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The main goal of this contribution is to assess and evaluate the degree to which project risk management is currently applied in companies at the global level based on empirical research. More specifically, it aims to assess the degree to which project risk management is applied during the initiation and planning phases of projects. In 2019, global empirical research was carried out in 31 countries in Europe, Africa, Australia, Asia, and America. In total, 1,143 project managers participated. The research was conducted on the basis of an online questionnaire survey. For the quantitative data analysis, mathematical and statistical data assessment tests were used to process the obtained data. Although the results reveal an increasing interest among top managers in the application of project risk management, they also show that project managers do not apply risk management to every project. The results of this contribution are applicable to managers and project managers in enterprises around the world, especially in European countries. Results highlighted the importance of project risk management and enhancing its application. In this way, managers can potentially reduce the time and financial losses that may affect the successful project realization.

The notion of achieving environmental sustainability through project management has gradually attracted the attention of scholars in recent years. This study explores the influence mechanism of a project manager’s perception of environmental regulations on their environmentally sustainable project management practice. Employing a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, this study firstly establishes a conceptual model of interviews with project managers, proposes hypotheses based on the conceptual model, and ultimately carries out hypothesis testing using the questionnaire data. The results show that (i) project managers’ perceptions of environmental regulations can directly promote their environmentally sustainable project management practice; (ii) project managers’ affective commitment to change plays a partial mediating role in the above relationship; and (iii) in the aforementioned mediation relationship, both cost and time constraints have a negative moderating effect. This study provides new evidence for institutional theory at the micro level and expands the theoretical research perspective in the field of project management. We suggest that construction companies incorporate environmental performance into the performance appraisal of project managers and strengthen green construction training for employees.

PurposeLeadership encapsulates a process of influencing others to understand what needs to be done and how it can be done. The related area of mindset behaviour which moderates leadership styles adopted in various industries has hitherto received scant academic attention in a construction context. This paper thus explores the linkages between project manager's mindset behaviour and project leadership style in the construction industry.Design/methodology/approachLiterature reviewed provides the basis for a questionnaire data collection instrument developed to gather primary data from construction professionals in the Ghanaian construction industry (GCI). A quantitative research strategy was then adopted using the Relative Importance Index (RII) to determine the level of significance of the leadership and mindset archetypes. A Pearson's correlation test was run to ascertain whether the mindset behaviour of project managers has a significant impact upon the type of leadership style.FindingsThe study's results indicate that democratic, transformational and situational leadership styles were prevalent leadership styles in the GCI. The analysis also revealed that project managers favoured the “growth mindset”. Furthermore this style had a moderate positive relationship with democratic and transformational leadership styles. Conversely, a fixed mindset had a low positive relationship with autocratic and situational leadership styles but a low negative relationship with transformational leadership style.Research limitations/implicationsThis research provides sufficient data for project managers to identify the type of mindset to nurture (the growth mindset is recommended) and the effective leadership style to be employed. This study engenders wider discussion on mindset behaviour and project leadership style in developing countries. Moreover, the findings present policymakers and practitioners with the leadership styles to promote and develop (democratic, transformational and situational) and mindset behaviour (growth mindset) to ensure project success in Ghana and other developing countries.Originality/valueThis research represents the first comprehensive study appraising the linkages between project managers’ mindset behaviour and project leadership style in the construction industry. Empirical data presented bridge the identified knowledge gap that exists on the lack of theoretical understanding of the influence that project managers' mindset has on leadership styles in the GCI.

