project management

Module 1: Introduction to Project Management (Created by Dr A

Cabello, 2020)

Institution: Platform

Site: ENGG951 (S221) Engineering Project Management

Book: Module 1: Introduction to Project Management (Created by Dr A Cabello, 2020)

Printed by:

Dixitkumar Pravinbhai Patel

Date: Thursday, 9 September 2021, 5:16 PM

Table of contents

1. What is a project?

2. The nature of project-based undertakings

3. Engineering projects 3.1. Case Example: The Seacliff Bridge 3.2. What Makes Engineering Projects Different?

4. The Project Lifecycle

5. Key Challenges Associated with Managing Projects

6. Project Management Competences & PMBOK

7. Why Projects Fail

8. APPENDIX: Agile Project Management

9. References

10. Glossary 10.1. Stakeholders 10.2. The 'front-end effort' in managing projects? 10.3. Research and Development Projects 10.4. Project, programs and portfolios of projects 10.5. Project Management 'bodies of knowledge'

1. What is a project?

In all likelihood, you may have followed with interest the construction of a bridge or the construction of infrastructure and facilities for a major event like the Olympics. A  major political campaign dominating the media may have caught your attention or you may have recently enjoyed watching the latest blockbuster film from one of your favourite producers. All of these examples have something in common in the way they were planned and executed. They are examples of projects, which is quite distinct to what you may have experienced as a day to day activity if you have ever worked for, a retail store, warehouse, manufacturing facility or a mine site. There are some fundamental differences in the nature of work involved and the various processes followed in the two situations and therefore, the management challenges associated with them, as well.

The work involved in the retail, warehouse, manufacturing examples cited above is largely repetitive, whereas that of the former group including the construction projects, the political campaign and the production of a movie are mostly ‘one of a kind’ endeavours. In addition to this, undertakings like the construction of a bridge or an Olympic venue, have a definite start, as well as an end date, compared to the continuous operations seen in a retail or manufacturing business. As a consequence of these and many other differences, the competencies required to manage those two types of activities are also significantly different.    

This module explores the nature of project-based undertakings and associated management challenges in some detail and introduces the concepts of project lifecycle and project management competence.

2. The nature of project-based undertakings

In addition to being a unique, one time undertaking, the major characteristics of a project include:

An established objective. A defined lifespan with a beginning and an end. Usually, the involvement of several departments and professionals. Typically, doing something that has never been done before. Specific time, cost, and performance requirements. Involves a degree of uncertainty or unpredictability

Consequently, the definition of a project which will be used during this course is "a unique, one- time endeavour, limited by time, budget, resource and specifications which consists of a number of varied and inter-dependent activities, which are intended to achieve a desired end- result".

This definition sets projects apart from other routine undertakings used in prior examples that might be thought of as "business as usual". In a more practical sense, an organisation may initiate a project to develop a new product, implement a new information technology system or upgrade an old system, or a project may be implemented to execute a major productivity improvement effort. Although projects such as these, are undertakings which are considered to be above and beyond "business as usual" for an organisation, it is important to recognise that they operate within an organisation's broader environment, where there are a number of players other than the project team who might impact on the outcome of a project and in which environment there may exist policies, protocols and work practices with which the project will need to comply. Consequently, the approaches or mechanisms used to deliver projects must take these environmental factors into account.

These processes and the skills required to manage them successfully are substantially different from those suitable for routine operations. Routine or repetitive operations are commonly more effectively and efficiently carried out with functionally organised structures and specific equipment or resources, including highly specialised labour. For example, a manufacturing operation can utilise dedicated production-assembly lines run by semi-skilled operators (line workers) to produce a standard product in high volumes. By comparison, projects which are by definition "unique" undertakings, are often accomplished through temporary multi-disciplinary teams and sometimes drawing on a common pool of resources.        

Projects are undertaken in a wide variety of environments and often involve working closely with a range of stakeholders . For example, the work involved and management challenges associated with building a high-rise apartment complex would be substantially different, depending on: the location, the materials and labour availability;  soil and climate conditions; socio-economic conditions; political-regulatory regimes, as well as other factors such as whether it is built on a Greenfield or a Brownfield site. The array of stakeholders associated with such a project would be far broader than just the project team itself and might include: the project sponsors, suppliers of materials, energy and labour; contractors and consultants; government agencies and regulatory bodies; lobby groups and the local community directly impacted by the project. Dealing with the diverse interests and expectations of these stakeholders is an integral part of managing such projects.

