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

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

Project success as a topic in project management journals

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

Portfolio Risk Management and Its Contribution to Project Portfolio Success: An Investigation of Organization,Process, and Culture

Previous research has found supporting evidence of a positive relationship between project risk management and project success, but literature on how risk management is applied to and integrated with project portfolios has been scarce. Based on a literature review, a comprehensive conceptual model is developed, which highlights the three components of portfolio risk management: organization, process, and culture. This study investigates their linkage to portfolio success, mediated through risk management quality, and, therefore, provides principles for more effective portfolio risk management. The developed framework can be used for further empirical research on the influence of portfolio risk management and its success.     

Project management for new product development

This article examines the intersection of the project management body of knowledge with new product development (NPD). The area under examination is the development of consumer products that have a significant engineering production content. It is concluded that the project management method, with its structured task definition and software tools, is generally useful for managing NPD projects. However, in some areas, project management incompletely meets the needs of NPD. Specifically, NPD is characterized by complex interrelated activities and large uncertainties about precisely which solution path will be taken, such that the full scope of the project can often not be anticipated beforehand. The article identifies that more research is required to validate the stage‐gate and lean project management methods. Whereas cost is the primary focus in project management, with NPD there is a need to consider both cost and income (from product sales) in making strategic decisions. Communication and human resource management are important factors in NPD success, but existing project management perspectives have little to say about the social and behavioral aspects, such as organizational culture, team dynamics, and leadership styles, especially not for NPD. Current project management practices are very much based on “output control” (targets, appraisal, rewards, management by objectives), which the human resource management literature identifies as inhibiting innovation. There is also likely to exist an intersection, as yet poorly understood, between project management and knowledge management, particularly for innovation processes such as NPD. For practitioners, the main message is that the project management method provides a basic, but imperfect, tool for managing NPD. The relevance for researchers is that gaps have been identified in the project management method as it is currently applied to NPD. Several places are identified where further research is required to (a) better understand the causality between factors (e.g., human resource management) and project success and (b) adapt project management methods to better serve the NPD process.     

A fresh look at the contribution of project management to organizational performance

A better understanding of organizational performance and the contribution that project management can make is the aim. The article adopts the “Competing Values Framework,” a rich framework that is well established both theoretically and empirically but is not well known in the field of project management. The framework is summarized and applied in an empirical investigation of the contribution of project management in general and project management offices (PMOs) in particular to organizational performance. The examination of 11 case studies revealed multiple concurrent and sometimes paradoxical perspectives. The criteria proposed by the framework have been further developed through the identification of a preliminary set of empirically grounded performance indicators. The empirical results contribute to a better understanding of the role of project management generally and PMOs specifically. They also demonstrate the usefulness of this framework for the study of project management's contribution to organizational performance.     

工程项目管理组织沟通现状分析

工程项目具有环境复杂,不同工种人员协同施工等重要因素,工程项目的成败,组织的内部沟通起到重要的作用。文章主要从工程项目管理组织的沟通的特殊性着手,分析工程组织管理特殊性以及影响工程管理沟通有效性的原因。     

工程项目进度管理及控制探讨

工程项目进度管理是工程项目管理的一项极为重要的工作,其能全面反映项目的实施情况。做好施工阶段的项目进度控制管理对保证施工企业履行合同、工程项目按期竣工投入使用发挥着决定性作用。文章对工程项目进度管理的影响因素进行了深入分析,并对影响其的相关因素提出了具体的管理措施。工程项目进度控制、成本控制、质量控制,是项目管理三个核心内容,相铺相成。它是确保施工工程项目按期完成,科学安排资源投入、节约工程成本投资的重要举措。     

What project strategy really is: The fundamental building block in strategic project management