New innovative technologies of Industry 4.0 are the key to the future development of the furniture industry, which is outdated because of its atypical production and small-series production. For applying the novel trends of Industry 4.0 to the furniture sector, the methodical support of managers, the key users of these technologies, is essential. As there is a lack of knowledge regarding implementation of Industry 4.0, this study focuses on the evaluation of the current status of furniture companies in terms of production structure and Industry 4.0 benefits/threats with the aim of proposing methodological solutions for the implementation of this trend across different-sized enterprises. Data are collected using conduct-structured interviews with project managers who describe their own experience with Industry 4.0 implementation in central Europe. All interviews are analyzed using qualitative content analysis. According to the stakeholders, innovative production and non-production technologies are essential for their enterprises. Application of such technologies increases the efficiency of the whole operation by 30%–50% over the five years since the first innovations were introduced, especially in enterprises with atypical production and large enterprises. This study should serve as the tool for adapting the environmental changes and promoting the innovation approaches of the Industry 4.0 strategies on the central European level.

Project managers face a challenge in aligning project requirements with project team members’ due to the fast-paced, competitive world in which information and communication technology (ICT) projects are run, as well as ICT professionals' constant evolving requirements. A project client measures a project success by how well has a project manager been able to meet project goals, while on the other hand software project teams (SPTs) measure project success by a manager’s ability to satisfy their project associated needs. This chapter purports that if projects’ requirements are properly aligned with team members’ requirements, then this will result in a balanced decision approach. Moreover, such an alignment will result in the realization of SPTs’ needs as well as meeting project’s needs. The chapter presents a Software Project’s needs and Software Project Team’s needs (SPnSPTn) alignment model and argues that a balanced decision, which meets both software project’s requirements and team members’ requirements can be achieved through the application of the SPnSPTn alignment model.

The paid crowdsourcing business model has brought a disruptive change to the translator procurement environment, offering clients algorithm-based automated systems as an alternative to conventional human-mediated project management services. This article analyses the conceptual/epistemological differences between the two from the viewpoint of knowledge management and considers the implications for future development of the industry. El model de negoci per subcontractació massiva (crowdsourcing) pagada ha provocat un canvi disruptiu en l'àmbit del reclutament de professionals de la traducció, perquè ofereix als clients sistemes automatitzats basats en algoritmes com a alternativa als serveis tradicionals de gestió de projectes fets per persones. Aquest article analitza les diferències conceptuals/epistemològiques entre tots dos models des del punt de vista de la gestió del coneixement i planteja les seves implicacions en el futur desenvolupament d'aquesta indústria. El modelo de negocio por subcontratación masiva (crowdsourcing) pagada ha provocado un cambio disruptivo en el ámbito del reclutamiento de profesionales de la traducción, porque ofrece a los clientes sistemas automatizados basados en algoritmos como alternativa a los servicios convencionales de gestión de proyectos mediados por personas. Este artículo analiza las diferencias conceptuales/epistemológicas entre los dos modelos desde el punto de vista de la gestión del conocimiento y plantea sus implicaciones en el futuro desarrollo de esta industria.

Project managers in today's construction industry are faced with a situation whereby the fundamental roles and functions they perform are witnessing a gradual shift in focus. To maintain their professional competency, practising project managers in construction adapt to this changing industry environment by relying on knowledge and skills acquired through training and experience