A project may be run exclusively to achieve its own localised objectives or it may be a part of a larger group of projects related to a strategic endeavour that are referred to as a program or a portfolio.  A ‘program’ is a collection of projects that are grouped together to achieve a common set of goals. Whilst a ‘portfolio of projects’ is a collection of projects and/or programs organised together to achieve a broader set of strategic (organisational) objectives that may not necessarily be closely related to each other in terms of their scope, or resources requirements etc., but it would still be useful to group them together in a strategic sense. The focus of this course and these modules is at the "Project " level.

Learning Module Lecture Video: What is a Project?

 Activity- Drag and drop

Can you summarise the differences between project-based undertakings and routine operations against the three dimensions given in the table below?

 Check

Nature of work involved

Delivery methods employed

Outputs or deliverables

PROJECT-BASED UNDERTAKINGS ROUTINE OPERATIONS

process-focused; highly skilled people 

one-off; multi-disciplinary; time- bound

low variety; high volume

product-focused: dedicated equipment; semi-skilled people 

high variety; low volume

repetitive; routine; specialised

3. Engineering projects

Project management as an approach to managing organisational undertakings has been increasingly recognised by industry as an effective approach. Apart from industry sectors such as defence, aerospace, construction and manufacturing, where project management has been an established practice for some time, there are an increasing number of other industry sectors, including information technology, pharmaceutical and research and development, that have embraced the project-based approach as an effective way to run their business activities. Additionally, other endeavours such as emergency responses to major events, organisational restructuring and new technology implementation have also vastly benefitted from adopting a project-based approach. These developments pose the broad question ‘Are the concepts and techniques of project management equally applicable to all industry sectors or all types of project?’.

However, in the context of this module, our immediate attention is drawn to the following question.             

Are engineering projects different to other types of projects?  Read the case example of the Seacliff bridge which follows and consider this question.

3.1. Case Example: The Seacliff Bridge

Lawrence Hargrave Drive, is the coastal stretch of road which connects the northern suburbs of Wollongong to Sydney. It was built in the 1860s and later named after the famous Australian aviation pioneer Lawrence Hargrave. It is considered as one of the most scenic roads in Australia. However, it was notorious for rock falls, embankment slips, mud and rock slides due to high rainfall, marine erosion, weak rock and the weathering of rock features.

The construction of the Seacliff Bridge, located on the Lawrence Hargrave Drive, 60kms south of Sydney, is widely considered as an exemplary engineering project. This bridge project was undertaken between 2003 and 2005 to address the difficulties faced by the community due to constant road closures and the safety issues caused by rockfalls and mud slips. The scope of work included a road upgrade of nearly 1km, including the bridge with a total length of 665m, a mudslide chute and catchment basin, significant rock face reshaping and stabilisation work. The main structure is a curved, balanced cantilever bridge (BCB) adjoining a 150m radius curved incrementally launched bridge (ILB). The construction of safe access roads on acceptable grades on unstable slopes was one of the most significant challenges.

The construction of Sea Cliff Bridge was quite a complex project, with a number of technical hurdles to be overcome. For example, the complexity of the balanced curved bridge design meant that each constructed five-metre segment had different angles, falls, slope and post- tensioning characteristics. This necessitated millimetric accuracy, first, in the surveying of the preceding segment and, then, in the placement calculations, so that when tons of plastic concrete was poured into the carefully located traveller formwork, it was in the right position to be tensioned and become part of the advancing cantilever structure. Likewise, the complexity of the varied nature of the five geotechnical domains across the site meant that each afforded a different risk level, due to both changes in the topography and the nature of the underlying geological strata. Proximity to the chlorine-laden ocean spray, coupled with the design constraint of a 100-year life span for the bridge, led to the inclusion of an impressed current cathodic corrosion prevention system, and the necessity for micromanagement of concrete quality control to ensure the greatest possible density and resistance to chloride attack.

The project was delivered 3 months ahead of schedule, under an alliance agreement between the then New South Wales Road and Traffic Authority (RTA) and several private sector companies at a cost of $52 million. It suffered zero lost-time injuries from 285,000 man-hours – much of it working at heights – and featured not less than 135 separate innovations, creating an iconic structure for the people of the Illawarra region and a pure alliance exemplar for the RTA and the wider construction industry (Source: www.seacliffbridge.com; accessed on 12 December 2012).

