From the editor

In this issue of the Journal, articles presented to the readers cover project management practices throughout history (“Frontinus—A Project Manager From the Roman Empire Era,” Walker and Dart), project success and failure revisited through integrated theoretical lens on the one hand (“Translation and Convergence in Projects: An Organizational Perspective on Project Success,” Alderman and Ivory) and, on the other hand, with a focus on systems engineers' capacity for engineering systems thinking (“The Relationship Among Systems Engineers' Capacity for Engineering Systems Thinking, Project Types, and Project Success,” Frank, Sadeh, and Ashkenasi), project management offices (PMOs) investigated through community of practice theory (“Exploring PMOs Through Community of Practice Theory,” Aubry, Müller, and Glückler), influence of cultural patterns on project team behavior (“Cultural Patterns Influencing Project Team Behavior in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Case Study in Ethiopia,” Jetu, Riedl, and Roithmayr), and human factors and differences of perception and their impact on risk management (“Exploring Risk Dimensions in the Indian Software Industry,” Sharma, Sengupta, and Gupta)...

From the editor

In this issue of the Project Management Journal, the reader will explore understanding better the contribution of project management to organizational performance, discovering the necessity to move beyond the old reigning paradigm of single-loop project control, raising the question whether PMP® certification leads to better performance, learning how to develop project management competence through a course based on service learning and an experiential learning approach, supporting new product development with the use of “dormant knowledge,” and increasing performance of virtual new product development projects...

The case for good reviewing

After some years of remarkable growth, the scholarly field of Project Management (PM) research currently finds itself in a crucial stage of development. In this editorial, we make an analysis of submissions to PM's premier specialty journal, the International Journal of Project Management over the period 2007–2010, and argue that one of the most important ways in which PM research can further evolve is to pay more attention to the mundane, yet important, act of good reviewing — an activity that we believe has received relatively little attention in the PM community thus far. Let us begin by considering the crucial juncture that, as a scholarly discipline, PM is currently at. On the one hand, the PM research field is characterized by signs of major progress. For one, there has been a strong growth in terms of published output: recent years have seen the publication of three major edited volumes with a central focus on PM, published by top-tier publishers (Cattani et al., 2011, Kenis et al., 2009 and Morris et al., 2011); the PM/temporary organizations literature published in ISI ranked peer-reviewed articles is growing exponentially (Bakker, 2010); and besides some of the long-standing PM specialty journals, the field has recently seen the rise of a number of new journals, including the International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, the International Journal of Project Organisation and Management, and the Journal of Project, Program, and Portfolio Management.

Innovative Products Focus Group Report 2012. Brisbane: QUT

This report presents the results of Phase 3 of the Innovative Road Products Project: National Focus Groups. The groups developed solutions to address the most important obstacles constraining the adoption of innovative products in Australian road construction projects. The Innovative Products Survey, the major Project deliverable in 2011, and the largest innovation survey ever undertaken in the Australian road consutrction industry, results in the identification of key obstacles constraining the adoption of innovative products on road projects.

An exploratory review of whole life cycle costing for Malaysia property development

The demand of implementing Whole Life Cycle Costing (WLCC) towards property development has increased since the launch of Value Management Circular 3/2009 by the Economic Planning Unit Malaysia. The circular made compulsory for all public construction projects and programme including property development estimated more than RM 50 Million to conduct WLCC. However, a knowledge gap on WLCC approach still exists and become a barrier among the practitioner in Malaysia particularly in property development industry. The main focus of this paper is to discuss the WLCC approach and introduce the indicator that need to be considered in Malaysia property development.

Ranked critical factors in PPP briefings

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are increasingly used to procure Australian infrastructure projects. As with all construction projects, the early briefing stages are often the most crucial in determining a successful outcome. There is, however, a lack of systematic research on the type and nature of the critical factors affecting the effectiveness and efficiency of PPP during this period. A literature review is presented of PPP usage in Australia, in which four main categories of factors (procurement, stakeholder, risk, and finance) are identified, each with several subfactors. A questionnaire survey involving state government stakeholders is also described, and a mathematical model that ranks the factors involved is developed. This is followed by an examination of the potential of the factors to help improve the PPP briefing stage for both public and private sectors.