The construction industry plays a major role in South Africa's economic development. Despite its importance, the poor health and safety (H) performance and associated costs to the industry are a concern. The literature review indicates that improved H performance can be achieved on a project where there is a collaborative approach among all stakeholders during the six project stages. This study focuses on the impact of the Construction Regulations 2014 on a water utility's projects' H performance. It determines the H involvement of client representatives and internal project stakeholders during the six project stages. It also addresses their commitment towards H, measures taken by them during planning and design, in contracts to improve H, and to select conscious contractors, and the extent of their H participation in construction H Mixed methods research (a questionnaire survey and four case study projects) was used to collect the data required for the study. A total of 67 responses were obtained from the five stakeholder groups from the water utility, namely client representatives, designers, quantity surveyors (QSs), project managers (PMs), and construction H (CHS) professionals to obtain information regarding their H involvement during the six project stages. Four case study projects (three pre-Construction Regulations 2014 and one post-Construction Regulations 2014) were obtained, using a stratified random sampling technique and a checklist to obtain information regarding the stakeholder H involvement during the six project stages and the overall project performance. The study found that the Construction Regulations 2014 are perceived to have had an impact on the water utility's H performance. There is a direct relationship between stakeholder H involvement and project H performance. The integration of H in the initial project phases; early involvement of CHS professionals, and H training for stakeholders are among the recommendations arising from this study. Die konstruksiebedryf speel 'n belangrike rol in Suid-Afrika se ekonomiese ontwikkeling. Ten spyte van die belangrikheid daarvan, is die swak gesondheids-en veiligheids (G)-prestasie en verwante koste kommerwekkend. Die literatuuroorsig dui daarop dat verbeterde G behaal kan word op 'n projek waar daar tydens die ses projekfases 'n samewerkende benadering onder alle belanghebbendes is. Hierdie studie fokus op die impak van die Konstruksie Regulasies 2014 op 'n watertoevoerprojek se G Dit bepaal die G van kliëntverteenwoordigers en interne projekbelanghebbendes gedurende die ses projekfases. Die artikel ondersoek ook hul verbintenis tot G en die maatreëls wat hulle tydens beplanning en ontwerp geneem het in kontrakte om G te verbeter. Verder ondersoek die artikel die kies van G kontrakteurs asook die omvang van hul G aan konstruksie G Die gemengde metode van navorsing ('n vraelysopname en vier gevallestudie-projekte) is gebruik om die data vir die studie te verkry. 67 Response is verkry vanuit die vyf watertoevoerprojekbelanghebbendes, naamlik kliëntverteenwoordigers, ontwerpers, bourekenaars (QS's), projekbestuurders (PM's) en konstruksie-G (GVP) professionele persone om inligting oor hul G te verkry gedurende die ses projekte stadiums. Vier gevallestudies (drie voor-Konstruksie Regulasies 2014 en een na-Konstruksie Regulasies 2014) is verkry deur gebruik te maak van 'n gestratifiseerde ewekansige steekproefnemingstegniek. 'n Kontrolelys is gebruik om inligting oor die belanghebbendes se G tydens die ses projekfases te verkry asook die algehele projekprestasie. Bevindinge toon dat die Konstruksie Regulasies 2014 'n impak het op die G van die watertoevoerprojek. Daar is 'n direkte verhouding tussen die belanghebbendes se G en die projek se G Die integrasie van G in die aanvanklike projekfases; vroeë betrokkenheid van die GVP-professionele persone, en G vir belanghebbendes is van die aanbevelings wat uit hierdie studie voortspruit.

The level of technical knowledge and skills of project managers shows a high differentiation, which has an impact on the management of (non)investment projects in the given region, regardless of the sector area such as agriculture, entrepreneurship or services. This paper aims to confirm that the level of technical knowledge and skills of project managers is highly differentiated in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic and to identify the knowledge areas that are affected by the ignorance in this region the most. The research has shown that the management knowledge areas most affected by ignorance in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic are namely Scope management, Quality management and Communication management. These findings show a high level of differentiation in the knowledge and skills of project managers on the regional level, having direct impact on public and private projects in the given region. Due to this issue, there should be established certain standards for project management, which can be demanded by central authorities.