3.2. What Makes Engineering Projects Different?

Hopefully as you read the Seacliff Bridge example - you were able to reflect on the question of "are engineering projects different to other types of projects?

The answer is that in some respects - yes, engineering projects do demonstrate different characteristics to other types of projects. First, the nature of technical content or physical work involved in the construction of the Seacliff Bridge is very different to that of organising a major sporting event or an organisational restructuring initiative. A consequence of the very technical content often demonstrated in engineering projects also leads to a reliance on and reference to "standards". Engineering projects like this bridge typically place greater emphasis on the front- end effort, for example, fleshing out the viability of a project, through pre-feasibility and feasibility studies, before executing the project which as was the case for the Seacliff bridge may take an extensive period of time and in some cases years to complete. An organisational restructuring project, on the other hand, will certainly require some significant planning and consultation but ultimately they may well come into effect over the course of a very short period of time. Similarly, organising a major sporting event may involve extensive planning, including stakeholder consultation, tendering processes, and negotiations with third-party service providers etc., but the actual event itself would not last that long. Keep in mind however that this is a generalisation and not all engineering projects are of the same scale as the Seacliff bridge, they do however have the potential to be so. 

Watch the following lecture video extract in which yet another example of a large engineering project is discussed in relation to "are engineering projects different to other types of projects?

Learning Module Lecture Video: What is an engineering project?

Regardless of the project, the management processes across different types of projects could be quite similar. Whether it is a new technology development project or a corporate restructuring project, managing the work and people involved would involve, for example, identifying and defining the problem, assigning responsibilities for individuals, planning the actual tasks, scheduling the resources and coordinating the work, as well as monitoring, controlling and communicating the progress of the project. Does that mean the management challenges in all these projects are also similar? Most of the time, they are not! We will further explore this aspect in later sections of this module, but for now, let’s look at the general lifecycle of projects and the characteristics of each phase.

4. The Project Lifecycle

As discussed previously, projects are one off endeavours with a definite start date and finish date. There is also another distinction of project-based undertakings, when compared to routine operations – if we look at the nature of work or work processes involved, we can identify some discernible phases, relative to time, over the duration of a project, as shown in Figure 1.1. You would find different terms used in different text books to denote these phases; such as ‘initiation, planning, implementing and delivery’, but they all convey the same concept – i.e. a project progresses thorough distinct phases: starting; preparing; carrying out the actual work; and finishing. You would also appreciate that the duration of each phase, as well as the overall duration of the project may vary substantially from project to project. However, the project management processes that come under each phase would, more or less, remain the same – for example, project definition or initiation phase will include: identifying, evaluating and selecting suitable projects; defining the scope of projects; and creating work breakdown structures – irrespective of the type of project.

Figure 1.1: Project life cycle stages (Adopted from Larson and Gray, 2021)

As you could see in Figure 1.1 above, the level of effort that goes into completing a project gradually builds up during the early phases of its life cycle to reach a peak within the execution phase before shrinking back during the closing phase. Together, these characteristics of a project make them compare against other organic entities such as living beings – as if they go through the stages of a finite ‘life cycle’. You may also have heard of other applications of the life cycle concept, for example, as used in explaining the dynamics of the adoption and diffusion of new products and technology. The life cycle concept can be quite useful in understanding and explaining what aspects to focus on, or where the emphasis should be on, over the duration of a project.

For example, Figure 1.2  below illustrates the potential to add value during the early phases of a project (compared to the later phases) through design changes and improved methods etc. and the increasing cost incurred in changing the scope of a project, as the project progresses, thereby highlighting the importance of the front-end effort in ensuring project success.

An understanding of the life cycle concept can also be useful in communicating the progress of the project as it provides a common frame of reference that can be easily interpreted by all stakeholders. Similar to the relationship between opportunities to add value vs. cost to change illustrated above, we can also see how stakeholder influence, risk and uncertainty on project performance vary across the difference phases. These aspects will be discussed later in the course.

Learning Module Lecture Video: The Project Lifecycle

 Activity - Drag and Drop

Place the below draggable options into the appropriate Lifecycle stage of a project.

