Perspectives on Projects

by Rodney J. Turner, Martina Huemann, Frank T. Anbari, Christophe N. Bredillet

Overview

Modern project management had its genesis in the field of operations research in the late 1940s, but today it is a much more diverse subject. It has evolved and developed a much wider range of methods, techniques, and skills that the project manager can draw upon.

Not all these skills are relevant to every project, but an assortment of them will be relevant to most. This book aims to describe for students, researchers and managers the full range of skills that project managers can use to develop their methodologies.The authors group the skills into nine perspectives, representing nine schools of project management research and theory. By attaching a metaphor to each of these perspectives, students, researchers and managers are better able to understand each approach and decide whether it is best suited to the development of a strategy for managing their project.

Perspectives on Projects builds upon the various theoretical orientations that the field of project management has developed. Featuring several case studies, drawn from a variety of settings, to illustrate how the different schools can provide different perspectives on projects, this book is an ideal text for anyone involved in project management.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415993746
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/24/2010
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Rodney Turner is Professor of Project Management at the Lille School of Management, France and at the Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick, Ireland. He has also authored or edited thirteen books, written numerous articles for journals, conferences and magazines and is editor of The International Journal of Project Management.

Martina Huemann is a Researcher at Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria.

Frank Anbari is Professor of Project Management at Drexel University, USA. He is a board member on several journals on project management.

Christophe Bredillet is Deputy Director General and Dean of Postgraduate Programs & Research, at Lille School of Management, France. He is editor of the Project Management Journal.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations x

Notes on contributors xv

Preface xxi

1 The Diversity of projects and project management 1

1.1 New perspectives on project management 1

1.2 The memes of project management 3

1.3 The nine schools of project management 6

1.4 A theory of the management of projects 12

1.5 Two typologies of projects 25

Part 1 The nine perspectives 31

2 Optimization: The project as a machine 33

2.1 The genesis of modern project management 33

2.2 Tools for optimizing project outcomes 34

2.3 Earned value management 48

2.4 CPM and EVM compated 57

2.5 The lean Six Sigma method 58

2.6 Is that all? 59

3 Modeling: The project as a mirror 62

3.1 Modeling rather than optimization 62

3.2 The cause of project overruns 64

3.3 Hard systems modeling 67

3.4 Soft systems modeling 69

3.5 Modeling propositions 73

3.6 Here comes the philosophy 77

3.7 Are we modeling the right things? 78

4 Success: The project as an objective 81

4.1 Modeling success 81

4.2 Judging success: Success critieria 82

4.3 Achieving success: Success factors 93

4.4 The project manager as a success factor 98

4.5 But who is in charge? 103

5 Governance: The project as a legal entity 105

5.1 Governing success 105

5.2 The project as a temporary organization 106

5.3 The governance of project management 111

5.4 Developing project management capability 128

5.5 Reviews, health checks, audits, and benchmarking 133

5.6 Project contract management 138

5.7 But where is the green parrot? 145

6 Behaviour: The project as a social system 148

6.1 Governing people 148

6.2 Project organization 149

6.3 Project teams 156

6.4 Diversity in projects 162

6.5 Emotionally competent project leadership 164

6.6 Human resource management 171

6.7 Are the people hearing? 176

7 Marking: The project as a billboard 179

7.1 Communicating with people 179

7.2 Stakeholder management 180

7.3 Marketing the project 186

7.4 Selling project management to senior executives 192

7.5 How do we get there? 197

8 Process: The project as an algorithm 199

8.1 Converting vision into reality 199

8.2 Project processes 200

8.3 Project management processes 209

8.4 Procedures manuals 219

8.5 Are we going in the right direction? 222

9 Decision: The project as a computer 224

9.1 Converting desire into memory 224

9.2 Deciding where to go 225

9.3 Deciding which fork to take 233

9.4 Setting project strategy 238

9.5 Do all roads lead to Rome? 242

10 Contingency: The project as a chameleon 245

10.1 Deciding to be different 245

10.2 Categorizing projects 246

10.3 Attributes of projects 250

10.4 Using the nine perspectives 257

10.5 Did we achieve the best of all possible outcomes? 262

Part II The three case studies 265

11 Using the nine perspectives 267

11.1 Taking a perspective 267

11.2 Choosing methods 268

11.3 The case 270

12 The North-South Metro Line: Managing in crowded historic Amsterdam 272

12.1 A brief history 272

12.2 The Amsterdam North-South Metro Line 273

12.3 Project history 277

12.4 Using the nine perspectives 283

12.5 Conclusing 295

13 The LAS story: Learning from failure 296

13.1 A journey from failure to success 296

13.2 The first attempt: Starting small 298

13.3 The Second attempt: Fostering ambition 298

13.4 The third attempt: Cutting up the elephant 304

13.5 Fourth time lucky 309

13.6 Beyond success: Looking to the future 310

13.7 Using the nine perspectives 317

14 ABS International: Sustainable project management 323

14.1 Sustainability and porjects 323

14.2 The ABS International Project 325

14.3 Sustainable success 332

14.4 Sustainable project management 335

14.5 Using the nine perspectives 337

Index 340

Editorial Reviews

"If you are looking for a nice overview of the generic and most common contemporary approaches to project management, or if you are quite sure that you are managing fairly well-known projects with little uncertainty, the book by Turner et al. will be a good choice." – KJELL TRYGGESTAD, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark

From the Publisher