Managing Strategies for the Fulfillment of Public Investment Initiatives in Guyana

MANAGING STRATEGIES FOR THE FULFILLMENT OF PUBLIC

INVESTMENT INITIATIVES IN GUYANA

Section 1: Foundation of the Study

Researchers have found weak public investment management institutions in many

low-income and developing countries (e.g., Klakegg & Volden, 2017; Volden & Samset,

2017). Khan, Waris et al. (2019) found that public institutions could considerably

increase project efficiency in the form of value for money through a prudent investment

program with business strategy alignment. Improved infrastructure investment projects

may result in long-term economic gains with links to other sectors. For example, in India,

enhanced railroads decreased trade costs with increased profits for producers and reduced

market prices, improving citizens' real income (Donaldson, 2018. The most sought-after

project management studies are those of project success factors and causes of project

failure. Project failure was first popularized as a topic for research in 1986 at the annual

Project Management Institute (PMI) seminar and symposium and has since become one

of the most discussed themes, according to Montequín et al. (2018). Researchers are

continually looking for recommendations for the necessary actions to derive the most

significant benefit from superior quality research that enhances knowledge.

Background of the Problem

While projects are the building blocks for economic development, developmental

plans will only appear as a simple wish list without successful preparation and

implementation. For example, public sector projects have not yielded their citizens'

intended results (Arezki et al., 2017). Many projects delivered poor results because of

misaligned project outcomes with government management strategies, including time,

cost and scope, cost overruns, corruption, and reduced project maintenance (Arezki et al.,

2017; Cristóbal et al., 2018; Joslin & Müller, 2016). Adeyemi and Idoko (2008)

recommended a new project model in a seminal study using PMI’s guide to project

methodology. The World Bank forged a partnership with PMI to strengthen project

management applications in developing countries. It was seen as a valuable consideration

because the institution represented the global conception for project management,

according to Waheed (2016).

Guyana is an excellent case for further study because experiences have shown no

formal guidelines within the various agencies to dictate how public projects should be

selected and managed. Often, the users do not experience the fullest benefits from the

investments (Shako, 2016). The World Bank (2018) estimated that Guyana’s gross

domestic product (GDP) would surge from the newly discovered oil and gas sector. With

increasing GDP and foreign direct investments, both will stimulate a myriad of public

and private projects in Guyana. The government can execute its public sector investment

programs (PSIP) to create competitive advantages in businesses that benefit citizens.

Problem Statement

Many PSIPs experience poor project performance and failure because of the

misalignment between the government strategies and project outcomes (Erceg & Gukam,

2018; PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2017). In a survey, strategic implementation

misalignment accounted for 37% of the common factors associated with poor

performance and project failure (PMI, 2017a). The general business problem is that the

common factors of management capability, power structures, and the external project

environment have caused project outcomes to be misaligned with government strategy.

The specific business problem is that some project managers in the public sector struggle

to maximize project performance because they lack strategies to align the project

outcomes with the government’s strategies.

Purpose Statement

The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore effective

strategies that public sector project managers can use to align the project outcomes with

government strategies to maximize project performance. The specific population was

those public sector project managers who successfully aligned their projects’ outcomes

with government strategies and worked for four project-based units within the

geographic administrative region of Demerara/Mahaica (Region 4) Guyana. They

participated in a semistructured interview and provided their perspectives and

experiences in project management, which formed the source of the data collection

process. A project is determined aligned if 80% of its expected outcomes are aligned with

the organizational strategy (PMI, 2017a). The examined project reports verified the

successful alignment from three constructs: (a) identification of set goals from the

baseline studies and how they were captured within the project goals on a percentage

basis, (b) examination of each of the alignment factors within the cost, time, and budget,

and (c) examination of the end user's satisfaction from the stated goals of both the project

and organization, all from a compliance rate of at least 80%. The study may contribute to

positive social change if project managers can use the study findings to create a

community of successful project practitioners to implement projects better.

Nature of the Study

The three research methods are qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods, each

with unique characteristics depending on the study’s purpose (Marshall & Rossman,

2016). Quantitative methods are appropriate for measuring a phenomenon’s impact,

which involves studying situations that can influence outcomes using experiments and

surveys (Molina-Azorin et al., 2017). The study objective required a deeper

understanding of the phenomenon from knowledge-gathering, which does not involve

variables. Given the qualitative nature, the research study did not include statistical tests

of variables. The design methods associated with quantitative and mixed methods were

unsuitable because qualitative research does not account for inferential statistics.

The four qualitative designs are (a) narrative, (b) phenomenological, (c)

ethnographic, and (d) case study, each with unique designs and attributes. Researchers

use the narrative design to explore a research subject's specific life experiences (Johnsen,

2016). Researchers use the phenomenological design when studying individuals’

perceptions and experiences (Neubauer et al., 2019). Ethnographic is another design used

by researchers to examine complex undertakings. Ethnographic researchers immerse

themselves within a specific context to gather the data (Fusch & Ness, 2015). The study's

purpose did not require the study of individuals’ perceptions, life stories, or immersion

into a group. Instead, I explored strategies for aligning projects’ outcomes with the

government’s strategies, so I selected a case study design. Case studies offer researchers

a better understanding of a phenomenon's “how and why” (Yin, 2018). The multiple case

study design was suitable for the study. I explored the phenomenon using open-ended

questions, observations, coding, methodological triangulation, and documentation review,

mainly because of the unclear circumstances and events when the phenomenon was

explored (see Fusch et al., 2018).

Qualitative Research Question

RQ: What strategies do public sector project managers use to align project

outcomes with government strategies to maximize project performance?

Interview/Survey Questions

1. What techniques do you use to manage relationship dynamics, engagement,

and project stakeholders' support?

2. What techniques and tools do you use to handle project attributes such as

project scope, timelines, budgets, risk, quality, and complexity?

3. What are the critical challenges associated with aligning infrastructure

projects with business management techniques and tools, and how have the

challenges been addressed?

4. What techniques do you use that allows for support and resources from the

ministry to ensure project success?

5. How and when do you leverage or mitigate organizational characteristics,

such as governance, structure, systems, incentives, and socio/cultural factors,

to ensure project management success?

6. How is the concept of alignment communicated throughout the organization,

and what are its effects on the project deliverables and milestones?

7. How do you share your personal project experiences?

8. How are issues and constraints dealt with within the project management

processes?

9. What other feedback can you provide that you think can be critical for project

success?

Conceptual Framework

The conceptual framework for the study was the contingency theory. According

to Fiedler (1964), there is no single suitable method of doing things. The contextual

setting will dictate the best workable approach, described as “job engineering.” The idea

is that a project manager's role is to find the best possible fit between the organization, its

environment, and subsystems. According to Fiedler (1964), leadership effectiveness is

helpful from two methods, the leaders’ general temperaments and the circumstances they

find themselves. Therefore, selecting an outlook broader than one tailored just for a

unique/individual project is recommended by Teller et al. (2014). The suggestion implied

that effectiveness lies in applying management behaviors to specific situations.

Researchers have found that project performance offers contradictory results

because of the varying situational and environmental factors. The contingency approach

is functional when exploring project practitioners' alignment (Floricel et al., 2016; Khan,

Waris, et al., 2019). Researchers found the contingency theory to be a simplified

approach that involves three different conceptual alignments: selection, interaction, and

systems (Joslin & Müller, 2016). Strategies, processes, and structures can affect the

project outcomes, all a logical progression of ideas between such studies' structural

elements (Saunders et al., 2016).

In approaching projects with complexity, researchers found an inverse

relationship with project success. The relationship is affected by strategy alignment, for

which seasoned project practitioners used tools, techniques, and processes for successful

alignment (Joslin & Müller, 2016). The choice of the contingency theory allows for

insights into how best to accommodate those tools, techniques, and processes with the

organization’s management strategies within a given environment to satisfy project

management's objectives (Floricel et al., 2016). The contingency theory was most

beneficial for this study because it captured project novelty and complexity. I provided a

medium by which skilled public sector project practitioners demonstrated successful

project outcomes' alignment with government strategy maximized project performance.

Operational Definitions

To avoid misinterpretation of the concepts employed, a contextual understanding

of the terms used is expressed in the following definitions:

Infrastructure project: The underlying physical system of a nation’s

transportation system, electrical system, water system, railway system, hospitals, and

other publicly accessed and government-funded projects for the sole purpose of

improving the standard of living of citizens and residents (Cole, 2017)

Project success: The result of a project meeting the expected/proposed

deliverables that can be summarized in the triple project constraint of time, quality, and

cost (PMI, 2018).