From outpost to outback : project career paths in Australia

With the growth in project management as a form of work organisation in many sectors of the economy has come the significant rise in the number of project managers and project team members. This change in work organisation brings issues in forging career paths and determining career support in work situations that are often dynamic, short lived and intense. In the relatively small but substantially robust Australian economy, a unique labour market and the tyranny of distance bring their own difficulties. Innovative and collaborative project structures and increasing prevalence of contract work provide both challenges and opportunities for new career pathways in many industries. A growing percentage of Australia's workforce is employed in project-based or project-oriented organisations, leading to the claim that Australia is a project-based economy. This provided a context for our research into the career paths and the issues of career management for project managers working in a project based economy. Using in-depth interviews with project managers from three industry areas we found generational and gender differences in experiences of work, workplace support and mentoring for career development. For a continued strong performance in this economy,organisations that employ project personnel will need to consider how they will ensure the supply of high quality project professionals into the future.

Configuring processes and business documents : an integrated approach to enterprise systems collaboration

Enterprise Systems (ES) provide standardized, off-theshelf support for operations and management within organizations. With the advent of ES based on a serviceoriented architecture (SOA) and an increasing demand of IT-supported interorganizational collaboration, implementation projects face paradigmatically new challenges. The configuration of ES is costly and error-prone. Dependencies between business processes and business documents are hardly explicit and foster component proliferation instead of reuse. Configurative modeling can support the problem in two ways: First, conceptual modeling abstracts from technical details and provides more intuitive access and overview. Second, configuration allows the projection of variants from master models providing manageable variants with controlled flexibility. We aim at tackling the problem by proposing an integrated model-based framework for configuring both, processes and business documents, on an equal basis; as together, they constitute the core business components of an ES.

Project success ideas

QUT Learning and Teaching Unit QUT Grants Workshops 2. Undertaking a Successful Project The purpose of this workshop was to assist QUT grant recipients to make connections, identify synergies and build a sense of scholarly community with each other; leverage grants outwards and possibly upwards; share factors that should be considered to undertake a successful project. Presenter: Shannon Satherley. "Initial Planning = Flexibility, Sanity & Success (or at least honourable failure) 1. Top & Tail 2. Divide and Delineate 3. Communicate Clearly & Consistently"

Community engagement : creating sustainable futures by design

QUT Alumni and Development Office, Engagement and Partnerships Seminar 'Managing Partnerships' As part of a week of engagement/partnership activities, this seminar outlined the engagement practices of 'Sustainable Futures by Design' and the BAC partnership. Presenters of two QUT Engagement Innovation projects discussed how emphasis on how the project benefited their work and the university generally, especially through the partnership, including through enhanced teaching and research. They outlined the principles and practices of good partnership management. Presenters: Shannon Satherley & Les Dawes: Community Engagement: Creating Sustainable Futures by Design Ashantha Goonetilleke & Bernard Murchison: QUT - BAC Partnership Satherley & Dawes: 'Developing and Maintaining the Partnerships: giving and receiving; expecting the unexpected; administration; enjoying the rewards.'C

Towards green universities : a decision support framework for green roof and living wall implementation

This research examined why university campus development has not fully embraced green technology despite common expectations. Semi-structured interviews and a Delphi Study explored universities’ organisational issues and delivery processes for projects with a sustainability focus. Critical organisational components and their internal relationships were studied, and critical factors for project success identified. A decision-making framework was developed to provide strategic directions for universities to optimise organisational environment and overcome barriers in order to better deliver sustainable projects on campuses.

