developed applying relevant qualitative and quantitative technicalities to further support and validate the data that was explored and evaluated in this research thesis. Within the confinements of these studies, the objective was to uncover the key constructive factors that project managers ought to exercise to achieve effectiveness in project milestones. It was found that the dimensions of Leadership have different effects on the Project constraints. Each dimension has its positive and negative effects and should be carefully monitored for ensuring success of the Project.

The challenges that health organisations face today is to get better organisational performance, reliable information, faster quality services at prices that should be affordable to the entire population. To fulfil this important goal, health organisations require more comprehensive and integrated approaches such as, but not limited to, optimise their available resources, eliminate inefficiencies and achieve the planned benefits from investments in Information Systems and Technology (IS/IT). Healthcare organisations must improve their management practices and internal procedures to answer the increasing demand of managers, health professionals and the public in general, for more and better information. Health organisations adopt a patient-centred care approach and invest massively in IS/IT, hoping that these investments will improve medical care and patient needs. The main objective of our research is to analyse how the Organisational Maturity affect IS/IT Project Success in Healthcare and if that success is enhanced by using Project Management practices. There is evidence that there is a direct relationship between these variables and that Project Management practices can mediate it, helping to increase the effectiveness of IS/IT projects. Furthermore, the application of the Project Management practices can also improve confidence that the results of these investments meet stakeholders’ expectations, both by the benefits accomplishment and by adding a perceived value to organisations. This study develops and validates an instrument to analyse the data collected from a survey to professionals’ perceptions about the IS/IT Project Success in Healthcare organisations. The results confirm that Project Management has a mediating effect on the relationship between Organizational Maturity and success of IS/IT projects and higher levels of Organisational Maturity will generate more successfully IS/IT projects, although the presence of the mediator Project Management can, in specific situations, affect negatively the correlation between Organisational Maturity and IS/IT Project Success.

A common dilemma management faces in managing projects, programs and portfolios are the continued rates of failure of projects and programs within those portfolios. Numerous studies have been done on what constitutes project/program success and a review of this literature by Cooke-Davies in his chapter entitled “Project success” in The Wiley guide to managing projects (2004, pp. 106-109) led him to postulate that there were really three levels of success related to projects, which in turn reflected upon an organization’s success: (a) "Project management success -- was the project done right?" (b) "Project success -- was the right project done?" and, (c)"Consistent project success – were the right projects done right, time after time?"
Looking at these three factors denoting success, the questions of whether a particular project was done right and doing projects consistently is clearly in the hands of the project/program manager and their use of project management (PjM) processes, program management (PgM) processes, and key artifacts used in these processes. Whereas, the question of doing the right projects falls under the purview of a relatively recent field of study that has risen out of the project management discipline: portfolio management (PfM). The project/program manager plays a key role in each of the three disciplines, and in many cases, has a hand in the development and maintenance of the key artifacts used by the three disciplines.
This study provides practitioners and scholars with quantitative research to aid them in their study and use of the PfM, PM and PgM processes, artifacts, and execution of roles within the three sets of processes. This study also begins to fill the gap that currently
exists in the literature, especially with regard to quantitative research-based studies on the intersection of the PfM, PM and PgM processes and artifacts.

Drawing on social exchange theory, this research investigated the processes underlying the linkage between servant leadership and project success. Specifically, we tested two distinct mediating mechanisms: project work withdrawal and work engagement that have received limited attention in the project management literature. The proposed parallel mediation model was tested using survey data from 247 project management practitioners. The findings suggest that enhanced followers' work engagement and reduced project work withdrawal mediate the relationship between servant leadership and project success. Further, we found that project work withdrawal has a relatively stronger mediating effect in the servant leadership―project success relationship. The results shed light on the beneficial consequences of servant leadership on project success by engaging followers in daily project operations and reducing costs to the organization by diminishing project work withdrawal. We further posit that servant leadership may be an effective style for addressing the inherent challenges faced by managers in most projects.

This thesis aims to shed light on two streams of project management research that are rapidly gaining importance: the first is project governance and the second is the emerging concept of Benefits Realization Management (BRM). Both concepts are at the forefront of the fairly recent drive to revisit and re-conceptualize the theory and practice of project management, as evidenced by comprehensive initiatives such as Rethinking Project Management, which was a two-year research program (2004-2006) funded by the UK Government that involved a research network of academicians and practitioners working to extend and enrich project management theory in accordance with the developing practice. A key recommendation of said initiative is to shift focus from product creation to value creation. This is fueled by the increasingly large body of evidence that the majority of projects fail to meet success criteria. Adding to the urgency is the increasing pressure from business managers for projects to justify their value contribution to the organization. In this context, project governance and BRM are vital for ensuring that projects deliver expected business benefits and value. In doing so, these concepts help align project outcomes with organizational strategy.