Project complexity: The extent of structural complexity, uncertainty, pace,

dynamic complexity, novelty, and social-political and institutional complexities (Bolzan

de Rezende & Blackwell, 2019).

Project Sector Investment Program: A“roadmap” exercise for governments to

have in place with comprehensive statements on development objectives, policies, and

programs for each of the key sectors to strengthen the linkages among programs across

agencies and sectors (World Bank, 2018)

Strategic alignment: The process and the result of linking an organization's

structure and resources with its strategy and business environment (Zolfaghari et al.,

2017)

Portfolio management: The identification, prioritization, authorization,

management, and control of projects, programs, and other related work to achieve

specific strategic business objectives (PMI, 2017a).

Socioeconomic development: The process that involves both social and economic

development in a country. The measured indicators are the GDP, life expectancy, and

employment levels, among others (O'Neill-Carrillo et al., 2018).

Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations

Assumptions

Assumptions are factual beliefs that researchers have found indispensable when

conducting a study, although they cannot be proven (Pyrczak & Bruce, 2017; Simon &

Goes, 2018). Researchers make assumptions concerning the participants' interviews on

the premise that the constraints associated with time and effort to validate each

participant's answer allow for the assumptions (Simon & Goes, 2018). I assumed that the

selected project managers were adequately diverse in experience and would report their

project experiences accurately. Given the anonymity requirement, I further believed that

the chosen project managers provided their honest reflections of their project success

indicators. Anonymous participants are more likely, to be honest and accurate than when

their participation is known (Allen, 2017). To promote a fair, reasonable, and factual

response from the participants, I notified them of the right to refuse to answer any

question. All responses would remain confidential concerning any classified information

provided.

Limitations

Limitations are those potential weaknesses that result in constraints or flaws and

are beyond the researcher's control. Limitations can also influence the outcome and

validity of a study (Pyrczak & Bruce, 2017). Researchers identify the specific limitations

of their studies to prevent the inappropriate generalizations of the findings and

conclusions (Simon & Goes, 2018). My research included project managers who

successfully aligned their projects’ outcomes with government strategies to maximize

project performance. My foremost concern was the lack of random selection in the

chosen participants resulting in validity issues due to possible selection bias. The

selection bias often affects the generalization of the results beyond the sample.

Researchers may not replicate my research's conclusions and recommendations if their

study settings are relatively different. Yin (2017) suggested using interview protocols to

maintain uniformity during interviews to mitigate bias.

Delimitations

Delimitations represent a study's parameters within the researcher's control that

define the survey's scope (Pyrczak & Bruce, 2017). Researchers use delimitations to

explain the extent of the research scope's span (Simon & Goes, 2018). Researchers

should not generalize my study's conclusions and recommendations if their research

scope is not similar. My research included a specific population: A group of project

managers who work for four project-based units. They participated in an interview that

provided their perspectives and experiences in project management. The selected

organizations are those with successful project results from seasoned project practitioners

who demonstrated alignment of project outcomes with government management

strategy, measured from three constructs: (a) identification of the set goals from the

baseline studies and how they were captured within the project goals on a percentage

basis; (b) exploration of each of the alignment factors of cost, time, and budget; and (c)

examination of the end user's satisfaction from stated goals of both the project and

organization, all from a compliance rate of at least 80%. A successfully aligned project

represents a compliance rate of over 80% within budget, time, and scope while meeting

original goals and business intent (PMI, 2017a).

Significance of the Study

Public sector investment project misalignment can affect other businesses with

strategies linked to the public projects’ completion. While citizens generally do not

thoroughly scrutinize their government’s expenditures, the net result is sometimes the

misallocation of public spending with struggling economies (Klakegg & Volden, 2017).

Public investment faces unique challenges from the external environment. Finding a

functional relationship between organization alignment attributes and successful project

outcomes may provide new critical success factors for public sector investment. A

project may create societal value when it meets social and environmental needs, bringing

positive social change by allocating the project resources to social welfare (Santhosh &

Baral, 2015).

Contribution to Business Practice

The study result may contribute to better public investment practices by providing

policymakers with the competence to select and implement public strategic-based

investment projects needed for economic development. Enhanced knowledge about

alignment and performance output methods, coupled with government strategic

development, can improve project decision-making resulting in a competitive advantage

for other projects with linked strategies to that public investment.

Implications for Social Change

The study results may lead to positive social change through enhanced public

sector project management, fostering citizens' satisfaction. In addition, maximized

projects’ outcomes will enable the government to enjoy value for money in its

expenditure programs, which helps expand social programs for development. Essential to

the project selection and planning is supporting a clear understanding of those fiscal

conditions and associated risks (Ahmad et al., 2018). Public project fulfillment may

become less tedious as project managers better understand project outcomes' alignment

with government strategies for success in public infrastructure programs.

A Review of the Professional and Academic Literature

This literature review focuses on the concept/role of strategic management in

achieving public sector infrastructure project efficiency in developing countries such as

Guyana. This review explored public sector project managers' strategies to maximize

project performance and align project outcomes with government strategies. According to

Saunders et al. (2015), the literature review presents a perspective that speaks to the

theoretical approach within a framework for the conducted research. The review also

accounts for the associated literature concerning the specific business problem forming

the research justification. The specific business problem was that some project managers

in the public sector struggle to maximize project performance because they lack strategies

to align the project outcomes with the government’s strategies.

Extensive research on government strategy alignment may help public sector

project managers understand how to employ tactics to maximize project performance.

However, few researchers have ventured into the field owing to the complex project

environment in which public projects operate (Cristóbal et al., 2018). Further, researchers

have noted significant causative factors that affect project outcomes associated with

infrastructure projects (Cristóbal et al., 2018). To fully appreciate the challenges and the

impending risks concerning project success, I explored the professional and academic

literature available to public project managers to align with government strategies to

maximize project outcomes.

The literature review provides a description and an analysis of other researchers'

works (Saunders et al., 2015). The literature review outlines a systematic approach a

researcher uses to identify and analyze the work of other researchers. Literature mapping

effectively organizes a significant amount of data and aids in synthesizing other research

findings. A researcher can use the literature mapping to determine the relationship

between themes and highlight research gaps, according to Chei-Chang (2009).

The reviewed literature provided the theoretical lens through which I considered

the contingency approach. Because no single management approach will yield a

compelling result, a more adaptive system is needed. Therefore, in using the literature

mapping, I structured the literature review into the following topics: (a) conceptual

framework, the contingency approach; (b) development assistance and its effect on public

sector development; (c) public projects investment and its linkages with other sector

development; (d) PSIP in developing countries, (e) general infrastructure project

background information on Guyana; (f) public sector investment in Guyana; (g)

importance of project management; (h) project goals, ethics, and communication

management; (i) project management processes; (j) business management strategy in

project management; (k) project success factors; (l) best practices in project management;

(m) alignment of project management with organizational strategies; and (n) project,

programs, and portfolio management.

In considering the literature review, I relied on information from the following

resource centers; Walden University online library, Google Scholar, ProQuest, Emerald

Management Journals, Business Source Complete, ABI/INFORM, SAGE, and EBSCO.

The resource collection included peer-reviewed journal articles, dissertations, newspaper

articles, and textbooks, all of which informed the subject of this study. The keywords

used to search the databases for references relevant to the study's objectives included

contingency theory, project management theory, infrastructure project management,

project management governance, project success, and infrastructure project failure. I

achieved Walden University's stipulated requirements of having 85% of my references

peer-reviewed and published well within the 5-year requirement before my expected

graduation date.

Conceptual Framework

The contingency theory was the conceptual framework used for this study.

According to the theorists, there is no single correct method of doing things (Burns &

Stalker, 1961; Fiedler, 1964). However, the contextual setting will dictate the best

workable approach, described as ‘job engineering’ (Fiedler, 1964). Internal and external

circumstances will decide the optimal course of action. The contingency approach is

considered the most appropriate for investment projects’ management. Its flexibility has

given the typical uncertainty from the nonroutine site environment of operations and

supportive adaptation (Teller et al., 2014). Given organizations' uniqueness, their

management system (both mechanistic and organic) must respond to the market's

changing dynamics and the technological environment, whether stable or innovative

(Burns &Stalker, 1961).