A discourse on the non-method

In spite of the activism of professional bodies and researchers, empirical evidence shows that project management still does not deliver the expected benefits and promises. Hence, many have questioned the validity of the hegemonic rationalist paradigm anchored in the Enlightenment and Natural Sciences tradition supporting project management research and practice for the last 60 years and the lack of relevance to practice of the current conceptual base of project management. In order to address these limitations many authors, taking a post-modernist stance in social sciences, build on ‘pre-modern’ philosophies such as the Aristotelian one, specially emphasizing the role of praxis (activity), and phronesis (practical wisdom, prudence). Indeed, ‘Praxis … is the central category of the philosophy which is not merely an interpretation of the world, but is also a guide to its transformation …’ (Vazquez, 1977:. 149). Therefore, praxis offers an important focus for practitioners and researchers in social sciences, one in which theory is integrated with practice at the point of intervention. Simply stated, praxis can serve as a common ground for those interested in basic and applied research by providing knowledge of the reality in which action, informed by theory, takes place. Consequently, I suggest a ‘praxeological’ style of reasoning (praxeology being defined as study or science of human actions and conduct, including praxis, practices and phronesis) and to go beyond the ‘Theory-Practice’ divide. Moreover, I argue that we need to move away from the current dichotomy between the two classes ‘scholars experts-researchers’ and ‘managers/workers-practitioners-participants’. Considering one single class of ‘PraXitioner’, becoming a phronimos, may contribute to create new perspectives and open up new ways of thinking and acting in project situations. Thus, I call for a Perestroika in researching and acting in project management situations. My intent is to suggest a balanced praxeological view of the apparent opposition between social and natural science approaches. I explore, in this chapter, three key questions, covering the ontological, epistemological and praxeological dimensions of project management in action. 1. Are the research approaches being currently used appropriate for generating contributions that matter to both theory and practice with regards to what a ‘project’ is or to what we do when we call a specific situation ‘a project’? 2. On the basis of which intellectual virtues is the knowledge generated and what is the impact for theory and practice? 3. Are the modes of action of the practitioners ‘prudent’ and are they differentiating or reconciling formal and abstract rationality from substantive rationality and situated reasoning with regards to the mode of action they adopt in particular project situations? The investigation of the above questions leads me to debate about ‘Project Management-as-Praxis’, and to suggest ‘A’ (not ‘THE’) ‘praxeological’ style of reasoning and mode of inquiry – acknowledging a non-paradigmatic, subjective and kaleidoscopic perspective – for ‘Knowing-as-Practicing’ in project management. In short, this is about making a ‘Projects Science’ that matters.

Acting and knowing in temporary and project-based organizing : turning from the practice world to a liberation praxeology?

The purpose of this article is to offer a critical discussion about the “practice” lens and its weaknesses in addressing acting and knowledge & competence development in the context of temporary and project-based organizing. I demonstrate that “practice turn” and “phronetic proposal” are dual and opposite perspectives within the “practice” world, none of them being fully relevant to grasp project organizing and that each of them maintain the opposition between the “observer” and the “natives “of the practices. I suggest an alternate style of reasoning in order to address the dissatisfaction in face of problems, antinomies, perplexities and contradictions generated by the dichotomous thinking: a liberation praxeology rooted in Aristotle philosophy aiming, through praxis & phronesis and practical acquired experience & perfecting actualization, at reconciling facts & values and means & ends, and Ethics & Politics in the quest for human happiness and social good through project organizing.

Alternative modes of entrepreneurial opportunity exploitation

While entrepreneurship research has taken firm formation to be the predominant mode of opportunity exploitation, entrepreneurship can take place through many other types of organizational arrangements. In the present article, we consider one such alternative arrangement, namely the formation of inter-organizational projects (IOPs). We propose a multi-level contingency model that suggests that uncertainty both at the level of the firm and at the level of the environment makes the exploitation of opportunities through IOPs more likely. The model is tested by telephone survey data collected amongst a panel of 1725 SMEs and longitudinal industry data. Our findings provide strong support for the industry-level part of the model, but interestingly, only partial support for the firm level part of the model. This indicates that the effects of uncertainty need to be dissected into different levels of analysis to understand the conditions under which alternative modes of opportunity exploitation can be a prominent entrepreneurial alternative to new firm formation.

Work motivation as a determinant of organisational and professional commitment in temporary organisations : theoretical lenses and propositions

The purpose of this paper is to present a theoretical framework to investigate the relationship between work motivation, organisational commitment and professional commitment in temporary organisations. Through a review of theory, we contend that work motivation has two major patterns — internal motivation (which includes intrinsic, need-based and self-deterministic theories), and external motivation (which includes cognitive or process-based theories of motivation) through which it has been investigated. We also hold the nature of employee commitment to be of three types — affective, continuance and normative. This commitment may be towards either the organisation or the profession. A literature review revealed that the characteristics of the temporary organisation — specifically tenure and task — regulate the relationship between work motivation, organisational commitment and professional commitment. Testable propositions are presented.