Options

PlanningDefining Executing Closing

Create Forecasts

Assign Responsibilities

Define Scope

Determine Resources Required

Status Reports

Calculate Budget

Train Customer

Hand Over Documentation

 Check

5. Key Challenges Associated with Managing Projects

In most cases, the success of a project is measured in terms of the timely delivery of an end product to meet agreed criteria, within an allocated (finite) budget. ‘Managing a project’ broadly refers to discharging or performing the general functions of management – planning, organising, leading and controlling – to accomplish project goals. More specifically, these general management functions manifest in the form of defining, planning, executing, coordinating, communicating, monitoring and controlling the resources, activities or performance of a project to deliver outcomes that meet stakeholder expectations. As such, managing a project requires prudent application of knowledge, skills and appropriate tools and techniques, as well as the possession of a desirable set of personal attributes.

However, the successful delivery of project outcomes may depend on a range of other factors and circumstances some of which may be beyond the control of the project team. To help you understand these challenges and the attributes required to meet the challenges presented during a project watch the following video and attempt the activities that follow.

If you are having trouble with this video, view on Youtube.

 Question

Can you identify some challenges that a project manager might face when running a project - as presented in the above video?

The scale, diversity and novelty of the scope of work can introduce intricacies, dependencies and ambiguities that are difficult to grasp and deal with within the capacity of human cognition. Management challenges associated with these aspects could be overcome, to a degree, by taking a systems perspective: for example, breaking the larger and more sophisticated tasks into subtasks that can be defined with better clarity; identifying the relationships between those tasks and between the subtasks and major tasks; and understanding and dealing with the impact or consequences of those relationships on project performance.              

Virtually every project has multiple stakeholders, often, with wide-ranging expectations and therefore, effectively dealing with the stakeholders and their expectations is one of the most crucial and challenging aspects of managing a project. Additionally, despite all the efforts that would have gone into defining a project scope agreeable to all key stakeholders at the project initiation stage, it is not unusual that a project manager might still face the precarious situation where the project sponsor or customer wanting to change the scope of the project at a later stage. Such situations can not only undermine the efficacy of planning, but also diminish the morale and motivation of the project team, thus posing major difficulties for the project manager. Although an experienced and skilful project manager may successfully deal with these challenges through the application of foresight, effective negotiation and communication skills, managing stakeholder expectations has proven to be a pitfall in many projects.          

  saved

 Submit

The setting in which a particular project is undertaken can also have a significant impact on the success of the project. As we touched on the previous section, most of the environmental factors may be linked to the physical or geographical location of a project – for example, market conditions, as we’ll as the legal, political and industry landscapes – that are often beyond the control of the project team. Lack of capacity of a project manager or the project team to predict and control the impact of external influences can lead to project failure, particularly, if the sources of risks associated with such influences are not identified, and effective responses to mitigate the impact of those risks on project performance are not developed.   

Apart from the major challenges discussed above, there are many other aspects of projects and their environment that make the job of a project manager rather challenging and demanding, but we would not go thorough all of them here. Overall, the aspects that make the management of a project challenging can relate to: 

the nature of the tasks involved, such as the scale and interdependencies;  the nature of methods or technologies used, such as the development of new technology or advanced products;  the number and diversity of stakeholders and their expectations, say for example, construction of a high-speed rail track linking two cities; and  the influences from the internal organisational or external environment, as with the case of projects undertaken in highly unionised industry sectors or politically unstable countries.

 Activity - Drag and Drop

Organise the management challenges discussed so far, including those presented in the NASA video, into three groups: project scope; project personnel; and project environment.

 Check

Options

Project PersonnelProject Scope Project Environment

Keeping our stakeholders involved and informed

Making sure the team understand your expectations

Building the right team

Getting the team to recognise they need each other to do this job

Working together for a higher purpose is what achieves the goal

G

Motivating the team and keeping them informed

Learn to listen to your people

The size of the projects

Encourage out of the box ideas - lead by example

Continuously improve the process

Record and pass on what you have learned

G

Creating an environment where the team understands the goal and is

motivated achieve it

G

Agreeing to disagree and open communication

Everything we do is about the people Ensuring projects get what they need

to be executed succesfully Planning activities to see problems

as far ahead as possible

There can only be one driver of the car

Work with the best data that you have but don't waiting for 100% of

the data

Making sure the team understand what needs to be done

Making sure stakeholder concerns have been heard

G

 Question

  saved

Can you identify the management skills required to successfully deal with those challenges?