This study aims to address an important gap in the literature: the relationships between project governance and BRM, and their effects on project success. These relationships were studied based on 326 responses from Pakistan’s burgeoning IT & Software sector, which is increasingly becoming vital for the country’s future economic growth as Pakistan transitions from an industrial to service-based economy. The findings of this study indicate that the aspects of project governance included in this study have a positive significant effect on both BRM and Project Success. Also, it is found that BRM mediates the relationship between two aspects of project governance, namely Relational Governance and Governance of Project Management (GoPM), and Project Success. The results supports the overall proposition of this study that strong project governance creates the context in which effective BRM can occur.

For the theory of project management, specifically project governance and BRM, this study hopes to contribute much needed empirical evidence to the literature and responds to recent calls for research on BRM. Additionally, this study attempts to adapt a scale for the GoPM concept, which fills an important gap in the existing operationalizations of different aspects of project governance and may prove useful for future academic studies.

For the practice of project management, this study hopes to initiate a discussion on how project governance and BRM may be integrated to support the achievement of organizational strategic objectives through projects and programs. Furthermore, this research aims to assess the current levels of, and create awareness of the developments in, project governance and BRM in Pakistan. This should help organizations to not only improve the success rates of their projects but also to extract business value from projects.

Research on projects and their success have pondered on many dimensions related to the management of projects in various sectors and the resultant outcomes. Project success studies concentrated on management systems in place for projects as well as the benefits realized due to projects and programs. Project success in the perspective of various stakeholders differs from each other and this is largely due to the success criteria each consider while evaluating/ judging the success of projects. This study is a pilot that tries to capture the preferences of workforce related to success criteria for projectsin their respective work areas.

Objective: Public projects are used to delivery policy objectives. From a financial perspective, the Major Projects Authority (MPA) estimated a whole life investment of £488 billion for 199 major projects in 2014, only a small subset of the total number of public projects. Given the financial exposure, the impact of endemic public project failures could put the economic health of the nation at risk. This thesis studies the challenges facing public projects. It applies an organisational capabilities lens to investigate projectification, when organisations shift away from functional-based organising (FBO) toward project-based organising (PBO).

Research Design: This study adopts an interpretivist research paradigm, with a constructionist epistemology and an idealist ontology, and employs an abductive research strategy. Structurally, it follows the Cranfield Executive Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) methodology, with a linking document that summarises three complementary research projects: a systematic literature review (SLR) followed by two empirical studies that investigate the Department of Health (DoH) during the early phases of the Next Stage Review Implementation Programme (NSRIP). The findings are derived from over 250 academic literature sources, 100 government publications and 41 semi-structured interviews.

Findings: Project-based organisations depend on a core competency of changing organisational forms. Project-based management (PBM), a particular type of organising developed during projectification, depends on seven capabilities related to managing complexity, investments, governance, specialisms, learning, value creation and organisational change. There are 17 routines and five actors involved in developing the set of seven PBM capabilities. Publicness matters when developing the PBM capabilities, with each capability suffering from distinctive routines that did not fully mature, even after an extended period of time, and five involved actors struggling to develop at least one routine.

Contributions to Theory: The study concludes that successful projectification in the public sector depends on a double loop capability construction process, i.e. on having PBM capabilities and capabilities to change organisational forms. With capabilities either inherited or constructed internal, a paradox is created. Projectification in the public sector depends on FBM, an organisational form unsuited to creating new capabilities, to create PBM capabilities. Further, the study demonstrates that publicness matters to projectification.

Contributions to Practice: The study informs public sector practices, providing insights for public sector reform policies related to organisational capability and professional skills development. The study informs programme and project management (PPM) practice, proposes two different frameworks to help assess the maturity of public organisation’s PBM capabilities.

Key words: project management, projectification, project-based, publicness, inheritance, public sector, civil service, capability, routines, actors, project management office, distinctive

The global IT development is becoming ever more dominant. Notwithstanding, most of the projects of IS are not satisfied – the IS projects are still experiencing failure. This research reviews the IS project success with the multi-dimensional and multi-level approaches. Various works in academic jour‐ nals and conferences from 1992 to 2016 were elaborated. The findings indicate that empirical studies are crucial. Interestingly, a mutual relationship between three themes of works (project success, IS success, and acceptance and use of technology) has been identified. Consequently, a conceptual framework provides the comprehensive explanation for IS project success is shown, which could be a promising avenue of IS research.