The mechanistic and organic management systems proposed by Woodward

(1958) and later discussed by Burns and Stalker (1961) offer no single management

practice to achieve organizational resource management efficiency. The perfect

management system will depend on the changing market and technological environment

(Burns & Stalker, 1961). The mechanistic management method involves stable conditions

with full knowledge of its requirements through its breakdown structure. The organic

process of management involves project characteristics subject to changing conditions. It

would not be possible to provide scope details at the project’s onset (Wysocki, 2019).

Therefore, the organic system allows for teams to become self-organizing, self-sufficient,

and self-directing.

The current understanding of the contingency theory shaped by Nebeker (1975) is

an integration of Fiedler’s work on leadership style effectiveness, according to Northouse

(2019). Starkey et al. (1991) consolidated the contingency theory using strategic

flexibility to extend the framework to organizational choice utilizing the goodness-of-fit

of strategy and business activities against management systems’ structure. Besides,

project management challenges of complexity and uncertainty allow for no formal or

universally accepted theoretical foundation for project management. The most considered

and applied theoretical perspective is that of contingency theory. Therefore, the project's

success is contingent upon a combination of organizational, project, and people-based

determinants (Fiedler, 1964).

The contingency model is appropriate when explaining the organization's

decision concerning the project management strategies' design. The process helps address

diversity in project contexts in changing environmental conditions (Wysocki, 2019).

Project complexity and project uncertainty are two variables that project managers

encounter on every project. They are even more challenging within public sector

megaprojects, according to Hazir and Ulusoy (2020). Saunders et al. (2016) described

project complexity as a state where all facts concerning a particular situation are

unknown. Project uncertainty is seen as a potential favorable or unfavorable risk that

surfaces throughout a project (Qazi et al., 2020). Because projects include ever-changing

dependent and contingent activities, contingency theory regularly works as a designated

framework for describing success or failure.

Several studies in the literature review focused on project complexity and the

factors that can influence project success. While there is little evidence concerning

differences in complexity and project success factors, researchers have found that project

success has an inverse relationship to project complexity (Floricel et al., 2016).

Researchers have also seen the need for a clear distinction in complexity, as

categorization helps identify the appropriate model for managing the project (Cristóbal et

al., 2018). Depending on the complication's source, the complexity may be classified as

either structural, technical, directional, or temporal that needs to be integrated for a better

approach. Cristóbal et al. (2018) found that managing projects in complex environments

require aligning management techniques that support planning, scheduling, executing,

and controlling. While strategy formulation is delicate, Adeyemi and Idoko (2008) found

that putting a strategy to work can be even more challenging within cross-functional

cultures.

The contingency approach may help understand risk management for complex

projects in explaining an organization’s success or failure (Wysocki, 2019). Complexities

in project management were considered best in light of the contingency theory because of

its alignment with my study purpose. The challenges of the external project environment,

power structures, and management capability are the complex factors that public sector

project managers must meet. The benefit is that it will result in successful project

outcomes aligned with the government strategies that maximize project performance.

Oputa (2017) combined the techniques used to manage successful megaprojects as a

simplified approach within three conceptual alignments: selection, interaction, and

systems.

Researchers use contingency theory analysis to determine the relationship

between a firm’s structure and its environment and how its structure will react when

faced with contingencies at different performance levels (San et al., 2018). The

contingency theory is a concept that promotes flexibility in the choice of actions to

succeed in an uncertain environment. Project managers get insights into how best to

apply management strategies within the given context to satisfy project management

outcomes (Cristóbal et al., 2018). Project results are superior when project practitioners

match executive actions with internal organizational characteristics and external

environments. According to Joslin and Müller (2015), the approach must focus on the

internal project characteristics and those project management activities that need to match

the project's novelty and complexity.

Horning's (2018) conceptual framework, a product of Fiedler’s contingency

theory, focused on organizations' project success in Pennsylvania health care. The

researcher found a high possibility of completion when the project manager knows the

essential factors that define success or failure and can modify strategy alignment when

appropriate. Oputa (2017) opined that contingency theory has now widened to include a

class of methods whose outcomes are contingent on a multiplicity of factors. Oputa

(2017) invoked a specific application for those unique situations. It requires a

methodology that explains all processes in aggregate, and its relatedness must be

considered. Because there is no single best way to manage, there will be no universal

helpful strategy in any given situation. Therefore, the contingency approach helps

promote flexibility in any chosen actions to succeed in an environment of complexity and

uncertainty.

Development Assistance and its Effect on Public Sector Development.

At a conference in Ethiopia, both low-income and developing countries pledged

their commitment to resolve their bilateral partners' developmental challenges. The hope

was that the financial aid would be used prudently to build countries' public expenditure

for economic growth. The result revealed that government expenditure negatively affects

economic growth in the short and long run (United Nations, 2015). Still, the developing

countries had asked their developmental partners for space and independence to prepare

domestically (United Nations, 2015). The conference provided a sound basis for

development funding; on the one hand, the global community wanted a collective

sustainability accord. Simultaneously, the developing countries' leaders hoped their donor

partners honored the pledged assistance needed to achieve the United Nations millennium

goals (United Nations, 2015). Developing countries depended on assistance for their

long-term infrastructural development, even though the literature points to many

developing countries having diminishing returns to aid (Presbitero, 2016).

Research on the various bottlenecks to developmental assistance impeding

countries' capacities to absorb foreign aid found the primary challenge to be cross-

cultural complexities (Presbitero, 2016). A project assessment by the World Bank

measured the extent to which cross-country differences impacted the project outcomes

and found the following to be impactful: (a) institutional quality, (b) macroeconomic

policies, and (c) macroeconomic performance, which together explain project outcome

variability (Bulman et al., 2015). Bulman et al. (2015) found that country-level macro

measures of sound institutional policies are correlated with project outcomes. This

explains how country-level performance is essential for the effective use of resources.

The empirical literature does not provide a consistent body of evidence supporting

a positive association between the scaling-up of public investment and economic growth,

according to Presbitero (2016). In contrast, Easterly and Rebelo (1993) found that public

investment program outputs correlate with growth across countries in a seminal study.

Similarly, Global Infrastructure Hub (2019) found that every dollar spent on

infrastructure development yields an estimated increased GDP between USD 0.05 to

USD 0.25, which created an economic return of between 5% - 25% in the long run

(Global Infrastructure Hub, 2019). The opposite is true in Devarajan et al.’s (1996)

study, which found that public capital in developing countries' expenditures was

negatively associated with economic growth. The economic arguments led to another

study premised on a precisely formulated synthetic physical infrastructure index that

estimated public investment's productivity impact (Calderón et al.,2015).

Similarly, researchers found that 10 % of infrastructure expenditure increased the

per capita outcomes by 0.7 % in the long run. Researchers can also point to the literature

supporting the notion that infrastructure investment could create long-term development

(e.g., Easterly & Rebelo, 1993; Global Infrastructure Hub, 2019). Besides, even when

project implementation ends, the short-term outcomes may be negligible. The long-term

outcomes can be successful because the broader sets of goals are met instead of a narrow

subset (Radujkovic & Sjekavica, 2017).

The historical experiences of the 1980s concerning the effects of government

infrastructure investments on productivity provided little guidance on projects'

management worthiness. For example, several public-sector investment projects

delivered poor results both in the short and long term, primarily because of cost

overruns, corruption, and reduced project maintenance (Arezki et al., 2017). Given the

challenges of the developing countries, the World Bank and other financial institutions

have since created social safeguarding norms and policies for their funded projects.

Those safeguards resulted from the bank’s challenges with their continued loan

advancement to developing countries (World Bank, 2017).

Despite having achieved independence in 1966, Guyana still lacks the local

capacity for project execution and management. The international institutions did not

spare that observation from their country report (International Monetary Fund[IMF],

2017; World Bank, 2017). Guyana’s traditional approaches to public administration offer

little value in preparing project administrators for the complex tasks of planning and

executing public investment projects, according to the IMF country report (2017).