Strategic project management is gradually becoming a popular and growing trend within the discipline of project management. The general idea is that project management teams must learn how to deal with the business aspects of their projects, as well as better support their company's business strategy and sustainability, rather than just focus on meeting traditional time, budget, and performance goals. Although this approach has been gaining popularity, strategic project management has not yet become an explicit and widely used approach in the practice of project implementation. One of the concepts mentioned as an important element is project strategy; however, no universal framework or even a clear definition of what project strategy is has so far emerged. The goal of this article is to fill in this gap and provide a useful definition and a framework for the further study and implementation of the project strategy concept. Specifically, to achieve this goal, we first look at the origins of strategy in military and business research to discuss the question of what, exactly, project strategy is; we follow this discussion with an explicit definition of a project strategy. We then outline a framework for building a dedicated project strategy document for an individual project, and show how this framework can guide the project planning and execution processes. Using a case study approach, which included an action research phase, we demonstrate how project teams can adopt the strategy concept in a natural way that would lead their project to better business results.     

精益供应链的供应商评价选择及优化研究

本文主要是对管理工程、系统工程以及人工智能等领域的最新研究成果进行的分析探讨,然后根据在精益供应链管理环境中的表现,对当前国内外供应链管理研究领域的前沿课题进行全面的系统的探究性研究。其中,本文的研究成果主要是实现精益供应链管理所特有的理论价值和重要意义。     

Interactions Between Organizational Culture,Trustworthiness, and Mechanisms for Inter‐Project Knowledge Sharing

This research used a multiple‐case study approach to empirically investigate the complex relationship between factors influencing inter‐project knowledge sharing—trustworthiness, organizational culture, and knowledge‐sharing mechanisms. Adopting a competing values framework, we found evidence of patterns existing between the type of culture, on the project management unit level, and project managers’ perceptions of valuing trustworthy behaviors and the way they share knowledge, on the individual level. We also found evidence for mutually reinforcing the effect of trust and clan culture, which shape tacit knowledge‐sharing behaviors.     

Project‐as‐practice: In search of project management research that matters

Research on projects is not only an immature field of research, but it is also insubstantial when it comes to understanding what occurs in projects. This article contributes to making project management research matter to the academic as well as to the practitioner by developing a project‐as‐practice approach, in alignment with the ongoing debate in social science research. The article outlines a framework and argues that there are two major challenges to the researcher and also suggests how these challenges can be met. Underlying notions of the practice approach are outlined to ensure a development of the project‐as‐practice approach that makes project management research matter!     

Project management improvement efforts—creating project management value by uniqueness or mainstream thinking?

This paper presents a research study that is part of the large international Project Management Institute (PMI)–sponsored research project the “Value of Project Management.” Three case studies have been conducted on Norwegian enterprises. This article focuses on how enterprises improve project management and presents the improvement efforts and the stated reasons behind them. There are striking similarities as to the prioritized ways the enterprises have chosen to make improvements: use of a rather standardized model for project work and internal schooling activities. The enterprises all explain their efforts as internally driven, even if some consultancy assistance was used. This article discusses three drivers behind the improvement efforts: an economic perspective, a new institutionalism perspective, and an innovation perspective. This article identifies indicators pointing to all drivers and helps us understand why and how enterprises are improving project management. The importance of research on the practice of the most capable enterprises within the project management field is acknowledged.     

Does our literature support sectors newer to project management? The search for quality publications relevant to nontraditional industries

Despite the broadening use of systematic approaches to project management, the majority of related literature is focused on a handful of industries—construction, engineering, government, information technology, and utilities—that have, until recently, been the traditional areas for project management. Currently, the nontraditional project management areas include banking, pharmaceuticals, consulting, advertising, legal, health care, safety, and nontraditional manufacturing and industrial sectors (Kerzner, 2001). In recognition of growth, scholars and practitioners have begun to include viewpoints generalized across the field as well as perspectives from specific industries. We report on the findings from a systematic review of project management literature.     