Source at https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-019-4346-0. © The Author(s). 2019 Background: Large-scale, national eHealth services, such as the summary care record (SCR) and electronic prescriptions (e-prescriptions), have been implemented by project managers as Norwegian health authority initiatives. Few studies have been conducted on the large-scale implementation of eHealth services and the relationship between the implementers’ work and the use of the tools in healthcare practices. Hence, there was a need to determine the project work with a focus on changes in practice. This study explores the implementation of the SCR and e-prescriptions from the perspective of project managers; how does the implementation work by project managers relate to institutional practices in large-scale initiatives? Methods: Twenty-two semi-structured interviews were held with project managers in 2016 and 2018 and were recorded, transcribed, and coded according to the content. The analytical concepts of the “project” and “practice” were used to focus on tensions between the dimensions of time connecting historically established social practice and in situ actions. Results: The eHealth initiatives were demonstrated to have been implemented as a part of the national strategy and achieved through close collaboration with the Norwegian Directorate of eHealth (NDE). Tensions arose in relation to task-oriented actions during the implementation of the project and the daily management thereafter. Further, the work tasks of the project managers were related to the dissemination of the tools while, in practice, the tools were related to actual use by professionals. The implementation of several projects simultaneously created tensions between the implementation of a tool and a specific practice, as well as between tools. Conclusion: The objectives set out by the project managers in relation to their work should be viewed as temporary, whereas a long-term objective should apply to the use of the tools. Hence, the work of implementing eHealth initiatives might call for a renewed definition of the empirical object. Identifying factors that affect uptake, such as gaps between the intended use of an object and in situ actions or historically established activities, might expedite the future success of national eHealth initiatives. The social aspect of institutional practice has a direct bearing on the potential of a project to be implemented successfully.

Machine translation (MT) and post-editing (PE) are two services that are increasingly in demand in the translation industry. In a context in which large-scale projects are required within tight deadlines, the deployment of this technology to increase productivity is more than justified. However, this increase in productivity can only be achieved with appropriate management of the project. Project managers, who are usually responsible for the project from start to finish, have to cope with new MT and PE processes that pose different challenges. For this reason, the main objective of this paper is to analyse how MT and PE affect the factors that project managers must keep in mind when managing projects, taking as a starting point the most important reference frameworks in project management. Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech.

My instinct as practitioner, a project manager and a coach, originated the idea of using coaching practice to develop project managers’ soft skills: an empirical, pragmatic suggestion where soft skills needs and ideal development methods lack clear definition. The academic aim was to understand the benefits of coaching to the coach, using project manager participants and an action research methodology. Interpretivist data analysis was originally planned, but the findings eventually emerged using pragmatism and abduction: focusing upon perceived personal growth of the project managers acting as coaches, learned and applied soft skills and aspirations to be more supportive or collaborative with colleagues.

Since its inception four decades ago, there has been widespread adoption of the matrix organisational design, particularly in project-based organisations. However, several challenges remain, one of which is related to the ambiguity of authority as a result of the dual command structure. This study examines the perceptions of the types of power and influence mechanisms used by the functional manager and the project manager to influence project personnel, and the effect of these mechanisms on attitudinal outcomes. The research used a two-phase design. The first qualitative phase validated the constructs of power and influence. In Phase 2, quantitative data was obtained from 22 functional managers, 28 project managers and 92 project personnel in South Africa, Italy and Canada from one large project execution technology company. There appears to be a large perceptual gap between project managers, functional managers and project personnel. Managers perceive themselves to be using aspirational and personal influence mechanisms, whereas project personnel perceive the managers to be using positional, punitive mechanisms. Relationships were observed between the perceived type of influence being used by the managers and the project personnel’s satisfaction with their manager, overall job satisfaction, their performance and level of engagement. Functional and project managers are associated with very different attitudinal outcomes among project team members.

This paper aims to study how different psycho-demographic traits may influence the activities and career progression of project managers (PM). We carried out an empirical qualitative research with PMs in Brazil, taking into account the peculiarities of this culture. There were conducted interviews with project managers that were transcribed and subjected to discourse analysis. We found out that the soft skills proved to be crucial abilities needed by this manager for his/her career progression, and that these professionals perceive their professional success by either the growing complexity of the projects leaded by him/her, or also by taking a more strategic and less operational career path. Besides it was possible to infer that the soft skills are influenced by the local culture. This research has also suggested the existence of glass doors and ceilings for ethnic, gender, and sexual minorities. These professionals seem to carry out their functions with a cost greater than the one required by their male, white and heterosexuals peers, as well as they need to prove resilient to such domination.