Guyana’s unique challenges include the external project environment, power structures,

and management capability. Shako (2016) opined that the challenges also include (a)

poor construction designs missing critical details; (b) costs overrun with missed

deadlines; (c) approved substandard work from inadequate consulting supervision; and

(d) early destruction leading to remedial work within the defect liability period and, in

other cases, well within design life-spans, for which there were little or no penalized

action against the contractor. In addition, government bureaucracy and regulatory

measures are inadequate to deal with the dynamics of change. The IMF country report

(2017) found little consideration when formulating operational frameworks for project

management as an integrated system. Guyana’s sugar industry modernization is a case of

strategy misalignment. Singh (2015) argued that modernization occurred when the world

market prices for sugar were dramatically declining and still pursued without any

projected payback plan. Singh noted that a detailed sensitivity analysis concerning

pricing options could have ascertained the project’s viability. Nevertheless, the new

sugar factory became a reality, Singh stated.

Given Guyana’s discoveries in oil and gas, spending through the accelerator

principle will spur development within the other economic sectors. Boehm (2019)

postulated that governments could increase spending to boost their economy, often

through infrastructure development, thereby increasing their aggregate demand

depending on the multiplier. The Guyana government has since embarked on reforms to

diversify the economy through oil windfalls into human development. According to the

IMF country report (2017), what is continuously missing in Guyana is the capacity for

sustainable project execution.

In support of the country’s capacity building, the World Bank (2018) approved a

US$35 million development policy credit for fiscal management support. Various

stakeholders have raised concerns and inquired about political interference issues in

every stage of Guyana's infrastructure projects' cycle. Shako (2016) suggested that such

an obstruction can affect critical decisions that impact the project's success.

Simultaneously, there are well-intended project execution units in Guyana, many of

which work best to adjoin the already established government bureaucracy.

Public Projects Investment and its Linkages to Other Sectors’ Development

Public sector investment constitutes a more comprehensive developmental

program for governments, including roads, highways, education, power plants, and water

supply (Donaldson, 2018. increasing expenditure spending is expected to boost their

economy, often through infrastructure development (Boehm (2019). Therefore,

infrastructure investment can be considered as a public policy tool that can result in

economic growth. Besides, the nature and linkages of the other sectors' interactions with

the governments' fiscal policies may also yield economic growth in developing countries.

Development planners have integrated backward and forward linkages to benefit from the

interactions (Dash, 2016).

In illustrating linkages in public sector investment, both forward and backward

linkages are of importance. A forward linkage encourages investments in subsequent

stages in other linked sectors. In contrast, the backward linkage occurs when the project

encourages investment by facilitating and enabling other projects to succeed (Das et al.,

2018). Infrastructure and its linkages are best in constructing roads, railways, water,

ports, communication, and power grids. However, Khan, Waris et al. (2019) found that a

country's public infrastructure investment can also open new opportunities in other

country sectors. Successful implementation of infrastructure projects' resources requires

synergies between public and private investments to ensure shared use of the

infrastructure and realize mutual benefits to businesses and, ultimately, citizens'

satisfaction.

Public capital for infrastructure has also impacted private investment in countries'

growth and development. According to Nguyen and Phong (2017), economists use the

Cobb-Douglas production function to represent a technological relationship between the

amounts of two or more inputs - physical capital (K) and labor (L) - and the outcomes

(Y) produced from those inputs. Nguyen and Phong (2017) found a variation of the

model by Robest (1956), who used the Solow model (another production function) to

analyze growth. The Solow model evaluates the product from three inputs (capital,

labor, and knowledge) over time. Further, the researchers explained the relationship

between inputs and the growth of a nation's productive capacity, which economists refer

to as the production function (Nguyen & Phong, 2017). As a prevailing view, public

investment strongly affects economic growth, reflected by aggregate supply and

demand. Public investment directly impacts aggregate demand as government

expenditure and aggregate supply as a production function (capital factor).

Today, government expenditures extend beyond the traditional view of supplying

goods and services with an integrating link that supports infrastructure projects

development and assists the other sectors' growth and development. Private investment

correlates with government spending and is directly related to the existing public

investment. Researchers found a positive correlation between public infrastructure and

private investment (Donaldson, 2018).

An expansion in public investment can increase private investment, allowing

firms to have broader access to markets due to construction in roads, ports, and railways

(Donaldson, 2018). Public sector investment projects with linkages to the other sectors in

the economy play a central role in production functions by providing the required capital

for development without private financing (UNCTAD, 2018). UNCTAD (2018) found

that infrastructure development with broader strategic objectives and socioeconomic

requirements effectively counter the bankability approach for project approval. Relative

to cost-benefit analysis, development strategies are not pursued solely on financial

viability but also on other socioeconomics criteria.

There is always the risk that expanding public sector investment may consume

available finances that otherwise would have gone to the private sector. According to

Deleidi et al. (2019), the correlative relationship of private financing investment

suggested that the private sector's credit availability declines because the government's

fiscal spending crowds out of private sector investment. Investments undertaken by

highly subsidized state economic programs are in many instances financed through

printing money and internal and external debt financing, resulting in deficit spending.

Governments may sometimes be forced into deficit spending because the needed

investment is costly. The high cost sometimes works as a disincentive to the private

sector - a non-profitable investment opportunity, leaving the government to invest. Public

investment plays many competing and offsetting roles in the private sector's investment

activities (Deleidi et al., 2019). The net result of public investment on private investment

can be expressed as both leakages and linkages. Private sector investment activities may

enhance future growth in real income and become much more sensitive to capital

provision. Deleidi et al. (2019) found that public infrastructure has an overall simulative

impact on private investment. The authors found that public sector investment policies

can have permanent real-effect that can enhance the economy's physical and financial

resources.

An essential consideration in selecting public projects is establishing an efficient

network that integrates the investments into compatible and existing infrastructure.

Doing this allows for business strategy linkages in both the public and private sectors,

according to Boehm (2019). For example, China led a more public-investment-driven

economy with state control and gained sustainable growth by strongly influencing the

private sector. China further designed public policies for citizens' benefit rather than

prioritizing the private sector (Ari & Koc, 2020). The country implemented new policies

in the 1990s that enabled foreign direct investment in the economy through free

enterprise and capitalist ideas within a socialist framework. In so doing, China

empowered the private sector by aligning them with public policy and supporting public

investment, resulting in

a solid direct causal relationship between the public and private sectors (Ari & Koc,

2020).

Public sector investment forms part of a country's broader developmental plan.

For example, roads that support farms to market for farmers' access have reduced the cost

for farmers and consumers. Similarly, the government invests in power grids that reduce

the average cost and increase scale advantages during production (Donaldson, 2018;

Khan, Memon, & Ahmad, 2019). There are limited "farm to market" access roads, with

no beneficial network effects for domestic farmers. Public investments in roads and

supporting infrastructure and incremental node's benefits may increase project outcomes.

Khan, Waris et al. (2019) found that the marginal benefit of investing in infrastructure in

developing countries is highest when it adds to an existing but not fully matured network.

Coordinating public investment programs is essential for adding incremental linkages in

an emerging network that can yield more benefits.

The government's public investment decisions should be held at a portfolio level

to account for those network effects, evaluating projects as part of a broader system

rather than one in isolation. Assessing the influence of public infrastructure expenditure

and its outcomes on linkage industries requires special consideration. Different cross-

country cultural factors may create additional reviews to deal with country-specific

effects. Interestingly, the most significant impact occurs in the faster-growing countries -

the "Asian tiger" economies. For example, the Singapore government initiated linked

companies similar to state-owned enterprises after their independence in 1965 to develop

the economy (Yahya, 2012). The intention was to create commercial entities in the

private sector because the private sector alone lacked entrepreneurial capacity and

venture capital. The creation of linked companies was strategic because they operated

solely as profit-driven (Yahya, 2012). The comparative advantages derived from the

public investment provided the link where the investment outcomes became the factor

input for those in commerce to gain economies of scale. Khan, Waris et al. (2019) found

that political factors often influence the selection of public sector investment projects.

Governments must consistently prioritize capital investment in new ventures with a

convenient, politically aligned strategy, even if the project has a weak economic

rationale.

An essential function of public sector investment is to provide services that meet

the citizens' needs efficiently and effectively. Hvidman and Andersen (2014) held that

achieving the goal to fully realize the end users’ satisfaction is significantly linked to

successful organizational performance. It would help governments establish a portfolio

of high-quality projects with clear metrics supporting their contribution to sectoral

linkages for social and economic growth. Mishra et al. (2019) found that the projects'

holistic management is improved by establishing a project management office (PMO).