A Perspective‐Based Understanding of Project Success

Answering the call for alternative approaches to researching project management, we explore the evaluation of project success from a subjectivist perspective. An in‐depth, longitudinal case study of information systems development in a large manufacturing company was used to investigate how various project stakeholders subjectively perceived the project outcome and what evaluation criteria they drew on in doing so. A conceptual framework is developed for understanding and analyzing evaluations of project success, both formal and informal. The framework highlights how different stakeholder perspectives influence the perceived outcome(s) of a project, and how project evaluations may differ between stakeholders and across time.     

公共组织跨部门知识共享如何驱动?——基于随州市“数字城管”项目

知识共享作为对传统科层文化的挑战,通过共享个体与组织之间的知识来实现总体知识资源的提升。但目前关于公共组织知识共享的研究匮乏。“数字城管”是公共组织跨部门知识共享的典型代表。论文基于随州市“数字城管”项目,围绕项目建设过程中跨部门知识共享的现状与问题进行了深入访谈,使用NVivo 12进行访谈文本编码,建立了公共组织跨部门知识共享的三个维度的影响因素模型,为下一步进行跨部门知识共享影响因素的实证研究和优化跨部门知识共享的实践管理提供了理论参考。     

Understanding the value of project management from a stakeholder's perspective: Case study of mega‐project management

Project management can generate significant value for organizations (Thomas & Mullaly, 2007). However, the value of project management varies depending on the different size and complexity of projects managed. Focusing on mega‐projects, this study explores the value of project management from the stakeholders' perspective, thereby creating a value framework. In the case of SHRBC Company, it analyzes the company's project management practice and the value of project management, and consequently certifies the applicability of this value framework through empirical study.     

灰色关联分析法在重大错报风险评估中应用研究

重大错报风险的形成原因错综复杂，如何评价风险可能存在的业务领域、风险相对高低以及被审单位整体重大错报风险大小是实施现代风险导向审计的三大核心和难点。首先构建重大错报风险综合评价指标体系，进而引入灰色关联分析评估模型，以更加客观准确地确定各错报风险因素的权重及排序，最终得出各业务领域评估值及综合评估值大小，这样可以为会计师事务所进行单项及不同审计业务之间的资源配置提供依据。     

基于模糊神经网络的公共项目绩效评价模型研究——以发展结果为导向的理论框架构建

国内外对以发展结果为导向的公共项目绩效评价研究尚处于起步阶段。依据发展结果导向的公共项目绩效管理的设计与监测框架，运用模糊神经网络的算法，以原因、方法、方案、投入、活动等作为神经网络的输入，以项目的目标、成效、影响、结果、产出为输出，构建公共项目绩效评价模型，可以为公共项目绩效评价提供理论指导。     

Top management: the missing stakeholder in the HRM literature

Abstract

Despite the significant influence that top management exerts on different aspects of people management, it remains the missing stakeholder in the HRM literature. In this paper, we take stock of previous research, and conclude that it is scarce and lacks consolidation. On the basis of our findings, but also thinking in terms of what is still missing, we develop a conceptual framework that may guide further research, advocating for the need to consider co-evolutionary approaches in an attempt to integrate selection and adaptation perspectives, as well as multi-level and multi-actor factors. Future work should systematically address and distinguish top management characteristics from top management agency and link these more clearly to a diversity of HRM dimensions. By doing so, scholars will help to firmly incorporate the role of top management in the research agenda of HRM and pursue different avenues that can be scientifically sound as well as practically relevant.     

Effort of EAI Projects: A Repertory Grid Investigation of Influencing Factors

Many companies struggle with effective and efficient accomplishment of enterprise application integration (EAI), resulting in significant time and budget overruns. Concerning project management, a major reason for failure is considered to be effort underestimation. This underestimation is an aftermath of applying estimation methods that do not account for all relevant factors influencing EAI project effort. Applying the Repertory Grid Technique, we explore factors affecting the effort of such projects by conducting 22 semi‐structured expert interviews. We provide an extensive overview of 91 effort‐influencing factors and their classification in nine categories, which can be used as a checklist in EAI projects.