Project Management Journal

Drawing on the current research in general leadership, we propose that a process ontology is relevant and rewarding for project leadership studies. We argue that project leadership can be studied as the ongoing social production of direction through the construction of actors' space of action, involving continuous construction and reconstruction of (1) past project activities and events; (2) positions and areas of responsibility; (3) discarded, ongoing, and future issues; and (4) intensity, rhythm, and pace. Through an ethnographic case study of an organizational change project, we show how space of action and hence the project direction are in constant flux and becoming.

This research paper presents evidence from an exploratory survey on the use of agile project management (APM) practices and the presence of APM enablers in 19 medium-and large-sized companies from different industry sectors considering innovative projects. The results show that these companies are possibly struggling to use their current management practices in the face of different project challenges. Additionally, the presence of some APM enablers indicates opportunities to adapt the APM theory for different companies other than those in software development. Future research should explore the correlation between APM practices and enablers in order to develop “hybrid” management models for different industries.

In this article we focus on the quantitative project scheduling problem in IT companies that apply the agile management philosophy and Scrum, in particular. We combine mathematical programming with an agile project flow using a modified multi-mode resource constrained project scheduling model for software projects (MRCPS^SP). The proposed approach can be used to generate schedules as benchmarks for agile development iterations. Computational experiments based on real project data indicate that this approach significantly reduces the project cycle time. The approach can be a useful addition to agile project management, especially for software projects with predefined deadlines and budgets.

This paper presents a research methodology used to develop a novel framework for an investigation into how project managers acquire and exchange knowledge. The qualitative study was conducted with six experienced project managers based in Australia. Adopting and augmenting an action research methodology, the data were analyzed using grounded theory techniques. Data collection occurred through four sequential interventions that aligned to three action research cycles. Three additional spin-off cycles were utilized to ensure quality and validity of the research approach with an external reference group. The implications of this research approach are presented for application in future research.

The success of a vehicle on the market depends on its price, reliability, and attractiveness; for the latter, innovations are the key elements in the differentiation from competitors. Managing the processes of selecting and integrating innovation projects into vehicle projects is therefore crucial. This article presents a management tool that aims at managing the interplay between innovation projects and vehicle projects. The objectives are to increase and optimize the amount and value of innovation projects integrated into vehicle projects. The tool, called “Profilor,” is based on the concept of intrusiveness, which is presented from a theoretical and empirical point of view.

Project managers need to make decisions on how to balance competing claims between the different stakeholders in projects. Previous studies have suggested that the choice of decision-making strategies is highly related to stakeholders' attributes and behaviors in practice; however, limited studies have been conducted in the construction field to analyze the importance of stakeholders' attributes, behaviors, and decision-making strategies, and validate the correlations between the factors and decision-making strategies. To analyze the underlying meanings of stakeholders' attributes, behaviors, and decision-making strategies from the practitioners' perspectives, and indicate the influence of stakeholder-related factors on decision-making strategies, an interview, questionnaire survey, and case study were adopted. Empirical studies suggest that three stakeholder attributes (power, urgency, and proximity), and four types of stakeholder behaviors (cooperative potential, competitive threat, opposite position, and neutral attitude) are perceived by the practitioners as important to dealing with stakeholder claims. Depending on stakeholders' salience levels and behavior types, strategies of defense, compromise, or concession/adaptation are chosen and applied by project managers in practice. The findings can help project managers to proactively understand stakeholder performance, place emphasis on particular attributes and behaviors, and formulate appropriate schemes under different circumstances.