The Chilean example best illustrates how the approach works. In Chile, all proposed

public sector investment projects go to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning and

the National Investment System. They use standardized procedures and metrics to

evaluate the soundness and benefits of the projects' linkages. Bielenberg et al. (2020)

found that project proposal rejection is approximately 25% to 35% in Chile. Based on

objective criteria, the Chilean illustration included direct and indirect economic impact

and social

aspects, the allocation of financing, and a combination of cost-benefit analysis and

national goals.

In Malaysia, the government implemented a government transformation program

under the new public management approach. This initiative was titled ‘one Malaysia,

people first, performance now.’ Under the program, the emphasis was on implementing

KPIs in seven priority areas to infuse private sector philosophy in the public sector by

measuring and improving government service deliverability (Hughes, 2012). Similarly,

Lubbe (2016) opined that PSIPs support the local economy by creating the public

infrastructure to achieve economic growth and development.

In specific instances, some public investment undertakings result from market

failure - where the private sector considers some investments to be too risky. They cannot

or are unwilling to engage in those projects, citing substantial financial costs and the lack

of profit from the investments. Guyana offers a comparative illustration concerning who

bears the cost for a significant investment with low returns. The absence of private capital

caused the government to undertake a massive public investment project to bridge the

digital divide under the information communication technology (ICT) Access and

eServices for the hinterland poor and remote communities project (Guyana Redd+

Investment Fund, 2017).

Public Sector Investment Program in Developing Countries

Stuckenbruck and Zomorrodian (1987) seminal study investigated project

management in developing countries. The researchers found that project management

practice requiring drastic modification tailored to localized cultures' adaption is essential

for developing countries. The researchers did not use empirical data but suggested that

plans associated with implementing projects in a developing country should consider; (a)

cultural factors, (b) economic, (c) political, and (d) the administrative system within

public sector agencies

While projects are implemented and managed locally, their applications are

practically in the strictest manner of widely international project management standards

(Waheed, 2016). Project professionals from associations such as the PMI and

multinational organizations that frequently partner with local project management

associations help bridge the organization’s project capacity knowledge gaps. The

management of infrastructure projects is a function of their location, purpose, objectives,

and stakeholders, which significantly impact performance. In their project, governments

with global participants will experience varying cultural differences and political systems

that attract high public and political interest (Hoxha & McMahan, 2019). Understanding

the appropriate practices of project management in developing countries, given their

cross-culture factors, will facilitate a better understanding of how best to manage those

projects successfully.

The flow of foreign capital into a country is often a function of developing

countries’ financial systems. Further, economic and financial considerations often

constrain infrastructure development. Economic development contributes to both the

quality and quantity of capital available in the financial markets. However, the ‘quality of

capital’ influences economic growth and development in an economy (Lubbe, 2016).

Although project finance is a complex mechanism, it is successful in weak financial

economies. Project financing helps eradicate infrastructure backlogs to improve

economic development. Lubbe (2016) concluded that policy changes should create an

enabling environment for conducive infrastructure development.

Contrary to the view that public-sector investment projects enjoy long-term

successes, several of those investments in the 1980s delivered poor short-term and long-

term results: Issues encountered were cost overruns, corruption, and reduced project

maintenance (Arezki et al., 2017). When examined, the challenges of the 1980s carried

the same thrust – the project management strategies employed were all biased towards

the principles of the North American standards of project management, research, and

experiences (Adeyemi & Idoko, 2008).

Interestingly, Adeyemi and Idoko's (2008) observation of the project

management's western-oriented techniques is not straightforward for anyone to quickly

learn and implement in developing countries. Developing countries with many cross-

cultural traits have found those tools and techniques problematic, which led to the

conclusion that a unique project management approach is needed to address country-

specific impediments to local implementation (Adeyemi & Idoko, 2008)

Calderón et al. (2015) asked two fundamental questions while conducting their

research. The questions were within the ambit of government-administered public

projects to determine project management practice relevance in developed countries.

First, is project management equally applicable to all nations? Second, when is it

appropriate, and what form of project management to recommend? Most of the

challenges associated with projects in developing countries remain intracultural in nature.

The frequently asked questions are those of a non-technical cultural approach to

improving project execution in developing countries, according to Akade (2017). The

design method accounted for the complex dynamics and multi-faceted activities in the

project managers’ experiences and possible improvements to their practice. The results

reveal a positive correlation between culture and project outcome and the relationship

between culture and behavior (Akade, 2017). In effect, those challenges that are

intracultural in nature remain burdened by misaligned strategies.

Adeyemi and Idoko (2008) asked the following questions in light of developing

countries' challenges with project management: (a) How do we define project and project

management? (b) What factors drive the conception of projects in developing countries?

local capacity development exists for project management? (e) Is there a suggested model

for local project management capacity and process? The answer may imply that project

management, techniques, and training in management strategies may be productive if

there is a realistic understanding of developing countries' complexities and uncertainties.

Volden’s and Andersen's (2018) study is the first step towards better. The researchers

identified a hierarchical system that explains the relationship between project owners

from three state levels - the cabinet, the sectoral ministries, and the executing government

agency. In addition, the study provided innovative ideas to understand the stage-gate

approach within a country’s public sector project management.

Public investment project execution in developing countries contributes

considerably to their citizens' improvement. According to Garemo et al. (2020), the world

spends approximately $2.5 trillion a year on infrastructure; $ 3.7 trillion is the yearly

estimate needed through to 2035 to keep pace with the world's projected GDP. The

investment in public infrastructure may experience a high socioeconomic rate of return

for developing countries. The McKinsey study found that $1 of infrastructure investment

can raise GDP by 20 cents in the long run (Bielenberg et al., 2020). In contrast, failed

projects usually carry a more far-reaching effect on developing countries, according to

Bielenberg et al. (2020). For example, Calderón et al. (2015) found that 10% of

investments resulted in only a 1% growth for developing countries. Such volatile

performances can affect the business strategies linked to the successful completion of

these public investment projects that rely on public investment success. Public sector

agencies must have the executive capacity and capability to deliver successful programs

under their purview and vital to national or sectoral development. According to Khan,

Waris et al. (2019), gains from public sector investments are fully realized when they

generate economic growth. However, the public policy process often challenges

competing interests in the already scarce resources needed to satisfy ever-increasing and

competing national needs.

While there are undoubtedly several issues, finding a balance between competing

interests may sometimes be elusive and delicate. Economic growth is a function of

taxation benefits in developing countries. The positive contribution gained from the

state's revenue through those public infrastructure projects enhances citizens' standard of

living (Chauvet & Ferry, 2020). Besides, many governments often find difficulties

selecting those projects that may yield substantial returns for citizens' enhanced

livelihood. Ramlee et al. (2016) found many other considerations beyond the concept of

cost, time, and scope. They observed/concluded that organizational management, quality

assurance, technology and tools, stakeholder satisfaction, safety, and the environment

significantly impacted public infrastructure projects' success.

While program management concerns with managing different but related

projects- program management cannot fulfill its mandate without fundamentally

overhauling, specifically addressing organizational structure and changes. The changes in

many successful cases came with developing a flexible conceptual project management

office (PMO) that brings together the project into a manageable portfolio. Determining

the strategies needed to identify challenges associated with project portfolio governance

to enhance growth and economic development was the subject of a study in Pakistan. In

that study, Khan, Memon, and Ahmad (2019) used a quantitative study to validate the

latent construct of project governance and measured the construct from three dimensions

across fifteen observed items using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The relative

importance index (RII) is Khan, Memon, and Ahmad's (2019) recommendation to

examine different relative occurrence practices. Khan, Waris et al. (2019) found that the

most practiced item in project governance was its portfolio alignment with organizational

objectives and strategies. The traditional form of public sector management is no longer

appropriate due to the associated staff competency gaps. Strategic planning for

sustainability needs organizational capabilities to perform project management tasks for

the achievement of organizational objectives. Such requires interaction among the project

teams, management, and employees from the different business units; and an

understanding of the roles of the various stakeholders and the organization's corporate

structure and culture (Khan, Memon, & Ahmad, 2019).

General Background Information on Guyana

On 26th May 1966, British Guiana became the Co-operative Republic of Guyana

by achieving independence and ending over three and a half centuries of European

colonization. British Guiana had comprised three separate colonies, Essequibo,

Demerara, and Berbice. In 1831, the British combined the three colonies (Essequibo,

Demerara, and Berbice) to form British Guiana. The country had internal self-

government at its independence, except over foreign affairs, which remained under

British control (Ishmael, 2005). Guyana, an Amerindian word meaning "land of many

waters," is bordered north by 430-kilometers of the Atlantic Ocean. Its neighboring

countries are Suriname (along the Corentyne River) to the east, Brazil to the

south/southwest, and Venezuela to the west.