 Submit

6. Project Management Competences & PMBOK

In order to successfully navigate through the challenges discussed in the previous section, project mangers need to have developed a knowledge and understanding of relevant concepts, tools and techniques. They then also require the skill set to apply these knowledge, tools and techniques, in practice. In addition, being a successful project manager requires certain personal attributes and behavioural traits that allows them to effectively function in a leadership role, within complex and dynamic environments – these knowledge, skills and personal attributes are collectively known as competence.

In the remainder of this section, we will have a closer look at ‘project management competence’ and how it can be useful in studying project management. We will first look at the three core areas of project manager competence widely cited in project management literature:

i. technical expertise applicable to particular domains of professional practice – for example, engineering, construction, defence, pharmaceutical and information technology;

ii. knowledge and understanding of project management concepts, methods and tools, and the ability to apply them in practice; and

iii. human and behavioural skills, including negotiation, conflict resolution and change management.

Technical knowledge pertaining to specific areas of professional practice is generally considered to be a basic requirement for project management roles and, in most cases, project managers are technically qualified practitioners. However, as a project manager progresses to senior ranks, what is really necessary is an appreciation of the managerial challenges brought about by the technical sophistication of a project rather than an in-depth understanding of the technical aspects per se. This notion is supported by the fact that most contemporary projects are of multidisciplinary nature and, therefore, it is unlikely that a single project manager possesses the breadth and depth of technical expertise to cover multiple discipline areas – besides, it is customary that project managers seek input from technical experts or consultants, as needed. 

There is a well-developed set of project management concepts, tools and techniques that have been developed over time, based on the thinking that taking a structured and proactive approach to managing projects will lead to better results. These are codified into what is referred to as the Project Management body of Knowledge or PMBOK which will form the basis of discussions in later modules. An overview of the four major project management bodies of knowledge adopted by professional associations can be found here. Software tools also play a key role in the efficient management of project information, particularly, for coordination and control purposes. This will be the focus of the computer labs you will undertake during this course.

The third category of project management competence emphasises the significance of a range of human and behavioural skills, for example, interpersonal, communication and motivation – commonly referred to as ‘soft’ skills. While the competencies identified in category 1 and 2 above are essential for project management success, it is these soft skills that differentiate high performing project managers from the rest. Building on these basic soft skills, project managers are also expected to develop skills and personal attributed required in such areas as negotiation, conflict resolution and change management as they progress to take on greater responsibilities. Therefore, it is essential that competencies relating to the application of project management methods and tools be supplemented by a range of soft skills.

In addition to the competencies discussed above, senior project management practitioners who manage large projects, programs or portfolios of projects, are expected to posses more advanced competencies demanded by a range of contextual circumstances comprising of strategic, political and legal dimensions – for example, to negotiate with and influence powerful stakeholders and to foresee the sources and impact of risks associated with entering into strategic partnerships. There are also growing concerns that the traditional approaches to project management which emphasise planning and control are inadequate to deal with the challenges in complex projects. While acknowledging the value of traditional PM tools in situations where project goals are clear and remain relatively stable over time, many authors, as well as senior practitioners, have emphasised the need to be flexible to deal with the challenges brought about by the complexity and uncertainties that characterises some projects. Some authors have even claimed that managing complex projects requires new or radically different ways of thinking and conceptualising, as well as competencies in new areas of practice. However, we will not deal with these aspects in these modules or this course. Our focus will be at the "Project" level.

Watch the following video extract from a past lecture that discusses both the basic competencies required of a project manager and the PMBOK.

Learning Module Lecture Video: What is Project Management and PMBOK

 Activity Our focus during this course will be on the PMI methodology, although there are many other effective project management methodologies. This is codified in their PMBOK guide. As a student of UOW you have access to the latest edition of the PMBOK guide. The Moodle file containing all of the important links to both the latest PMBOK guide and electronic copies of the text book available in the UOW library is provided in the 'TEXT BOOK & PMBOK EPUB' section of this Moodle site.

Identify the various Areas of Knowledge that are required by a Project Manager. This will help you understand the context of each weeks content that we will cover.