A comprehensive answer to the question of which factors are critical to project success depends on answering three separate questions: ''What factors lead to project management success?'', ''What factors lead to a successful project?'' and ''What factors lead to consistently successful projects?'' This paper draws on new empirical research from more than 70 large multi-national or national organizations to answer each of these three questions, and to identify 12 factors that are, in one way or another, critical to project success. #

A penny has two faces. This fact must be considered in every aspect of the life, including the world of project management. While each stakeholder is a pressure element for the project and can be harmful, they can also be useful in creating opportunities. This dualistic nature of the stakeholders brings a question: "Are stakeholders an object or subject?" This article tries to explain the two sides of stakeholders with the light of their effects on project success. In the first part of the paper the relationship between stakeholders and project success is tried to be illustrated by the definition of these terms. In the second part of the article, an example of a strategy that can be followed for the management of this uncertainty, which is caused by stakeholders, is tried to be explained.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of project governance and sustainability on project success of the public sector organizations in Pakistan. Across Pakistan, 425 why project success is significant for public sector projects is because it involves a large amount of money of taxpayers, who need to be satisfied with the outcomes. Similarly, project success is vital to public sector organizations as it enables them to gain profits and maximize value in both short and long term (Badewi, 2016). Globally, project success rates are falling alarmingly, making achieving success on valid responses were collected using a cross-sectional survey. The sample was restricted to firms registered with Pakistan Engineering Council. PLS-SEM was used to assess the proposed reflective-formative model through path modeling and bootstrapping technique. The results indicate that project governance and sustainability are positively associated with project success. This paper provides empirical evidence about the substantial positive effect of project governance and sustainability on project success, in the context of public sector organizations in Pakistan.

The success of ERP has been discussed extensively throughout the last decade. However, this research offers a new lens for understanding this success through combining project management theory with institutional theory. Based on neo-institutional theory, it is proposed that the more the Project Management (PM) and Benefits Management (BM) are used as practice and governance frameworks in an organization, the more it is able to use them in ERP projects since they become part of its institutional logic in managing its projects. Therefore, ERP investment success is hypothesized to be associated with the organization's project and benefits management institutional logics. After analyzing 130 questionnaires using Structural Equation Modeling, it is found that these hypotheses are supported. Furthermore, the organizations that have both logics outperform others which have not. This research implies that project management is not responsible for the project investment success. This is the responsibility of business change management.

Organizations have made significant investments in technology, hoping to gain competitive advantages in today's dynamic markets. Traditional organisational structures are rigid and highly bureaucratic. Previous evidence has shown that they cannot quickly or accurately respond to the constant changes of the business environment. Organisations should carry out significant changes and implement new practices more adjusted to reality, including the use of project and benefits management approaches, seeking a better use and control of existing resources and capabilities. As project management became crucial for the development of organizational strategies, by reinforcing professional skills and capabilities, it is of interest to carry out studies aiming to identify which factors contribute to projects success. The framework proposed in this paper assists organizations to identify and monitor the benefits of technological projects, allowing the answer to our main research question: " How can benefits and project management approaches help organizations to obtain more successful projects? " The results of the presented case study highlighted that the application of a benefits management process on the pre-identified critical success factors promoted better project management practices and ensured an effective impact on a project success.

Information technology (IT) project success is a research topic that has received attention of academics and practitioners, at least, in the lasted two decades (Atkinson, 1999; Delone & Mclean, 2002). Organizations have been making increasing investments on IT to improve productivity and  quality of processes (Assis, 2011). Despite all research and investments on IT, the rate of failures on this kind of projects is high (The Standish Group, 2013). Two research questions drive this paper: (1) Do project manager competencies influence team commitment to the IT project success? (2) How can the project team’s commitment affect the success (or failure) of an IT project? In order to answer these questions, we did twelve in-depth interviews with IT project managers of different companies. The main findings show that IT professionals believe that soft skills are indeed more important to guarantee project success than technical skills. The research indicated that project managers who developed soft skills can coordinate their teams better and build commitment within team members.

Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) face various challenges in the empowerment of youth projects. This study investigated the effect of youth empowerment on the success on non-governmental organization projects in Hargiesa city, Somaliland. Youth empowerment. Youth empowerment is an attitudinal, structural, and cultural process whereby young people gain the ability, authority, and agency to make decisions and implement change in their own lives and the lives of other people, including youth and adults. Project success was referred to as reaching the objectives and the planned results in compliance with predetermined conditions of time, cost and performance. These are different perspectives mean that a project’s relative degree of success or failure may change over time. In African youth constitutes up to 40% of the population. They are a formidable creative resource that can be harnessed for Africa’s socio-economic development Africa is the youngest continent with children and youth aged below 30 years constituting 70 percent of the continent’s entire population (ECA, 2009). In Somaliland, as in a 2003 article Ahmed reports, “At local non-governmental organizations that are among the top 25% of NGOs, three out of 10 youth projects fail on average, and so, Ismail stated On average, about 70% of all NGO-related projects fail to meet their objectives. The effect of youth empowerment on the success of NGO projects in Hargeisa had not been empirically investigated and remained unknown. Youth empowerment were conceptualized as education empowerment, economic empowerment and leadership empowerment; and project success was conceptualized as the determination of the completion of project on time, budget and scope with the stakeholder satisfaction. The study specifically investigated the effect of education empowerment; the effect economic empowerment and the effect of leadership empowerment on the success of SONYO NGO projects. Guided by Zimmerman theory of empowerment, the study used cross sectional survey design. Data was collected from 28 youths in SONYO in Hargeisa city using questionnaire and then analyzed using simple regression technique. The study established that education empowerment of youth, [F (1, 26) = 15.214, p= .001]; economic empowerment of youth, [F (1, 26) = 87.224, p= .000]; and leadership empowerment of youth, [F (1, 26) =39.684, p= .000] all had significant effect on the success of NGO youth projects in Hargeisa city, and respectively account for 34.5%, 76.2% and 58.9% of the variance of the success of NGO youth projects in Hargeisa city. The study concluded that education, economic and leadership empowerment all had significant effect on the success of NGO youth projects in Hargeisa city. The study recommends that SONYO NGO raise 30% of their voice towards more action by itself and the governments with regard of public empowerment investment in education; SONYO must play a vital role on the empowerment of economic activities by establishing all parties: trainings in life-skills and employability skills, languages, entrepreneurship funding grants, and basic financial skill; SONYO organizations must focus on leadership development, involving leadership training, including training in negotiations, conflict resolving skills, decision making mediation and advocacy for stronger articulation of youth policies and management. SONYO must start Giving young people an empowerment of a meaningful stake in decision-making and governance means influencing policy and practice and the attitudes and behaviors of decision-makers. The researcher also recommends that the study of youth empowerment and success of NGOs youth projects be conducted in further to have knowledge on the most effective empowerment effects and ways and adopt a different methodology since the study was based mainly on the views of the respondents.

Among many success factors, the project manager competencies have been appointed as a relevant one (Turner & Müller 2005). Project managers can develop competence that will allow them to build a productive environment for team members to perform well, ensuring project success. Since there is a lack of studies regarding the relationship between IT (Information Technology) project manager competencies and project success, this paper addresses the following research question: To accomplish this goal, we ask the following research question: which are the most relevant competencies in IT project managers’ development in order to achieve IT project success? To answer this question, we conducted a qualitative research with an exploratory approach. To collect data, sixteen in-depth interviews were made with Brazilian professionals from different business sectors. The data analysis pointed out that the most relevant category competencies are team management, business domain knowledge, communication, project management and people skills. We also observed that technical skills were considered expressively less relevant to IT project success than behavioral, business and managerial competencies.

This research puts the spotlight on the implementation of project management standards, project management body of knowledge (PMBOK) 10 knowledge areas, in Iranian construction project-based organizations considering the significant role of the project management offices (PMOs) and to the extent to which that leads to project success. The objectives of this research are; to examine the influence of project management standards on project success, and to investigate the impact of PMO as a mediator between project management standards and project success in construction project-based organizations in Iran. Having the knowledge and research gap unfolded, a conceptual framework proposed to bridge the gap and three hypotheses were developed based on the study objectives. A survey, targeting Iranian project managers and construction practitioners working in grade 1 construction companies, was conducted and multivariate analysis techniques were adopted to analyze the data. After the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, the SEM analysis was used to test the hypothesized relationships. In general, the developed conceptual framework was confirmed, and the analysis enhanced the understanding of the current status of project management standard implementation and construction industry practitioners' perception of the factors contributing to project success.

Rapid changes in the business environment are increasing the pressure on organisations to ensure the delivery of successful projects to fulfil their strategic goals. The use of emerging information systems and technology (IS/IT) has rapidly grown in several contexts, including healthcare. There have been two major drivers for the investments in Health IS/IT: the ever-increasing burden from chronic disease with costs growing significantly faster, and; the recognition of the need for greatly improved quality and safety in the delivery of healthcare. Both of these key drivers have led to very heavy investments in IS/IT in order to enable timely information-sharing for clinical decisions. The authors argue that by combining the Project Management (PM) approach with the Benefits Management (BM) approach, one can improve the current low success rate of implementations  and enhance the reliability of the delivery of benefits from investments in IS/IT.