The International Monetary Fund projected that Guyana’s economy would grow

at 19% per annum from 2019 to 2023. In their estimation, the export value is projected to

grow by 37% per year, imports by 14% over the corresponding period, and revenues to

increase by 15% per year. As a result, government oil revenues are projected to exceed

US$3 billion in 2028 in an economy with a current GDP of US$ 3.6 billion (World

Economic Outlook, 2018).

Like many other developing countries, Guyana faces real economic challenges,

e.g., poverty and inequality. Other challenges include critical infrastructure backlogs,

which are not limited to creating new infrastructure and upgrading, refurbishing, and

rehabilitating existing infrastructure. However, as previously indicated, Lubbe (2016)

found that the fiscal expenditure on infrastructure and construction generally increased

aggregate demand and ultimately increased GDP. Hence, infrastructure project

investment can be essential to a country’s growth and economic development.

Since its launch in 2016, the INFRALATAM website has become an essential

tool for deliberation on infrastructure investment in Latin America and the Caribbean.

INFRALATAM provides data that supports the analytical work and decision-making of

countries and governments in Latin America and the Caribbean region. Other regional

and global bodies, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, will use

the data provided (ECLAC, 2019). Infrastructure investment in Guyana has reportedly

averaged 3.4% of GDP between 2011 and 2015, below the Latin America and Caribbean

average of 3.7% (INFRALATAM, 2016). Government investment measurement of net

proceeds of non-financial assets as a percentage of GDP was below the 10-year average

of 8.5% but has since increased in 2015 and is projected to reach 13% of GDP in 2022

(INFRALATAM, 2016). Guyana’s initial test will translate the government’s newfound

income into economic transformation and development agents in the medium term.

Guyana’s economic growth improved significantly, based primarily on the construction

sector (ECLAC, 2019). Under the PSIP, a high spending rate occurred in 2018, spurring

other economic activities. The construction sector grew by 11.0% in 2018, mainly

because the government (traditionally) is the largest spender in the economy. The sector

performance is expected to rise in response to expanding the government’s PSIP

(ECLAC, 2019).

The infrastructure stock for public investment is inadequate to support public

service delivery and facilitate private sector growth. The country’s transportation

infrastructure (roads, airports, and seaports) requires substantial improvements to help the

private sector's growth linkages (World Bank, 2019). The energy sector also hinders the

other sectors’ development. According to the Bank's Doing Business Report, high energy

costs are significant obstacles to business operations, limiting the private sector's growth

(World Bank, 2019).

Public Sector Investment in Guyana

Guyana faces development challenges on several fronts, including the

government’s institutional capacity and weaknesses in infrastructure (World Bank,

2018). Several investment programs were weak in their linkages as the investments to

support national development priorities lacked strategic alignment to aid the country’s

development (ECLAC, 2019). Guyana’s public sector investment projects'

socioeconomic importance included facilities such as water and sewerage, health,

education, transportation (road, ferry, aviation, port), sea defenses, national security,

telecommunications, drainage, and irrigation. These social services amenities are

valuable and necessary to sustain economies and support the citizens' social service

activities (Lübbe, 2016).

Post-independence saw Guyana planning its strategy development, the 1972 -76

developmental plans. Since then, several strategy policies have ensued, the national

development strategy (NDS), the low carbon development strategy (LCDS), and the

green state development strategy as of 2020. The green state development strategy

represents the country's long-term vision. It provides a comprehensive development

policy that guides public investment to 2040. Unlike the previously developed strategies,

the green state strategy is broader in its outlook. It captured a more holistic view of

Guyana’s socioeconomic and environmental challenges, a perspective more in line with

the United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs) (World Bank, 2018).

The green state development strategy is transformational for Guyana, and the

approach combines all the critical components of the previously composed strategies in

fostering sustained economic growth that is low-carbon and climate-resilient, which is

consistent with that of the LCDs. However, as promised in the new government's 2020

manifesto, it reinstituted an expanded low carbon development strategy (LCDS):

Broadened to include more comprehensive environmental services, water resources

management, climate resilience, biodiversity, renewable energy, and marine prosperity.

The expanded LCDS will also establish an international center of excellence for

biological diversity to encourage cutting-edge research and develop and export

educational services (News Room, 2021).

Researchers have argued that project owners need to develop and incorporate

resilient, socially, and environmentally sustainable infrastructure and adapts to climate

change (European Commission, 2018). Guyana’s green state development strategy

promoted social cohesion, good governance and carefully managed the country’s finite

natural resources following the green economy principles. According to Lübbe (2016),

the public and private project owners in developing countries should upgrade

infrastructure development and ensure sustainable and long-term economic growth.

Researchers studied public project governance. They found that government introduces

its project governance frameworks - consistent with the recommendations from the

project management literature and the cabinet’s overall requirements (Volden &

Andersen, 2018).

In principle, the Guyana government has a project cycle management division

(PCMD) within the Finance Ministry, responsible for coordinating all aspects of PSIPs.

However, in practice, the institutional weakness has precluded the unit's proper

functioning. Each government sector deals directly with external agencies to identify the

needs for specific projects (NDS, 1996). Although, implementing infrastructure projects

can enhance economic growth and brings significant benefits to local communities. The

overall macroeconomic impact, especially on the balance of payment and financing of

public-funded projects, is not adequately reviewed. The supporting information is often

not readily available (Lübbe, 2016). The duplication of donor partners' efforts has been

burdensome to many developing countries. Unfortunately, the foreign-funded projects

created macroeconomic consequences way beyond those countries' capacities (World

Bank, 2017). The issue of pressing financial repayment commitments was of concern for

Guyana. The lack of project analysis and forecasts of resource availabilities may

ultimately exacerbate the problematic shortages. The government must spend its

resources to reduce poverty and social inequalities (Lübbe, 2016). In addition to the

short-term benefits, public investment can increase aggregate demand as a fiscal measure

in the long term. Those benefits have highlighted the need for developing countries to

invest in infrastructure projects that can improve the economy irrespective of its

developmental stage (Gurara et al., 2018).

Infrastructure development brings positive social change from two distinctive

approaches - economic infrastructure and social infrastructure. Economic infrastructure

generates income earned from the infrastructure via the end-users, according to Sillah

(2018). Guyana Water Incorporation. (GWI) is an excellent example because citizens, as

water consumers, pay for the water produced by GWI. The infrastructure from that social

service benefits the public in the form of a public good. Sillah (2018) also found that the

government pays for the social infrastructure's construction and operations. Police

stations, schools, hospitals, roads, and sea defenses are examples of social infrastructure

where beneficiaries do not pay directly to provide those services. Those huge investments

come under growing public scrutiny as the state is under pressure to deliver such services

efficiently. Lübbe (2016) opined that social incentives in developing countries boost the

economy of human capital.

The relationship between infrastructure development and growth and

development in an economy is the benefit obtained that surpasses the capital costs

associated with building the infrastructure, according to Lübbe (2016). The state

planning secretariat, a finance ministry unit responsible for overlooking infrastructure

projects' economic importance and underscored the direct contribution of infrastructure

development to Guyana's growth and development (World Bank, 2018). Besides, the

governments also invest in infrastructure maintenance and will need to upgrade those

deteriorating infrastructures to meet economic and social objectives. Lübbe (2016) found

that economic growth has a positive correlation with the citizens' social wellbeing.

Project Goals, Ethics and Communication Management

Project management aims to plan and manage each component of the project life

cycle to complete the listed goals and deliverables. The project management lifecycle

includes initiating, planning, executing, and project closure. The process also involves

identifying and managing risks, careful resource management, smart budgeting, and clear

communication across multiple teams and stakeholders. According to the Project

Management Institute, organizations that underestimate project management practice

reported an average of 50% more of their projects failing outright (PMI, 2018).

The changing business environments have forced organizational leadership

changes, rendering inefficient those “armchair managers” who only design and

communicate strategy, leaving project execution to others. The complexity

accompanying globalization has rendered armchair management obsolete. The failed

policies created frustration and the feeling that strategic directives were ignored.