7. Why Projects Fail

As you will learn during this course despite a projects managers best efforts in up front planning there are times when projects will fail. The failure of large engineering projects have a significant impact on the bottom line of the organisations who are managing the projects or relying on the outcome of these projects. However, it should also be recognised that the competitive climate in which many organisations find themselves, has created a situation in which often a single organisation may be implementing many small improvement or innovation projects concurrently. This situation creates a range of problems across programs and portfolios with multiple projects competing for resources and opening the organisation to risk. The effective management of risk, resources and budget amongst other variables is important in a small project, as it is in a large project, but more often than not, the same degree of scrutiny or control is not applied to smaller projects. This is often because individually they are not perceived to have a significant impact on the organisation, however when viewed holistically their combined impact can be significant.

It is of value to understand some of the reasons why projects can fail and often it is not a case of people not following the plan but a range of other variables which impact a projects success. As you progress through this course we will discuss a number of elements that can impact the success of projects, some authors argue that the common ailments of failed projects can be grouped around three key themes.

poor governance inadequate project management lack of effective leadership.

Watch the following extract from a past lecture, in which this topic and these themes are discussed.

Learning Module Lecture Video: Why Do Projects Fail?

8. APPENDIX: Agile Project Management

Agile project management is an iterative approach to delivering a project throughout its life cycle.

Iterative or agile life cycles are composed of several iterations or incremental steps towards the completion of a project. Iterative approaches are frequently used in software development projects to promote velocity and adaptability since the benefit of iteration is that you can adjust as you go along rather than following a linear path. One of the aims of an agile or iterative approach is to release benefits throughout the process rather than only at the end. At the core, agile projects should exhibit central values and behaviors of trust, flexibility, empowerment and collaboration.

This concept may be referred to throughout the course and therefore it is worth taking some time to understand the basics of this approach. 

Watch the following video extract from a past lecture that discusses the AGILE philosophy.

Learning Module Lecture Video: Agile Project Management

9. References

Crawford, L (2005) ‘Senior Management Perceptions of Project Management Competence’, International Journal of Project Management, vol.23, no.1, pp7-16.

Kiridena, S. and Sense, A. (2011) Advanced Project Management Training Needs, Cooperative Research Centre for Rail Innovation, Australia. 

Morris, P W G, Crawford, L, Hodgson, D, Shepherd, M M & Thomas, J (2006) ‘Exploring the Role of Formal Bodies of Knowledge in Defining a Profession', International Journal of Project Management, vol.24, no.8, pp710-721.

PMI, A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK guide) : and, Agile practice guide, Sixth Edition, 2017, 

10. Glossary

Module 1: Supplementary Information

10.1. Stakeholders

Stakeholders are broadly defined as those individuals or groups who have an interest in, or influence on, the project. The groups that come to your mind immediately would be the project sponsor or client and project team – usually they have the highest ‘stake’ in the project and its outcomes. Other groups that may have a direct or indirect interest and influence include contractors, suppliers, potential users or beneficiaries and the community at large. From a management perspective it is important to identify the different types of stakeholder groups and assess their interests in, and influence on, the project so that appropriate strategies are devised to deal with their influence on the project’s performance. Stakeholder management is a topic we will discuss in more detail in a separate module.

10.2. The 'front-end effort' in managing projects?

The front-end effort refers to the concerted efforts – in terms of selection, design and planning – put into a project during the early stages so that the expected project outcomes are delivered at the minimum life cycle cost. You would recall that the ability to influence changes in design is quite high and the cost to make those changes is relatively low during the early stages of a project (Figure 1.2). Although the time and money spent during the early phases of a project – for instance, on feasibility studies and prototype building may appear substantial and not tangible results, these costs often turn out to be minor compared to the alternative of the costs and effort required to make changes at a later stage in the project. The front-end effort plays out a big part in engineering projects, as the overall success of the project heavily depends on the feasibility of economically delivering a technically and environmentally sound product. The investigations of many highly publicised project failures such as the Challenger space shuttle disaster, Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the emergency response to Hurricane Katrina have all revealed a lack of robust front-end efforts in one form or another (information about these failures are accessible through online sources).

10.3. Research and Development Projects

Research and development (R&D) projects have special characteristics that make them different to many other projects like civil engineering construction, design and engineering and information technology. By the virtue of their very nature, they pursue unknown results and are most of the time unstructured. The scope of work in R&D projects is difficult to define, and they largely rely on the creativity, ingenuity and imagination of individuals. However, their success depends on the collective efforts of high-performance teams. R&D projects often demand large investments, but they are characterised by long pay back periods and high failure rates. For the same reasons, it is difficult to monitor and evaluate their performance.      