This research has evolved in four stages, the last of which is presented here. The principal-agent theory has formed the core of the research through all the stages. The relationship between the project owner and contractor was extended to include their respective project managers. The first stage was based on an exploratory survey of project managers with considerable experience in the field. It was found that the two project managers play the key role in the construction phase of a project, whereas the project owner and contractor play subsidiary roles during this phase. The second stage investigated this finding by using the Delphi method. A panel of experienced project managers selected from the exploratory survey confirmed its findings. The third stage of the research involved another exploratory survey of the same participants to establish the relative importance of a number of risk-minimization strategies in construction projects established on the basis of the principal-agent theory. It was established that trust is the most important risk-minimization strategy. The fourth and last stage involves three dimensions of project managers’ experience and their impact on the project managers’ ranking of risk-minimization strategies. The parameters of experience employed are years of experience in the field, the size of the largest project worked on, and the number of countries worked in. Multi-attribute utility theory has been used in the last three stages of the research. It is used in the last stage to re-rank the strategies investigated previously with respect to the three dimensions of project managers’ experience. The new ranking confirms the previous findings, but it also brings forth important differences between the three dimensions of experience. In particular, trust matters everywhere, whereas contractual arrangements drop in importance in large projects and across a variety of countries.

In order to dismantle some equipments of an obsolete reprocessing plant in Marcoule, studies were carried out by IRSN (Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire)/DSU/SERAC in cooperation with CEA (power laser group) on the laser cutting of steel structures, on the request of AREVA NC/Marcoule (UP1 dismantling project manager) and CEA/UMODD (UP1 dismantling owner). These studies were aimed at:•quantifying and characterizing the secondary emissions produced by Nd-YAG laser cutting of Uranus 65 steel pieces and examining the influence of different parameters,•qualifying a prefiltration technique and particularly an electrostatic precipitator,•comparing the Nd-YAG laser used with other cutting tools previously studied especially on aerosol production and aerosol size distribution. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

M.Phil. (Engineering Management) This dissertation provides an investigation on the level of technical knowledge which project managers have to carry to deliver technical projects. It has now become a standard to many organizations to run their deliverables in projects to reach their objectives and every project is set to be unique. Project management can be thought as the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to meet project requirements or coordination of human, financial and material resources to achieve beneficial change defined by quantitative and qualitative objectives. At the heart of project management is the project manager a project director and driver. Project manager is a professional tasked with leading a project from inception to completion [27]. It is not clear as to which level of technicality must project managers be to delivering projects in time, on budget and in an acceptable quality, thus the duties and qualities of a technical inclined project manager are covered in this study. Project manager leads a project team from the start of a project life cycle to finish, accomplishing the project objectives on time and within budget. Facing obstacles, budget and time-constraints, project manager is a key to planning and executing projects that produce the desired deliverable or result [4]. Developing the literature around the project management industry outlines the duties and responsibilities of a project manager which then defines the skills needed for project managers. It is safe enough to have a project manager with all the required skills stretching from technical through to managerial. Organizations delivering large scale projects have developed a role of an engineering manager who takes control of all technical aspects of the project. A project with an engineering manager allows the project manager to administrate the project and in that case the level of technicality for project managers is not important. A great athlete does not always make a great coach. Some of the best coaches in the world were not the best athletes, but have a firm understanding of the game. As suggested in [28] by Richard Fanelli, an architect and project manager guru that “a complete project manager must be an expert technically and knowing how things are done, as well as being detail oriented”. The one person the place can't function without. Everyone, the boss, supervisors, assistants comes to you for help. But where do you as a project manager go when you need help? As a project manager one is part bookkeeper, part administrator, part leader, part human resource pro, part technical guru, and part many other parts without parting ways with your sanity. Findings to the research topic are drawn to support the final conclusions discussed in the later part of the report. The project manager must also have technical competence in some aspects of the work being performed on the project. It appears however that there is considerable disagreement between researchers on the issue of how much technical knowledge is required. The more technically aware one is, the better they will be able to understand risks, potential roadblocks, and impacts of delays to the schedule. Project manager requires skills in three primary areas, namely interpersonal, technical and administration to deliver project successfully.