However, crowdsourcing and outsourcing, which are tenants of globalization, have

caused project practitioners to tailor project management methodologies (PMI, 2017a).

A PMI study found that a lack of clear goals was the most common reason for

project failure in 2017. PMI recommends that organizations home on their priorities and

adequately define their project objectives (PMI, 2017a). These models should reflect the

organization's position, goals, and priorities as much as possible to achieve this goal.

Studies have proposed a multi-objective model for selecting the project portfolio that

maximizes efficiency and quality while minimizing the risks involved in project

execution (Zaim et al., 2019).

Public-funded projects have distinctive characteristics, namely, regulatory and

accountability. Those characteristics have improved public-funded projects' quality and

effectiveness; they have also created different challenges for the existing competence

models (Meirelles et al., 2019). The public sector modernization is a solution for

achieving a social purpose that drives improved performance, transparency, and

eliminating corruption while improving public services' value (PricewaterhouseCoopers,

2017). With taxpayers frequently demanding cuts in what they perceive as wasteful

spending, significant public sector investments now have greater public scrutiny.

Unfortunately, as the literature shows, and even in government statistics, many of these

initiatives fail or at least undergo substantial difficulties and problems - often

spectacularly and amid public criticism and ridicule (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2017).

To achieve project success, the project manager must anticipate the difficulties of

avoiding project delays. Those problems may be resolved by competencies in knowledge

management to facilitate complex issues, according to Bakhshi et al. (2016). Typically,

no two projects are the same. In one sitting, the solution (often a concern for project

management methodology) is rarely successful for another situation. Although public-

funded project teams strive to achieve project goals, there are still several competence

gaps in elementary project management practices, according to Meirelles et al. (2019).

Another concept that captures this idea is project governance and portfolio

management in uncertainties. Project governance is a multi-level phenomenon that

encompasses the control of the parent organization, contractors, suppliers, and the project

combining the relationship among them in achieving the objectives (Turner and Müller,

2017). Müller et al. (2016) illustrated how project governance could affect project

participants' synergies and how the adopted mechanisms can heavily influence

stakeholder engagement and trust in the project. Both theorists have underscored the

established relevance that exists between government and stakeholders. Project

governance represents a new approach to the development of project management -

strategic project management. Project governance aligns with the organization's strategic

goals during project implementation by establishing and achieving optimal results in

fulfilling each project and optimized effects at the organization level (Geyer et al., 2017).

Identifying and managing projects from a selected portfolio with complexity

involves many factors and considerations, starting from the proposal stage until the

project portfolio is finally selected. Organizations should pay particular attention to

knowledge utilization to improve organizational performance (Zaim et al., 2019). Given

the portfolio's project selection, the organization must prioritize those projects that align

with objectives. Since projects and portfolio management include processes to collect,

identify, classify, evaluate, select, prioritize, balance, and authorize as measuring success.

Assessments and management tools help project managers identify the tools to enable the

success factors (PMI, 2017a).

According to De Vasconcelos Gomes et al. (2019), project and portfolio managers

can evaluate success by identifying or creating a research instrument (questionnaire) to

gauge the processes' success. Management tools are available to collect, identify, classify,

assess, and prioritize data. While the project management field has continued to build its

procedures, it still maintains its philosophical stance. Much of the mathematical modeling

has advanced its trajectory, creating ever more complex solutions to more complex

models. De Vasconcelos Gomes et al. (2019) stated that there should be a more

systematic and empirical approach to managing uncertainties in project portfolio

management. Generally, project management begins with a well-defined problem; after

that, it becomes vital to grasp the issues associated with offering solutions during the

growing phase. Since selecting a suitable project is significant, it is necessary to

appreciate mathematical models to lead the organization towards its final goal (Wysocki,

2019).

Traditional project management starts with the assumption that each proposed

project aligns with the organization's strategic goals and contributes to the organization's

positive results (Cristóbal et al., 2018). Some projects entirely support the organization's

strategic goals, while some only support some parts, and some generally do not support

the organization's strategy. When the project outcomes are not aligned to the

organization’s goals, the organization will fail to tie its projects to its business strategy

and portfolio (Volden & Samset, 2017). Such occurrences are evident when managers do

not accurately understand the strategy because there are not communicated (Erceg &

Gulam, 2018). The importance of establishing a secure connection between clearly set

strategies will aid in the correctly chosen projects, strengthening and maintaining the

relationship during project implementation, according to Volden and Samset (2017).

Objectives, project culture, and organizational leadership positively affect project

management performance and help establish a precise reference for leadership qualities.

Project managers use the maturity of organization project management, culture, and

organizational leadership to help organizations determine a roadmap to a higher maturity

level, according to Khan, Waris et al. (2019). The PMI’s (2017a) study found that project

management efficiency and effectiveness are critical to successful project management,

whether the maturity assessment involves (a) project management risk maturity, (b)

organizational project management maturity, (c) project management office maturity, or

(d) a simplified project management maturity, all of the assessments help project

managers to evaluate the level of best practices to employed in managing projects.

While public infrastructure projects may be challenging, managers with

knowledge and competencies in the requisite skill set are essential to managing the

process. PMBOK’s support to project managers in accomplishing project objectives

aligns the projects with the organization’s strategic plans (PMI, 2017a). They assumed

that project managers could identify trends and generalizations that arise throughout the

project (Wang et al., 2018). Public infrastructure projects have interwoven interest groups

with government policies, regulatory bodies, investors' goals, and general expectations.

Their success is defined by conflicting ideas coming from the various stakeholders

involved.

A smart city project study done by Sandulli et al. (2017) discussed the selection

process for the right public partner by considering three attributes - complementarity,

commitment, and compatibility as a selection criterion and their importance for public

projects' success. Levin and Wyzalek (2015) described how project managers must

manage stakeholders to deliver organizational value in uncertain times. The process

involves a five-step - "stakeholder circle," applied in the project portfolio management in

situations of uncertainty: (a) to identify all the stakeholders, (b) then rank them by

prioritizing their relevance, (c) developing an understanding for all the stakeholders, (d)

engaging them through effective communications, and (e) monitoring the engagement's

effect. Every project should involve some form of stakeholder engagement, which assists

in stakeholder identification, stakeholder influence, and stakeholder impact, according to

Patanakul et al. (2016). The primary stakeholder engagement goal is to fully support the

various project stakeholders while managing the stakeholders’ agenda. The agenda is

driven primarily by political, social, or financial gain (Müller et al., 2016).

Project Management Leadership

Daniel and Ugochuku (2020) defined leadership as the improvement of personnel

and equipment. The leadership roles include developing quality standards, ensuring

substantial delivery, and creating pride in staff's artistry. Daniel and Ugochuku found

leadership characteristics such as being influential, persistent, and engaging. Therefore,

project managers must possess such qualities and managerial skills for business

effectiveness and project results. Dubrin (2016) describes leadership as inspiring support

and confidence among the people needed to achieve organizational goals. The

involvement speaks to the use of the four I’s: intentions (objectives of the project),

influence (people, organization, society), impact (the outcome of the project), and

integrity (fair dealings in the project), ideals that leaders should model. While there is no

magical method for effective management, some required skill sets would aid the

process. Skills that contribute to developing a continuous learning process that facilitates

management with best practices, according to Sabrokro et al. (2018). Positive results are

the outcomes from effective management skills, and the opposite is true for ineffective

management.

Project managers must have the ability to make decisions, emphasizing that there

is no single model for project management leadership. Project managers should adopt

characteristics from different leadership styles, according to Daniel and Ugochuku

(2020). In contrast, organizations may experience challenges due to the uncertainty from

the fast-changing environment - the effects of globalization aid the increasingly complex

project activities. Adaptation may be challenging, but a shift in leadership style may help.

The lack of employees' adaptability to the process will adversely impact the project

(Abdelouahab & Bouchra, 2020). The project lifecycle can serve as the basic structure

for the management of projects. The different project leadership styles are available in

their application at various stages of the project life cycle (Pretorius et al., 2018).

The traditional leadership of vertical relations (top-down management) was

practiced for several decades and the leadership field's first practice. Shared and balanced

leadership have gained prominence from the project management literature. It

highlighted the differences between ‘leadership’ and ‘management’ that explain the

current leadership literature trends (Pretorius et al., 2018). The expectation is that leaders

must provide guidance and define the goals to their followers. Howell (2018) opined that

leaders are the ones to introduce directional changes for the organization’s success,

enhanced by competitiveness to achieve the goals and objectives. From the onset, the

leadership position should promote a consistent and fully integrated business unit that

results in the organization's teams' aptitude to self-manage. Doing so requires team

orientation, which bonds members to each other and the project’s mission. Good

leadership is an essentials skill for active management in decision making, staff

motivation, and a lead by example method that determines organizational behavior

(Northouse, 2016).