These characteristics demand a rather different approach to managing R&D projects. Once you have come to understand all of the knowledge areas covered in PMBOK, a discussion of the application of PMBOK to R&D projects will be the topic of the final module in this series.

10.4. Project, programs and portfolios of projects

A ‘project’ is a unique, one-time endeavour consisting of a large number of varied and inter- dependent activities. Often, an organisation will have more than one project running at a given time, and they may well be related to each other. A ‘program’ is a collection of projects (often related to each other in some way) that are grouped together (and managed as such) to achieve a common set of goals – for example: a manufacturing company may have three process improvement projects concurrently run across three plants and to be competed within two years, aimed at improving the productivity of their operations; and NASA’s space shuttle program included three projects: project Apollo; project Mercury and project Gemini, which ran sequentially over a period of 30 years. By comparison, a ‘portfolio of projects’ is a collection of projects and/or programs organised together to achieve a broader set of strategic (organisational) objectives. These projects may not necessarily be closely related to each other in terms of their scope, or resources requirements etc., but it would still be useful to group them together in a strategic sense. An example is the ‘National Research Flagships’ is a portfolio of programs run by the CSIRO to increase the impact of industry-focused, collaborative research in addressing Australia’s national research priorities. As such, the management challenges and the emphasis placed on project management concepts, tools and techniques in each of theses cases would be quite different.

10.5. Project Management 'bodies of knowledge'

Bodies of knowledge or ‘stock of knowledge’, in a broader sense, infer the sum total of knowledge embodied in a variety of codified forms pertaining to a particular discipline area (Kiridena and Sense, 2011). However, in the context  of project management the term ‘body of knowledge’ refers to the frameworks of knowledge or competency standards expected of project management practitioners, to effectively perform in a professional capacity. The competency standards built into these frameworks form the basis for certification of professionals and the accreditation of education and training programs in the area of project management. They are also used as frameworks for guiding continuing professional development, as well as in developing internal organisational project management methodologies.

Since the publication of ‘A guide to the PM Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)’ by the US-based Project Management Institute (PMI) in the mid 1980s, there have been a number of similar BOKs introduced by other PM professional associations around the world.  Some of the most prominent BOKs include: the PMBOK® Guide and PMI IT which focuses on Agile project management for the IT industry; the competence baseline (ICB) introduced by the International Project Management Association (IPMA) headquartered in Netherlands; the Project and Program Management for Enterprise Innovation (P2M) standards promoted by the Project Management Association of Japan (PMAJ). While the PMBOK® Guide or its adapted versions are prevalent in many countries across the world, including in Australia, IPMA’s ICB and its adapted versions are claimed to be widely applied in European countries. In addition to the above three BOKs, the UK Office of Government Commerce (OGC) has introduced a process-based PM methodology called ‘PRoject IN Controlled Environments’ (PRINCE2), which is claimed to be a non-proprietary best practice guidance widely used by the UK government agencies (http://www.prince2.com/what-is-prince2.asp).

The PMBOK® Guide (6th edition) covers ten core areas of PM knowledge which include integration, scope, schedule, cost, quality, resource, communication, risk, procurement and stakeholder management.

Table 1.2: Project management process groups vs. knowledge areas (PMBOK® Guide; 6th Ed p. 25)

Although there are no major disparities between the major BOKs referred to above, “the APM BOK and P2M, are much broader in conceptual breadth and scope than the PMBOK® Guide” (Morris et al., 2006; p. 713). Additionally, the professional competency standards adopted by the IPMA and the Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM) are assessed with emphasis on demonstrable performance, whereas the competency standards of the other BOKs referred to earlier are assessed against the underpinning knowledge and skills. This distinction has been discussed in literature in terms of attribute-based vs. performance-based approaches to competency standards (Crawford, 2005). Attribute-based standards rely on knowledge, skills, experience and personality traits or behaviours that result in effective or superior performance of a person in the job whereas, performance-based standards emphasise performance demonstrable through workplace practices relevant to a particular professional or occupational area. The choice between the two may depend on the purpose and context of their application: for example, if the focus is on accreditation or selection of entry level PM practitioners then an attribute-based approach would be applied with a view to identifying those with the highest potential, whereas if the focus is on accreditation at senior levels or performance evaluation, then a performance-based approach would be preferable. However, it appears that most professional bodies have been moving towards using combined attribute-based and performance-based assessment regimes, in recent times.