The Australian economy is currently supported by a resources boom and work opportunities in traditionally male dominated fields of construction and engineering and information technology are at a premium. Yet despite more than 25 years of anti discrimination and equal employment opportunity legislation these industries still employ few women in operational or management roles. This paper investigates the issue of the low representation of women in project management and their different work and career experiences through interviews with male and female project managers.

One of the most significant problems faced by project managers is to effectively distribute the project resources and effort among the various project activities. Most importantly, project success depends on how well, or how balanced, the work effort is distributed among the project phases. This paper aims to obtain useful information regarding the correlation of the composition of effort attributed in phases for around 1,500 software projects of the ISBSG R11 database based on a promising statistical method called Compositional Data Analysis (CoDA). The motivation for applying this analysis is the observation that certain types of project data (effort distributions and attributes) do not relate in a direct way but present a spurious correlation. Effort distribution is compared to the project life-cycle activities, organization type, language type, function points and other prime project attributes. The findings are beneficial for building a basis for software cost estimation and improving future empirical software studies. 2012 IEEE.

Studies indicate project success should be viewed from the different perspectives of the individual stakeholders. Project managers are owner’s agents. In order to allow early corrective actions to take place in case a project is diverted from plan, to accurately report perceived success of the stakeholders by project managers is essential, though there has been little systematic research in this area. The aim of this paper is to report the fi ndings of an empirical study that compares the level of agreement between project managers and key stakeholders on a list of project performance indicators. A telephone survey involving 18 complex project managers and various key project stakeholder groups was conducted in this study. Krippendorff’s Kappa alpha reliability test was used to assess the agreement level between project managers and stakeholders. While the overall agreement level between project manager and stakeholders is medium, results have also identified 12 performance indicators that have significant level of agreement between project managers and stakeholders.

Competent project managers contribute to the successful delivery of construction projects in a considerable manner. The delivery models of construction projects have been subjects of striking changes during the recent three decades. These changes, in the big picture, comprise shifting from traditional delivery models (e.g., design-bidbuild, design-build) toward the collaborative ones (e.g., partnering, alliance, integrated project delivery and traditional construction deliveries equipped with collaborative work practices). Consequently, there is currently limited research-based knowledge concerning the competencies required for the project managers of collaborative construction projects. This dissertation is based on a study aimed to understand the changes in the spectrum of the required competencies for the project managers of traditional and collaborative construction projects. To that end, a comprehensive literature study was undertaken to develop the theoretical framework concerning the project managers’ competencies and their effects on the project success. This was followed by conducting two field surveys in Finland and Norway with a behavioral approach where project managers’ behavior in their everyday work was the main source for understanding their competencies. Finally, analyzing the obtained research data from the field surveys provided a basis for the constructive research, resulting in the development of a competency model. The dissertation presents those competencies, which significantly contribute to the successful performance of the project managers of collaborative construction projects. These identified competencies, e.g., trustworthiness, initiative, conflict management, which have been structured in a matrix model, can be employed for the right selection of the project managers for collaborative construction projects and for improving the performance of the existing ones. Finally, the changes in the spectrum of the required competencies for the project managers of traditional and collaborative construction projects are explained and discussed. The dissertation provides novel academic and practical insights toward the competence-based selection and performance improvement of the project managers in collaborative construction projects. Moreover, it reveals how the changes in the delivery models of construction projects have affected the competencies required for the successful performance of the construction project managers.

Project and Time Tracking System (PTTS) is a web application that provides an automated and centralized method of tracking and monitoring work time for active projects by enabling supervisors to track employees work time, efforts spent while working on various projects performing tasks assigned to them. This system helps in completing projects on-time and on-budget by providing realtime project status. Also it optimizes resources utilization and measure the performance and productivity. One important advantage of the system over others is that each employee can log into his account to do various tasks. Employees, Supervisors and Project managers have different privileges according to their roles. PTTS performance testing successful at Qatar Petroleum (QP) Data Center. Scopus