From establishing a thriving project environment, two leadership functions can

emerge - performance management and team development. The project manager's

leadership style can be guided towards directive and task-orientation without neglecting

subordinates' relationships because it can be crucial for project success (Zhao et al.,

2016). Iyer and Banerjee (2016) conducted a case study of India's infrastructure projects

to determine if managerial efficiency was the key driver for completing projects. The

researchers used 630 infrastructure projects between 2009 and 2013, with an average of

USD 25 million per project. Projects were either classified as mechanical or civil. They

evaluated the managerial efficiency using various descriptive statistics from the data

source - interviewees, reviewed project documents, weekly reports, and job site visits.

Additional data came from senior officials of each project to determine their level of

satisfaction. Iyer and Banerjee (2016) concluded that benchmarking managerial

efficiency in large-scale projects could improve efficiency. The success can be measured

by including targeted dates in the project schedule and using external groups instead of

peer reviews to determine the success.

Hoxha and McMahan (2019) found that the project success rate might improve

leadership qualities and referenced two studies that supported their contention. First,

Buengeler et al. (2016) surveyed 113 German customer service organizations and 121

leaders and found that age impacted leadership effectiveness, owing to experience. Amin

and Kamal (2016) provided an exciting observation from older team members' extensive

practice and work experience; they were more influential in leadership. Their

membership in the team provided a commitment to the projects that is important for

knowledge sharing (social capital).

Factors such as leadership, corporate processes, and culture can influence project

success. However, the findings are neither tangible nor concrete to benefit project

managers (Horning, 2018). The conflicting decisions give credence to the notion that

environmental and situational factors influence project management effectiveness (Teller

et al., 2014). All of which lends credence to the contingency theory, which suggested no

single “best fit” in the style of leadership practice. The leader's effectiveness is a function

of the prevailing circumstances resulting in two factors, leadership style and situational

favorableness - later referred to as situational control (Saunders et al., 2015).

Managing projects has complications, especially when the moving parts cannot be

quickly grasped; it becomes difficult to understand and navigate such complex

environments. Cristóbal et al. (2018) provided a general overview of project management

amid project complexities and argued that the traditional project management tools and

techniques were wholly inadequate when managing such projects’ time, cost, and

resources. For achieving project success, Levin and Wyzalek (2015) found a relationship

between project management methodology (PMM) and its impact on project governance

relationships. The new complex and dynamic environments now require a new public

administration approach for its management. Public project managers must rethink the

traditional approach to projects - the new public administration's dispensation requires a

willingness to change leadership style. The input-outcome cycle explains how the

organization counteracts entropy, assuring its survival by offering an integrative and

potentially systemic approach. The conventional organization theories exaggerate internal

functioning while failing to understand the adaptation process, according to Ackermann

and Alexander (2016).

Under the new model public administration program, the emphasis is on KPIs,

with an infused private sector philosophy that supports effective public sector

government deliverability. The new public management (NPM) is a significant

development in public administration, with varied political and technical objectives. The

model shifted public organizations away from the old rule-bound Weberian style to a

scalable public sector. The NPM reform narrative includes management empowerment

and active performance measurement, which draws its intellectual impulse from the

public choice theory and agency theory (Ferlie, 2017). The public sector functions to

satisfy the citizens' needs rather than theirs. The social goals should balance the

economic ones.

Importance of Project Management

PMI defines project management as “ the application of knowledge, skills, tools,

and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements.” (PMI, 2017a). The

primary project management lifecycle covers initiation, planning, execution, and closure.

Project management aims to plan and manage each phase of the project’s lifecycle to

achieve the identified goals and deliverables. It involves identifying and managing risks,

careful resource management, smart budgeting, and clear communication across multiple

teams and stakeholders. Jacobs and Chase (2017) found that process integration increases

the enterprise's efficiency and ability to compete in its agility, cost, and service

capabilities. The integration process is primarily for a collaborative involvement of the

enterprise systems with resources improving performance and quick reaction to demands

(Kim & Chai, 2016).

Failed projects can quickly derail and delay initiatives and even prevent business

growth because unclear focus can lead to scope creep, missed deadlines, and

overspending. In recent years, Elton (2018) reported a dramatic rise in scope creep due to

stakeholder expectations and shorter delivery schedules. For example, in 2017, 52% of

projects completed reported scope creep at some point during the project’s completion.

The figures represent a notable jump of 9% from 2012, which recorded a 43% scope

creep (PMI, 2017a). The strategy that organizations expect to follow can be very

different from the strategy that gets realized. Regular project success appears to be

challenging because of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) (Pace,

2019).

The primary goal of stakeholder engagement is to fully support the various project

stakeholders while mitigating the stakeholders’ agenda, which is primarily driven by

political, social, or financial gain (Müller et al., 2016). Different stakeholders are

accountable for varying project perspectives with a vested interest in aligning their

objectives to form a uniform approach for delivering solutions to the end-users. Without

a unified approach from each stakeholder to achieve project goals, the organization may

risk misalignment between organizational and project objectives. Erkul et al. (2019)

highlighted stakeholders' engagement within the project's strategic intents with public

needs and expectations. What becomes pronounced is an effectual effort in implementing

an eventual project management methodology. Emphasizing organizations that utilized a

standardized project management methodology, the PMI study found that only 26% of

the participating organizations use a method throughout the organization's project

management practice (PMI, 2019).

Having an interactive approach to project management can help to mitigate

project risk. Project risk management is a practice that manages current and potential

challenges emanating from the project stakeholders' relationships. The risk factors

include ethics, supplier (monopoly behavior), methodologies, and techniques that may

affect the project's goals and objectives, factors influenced by project complexity.

Crispim et al. (2019) conduct a two-phase study to identify project risk management

(PRM) knowledge level and project managers' current practices. They investigated the

connection between critical attributes of organizational PRM maturity, risk-related

methods, and project performance, with complexity as a moderating factor. In the first

phase, they interviewed five project managers. They generated data through a

questionnaire distributed globally to various project managers in the second phase.

Crispim et al. (2019) found that PRM maturity and project complexity influence the

practices employed by project managers.

Further, PRM maturity also changes the usage of risk practices moderated by

project complexity. The more complex the problem, the more risk mitigation measures

are needed by project management practice. Crispim et al. (2019) provide insight into

PRM maturity and PRM practices; the authors used moderating factors to improve

project performance. The maturity of PRM reflects the level of development of formal

methods and processes. Researchers examined the factors that have impacted enterprise

risk management and recommended a framework for identifying and describing

enterprise risk management (Mishra et al., 2019). Resources included all assets,

capabilities, organizational processes, firm attributes, and information knowledge that

allow the organization to implement strategies that improve efficiency and effectiveness.

External resources should be integrated into the firm's resource base, internal resources,

personnel, facilities, processes and customers, suppliers, and other critical outside

entities, like government entities, control bodies, and geography (Mishra et al., 2019).

Those factors offer organizations opportunities they may have failed to recognize because

of inefficient risk management strategies.

Further, with the responsibility of aligning projects and programs to business

strategy, the enterprise project management office (EPMO) establishes and oversees the

projects and programs' appropriate management governance. The EPMO is responsible

for mitigating the issues of risk amid complexity. The considerations and advice help

when choosing the project management (PM) maturity modeling, as the model structure

can influence the assessment’s focus, according to Backlund et al. (2015). Further, the

growing complexity and uncertainty of the project managers will require them to predict

and repeat their project management methodology.

According to Cristóbal et al. (2018), tailoring the established project management

methodology to a specific project and organizational characteristics will allow the

organization to standardize the tools, techniques, processes, and procedures used to

manage the organization’s project. Samiei and Habibi (2019) explain how project culture

and organizational leadership can affect project management performance by establishing

a precise reference as a basis for enterprise resource planning. Project management

professionals will improve their project management approach's efficacy. It explains how

a tailored project management methodology functions and how well the method is

understood and implemented (Joslin & Müller, 2015). Organizational challenges exist not

only in the selection and tailoring of a methodology but also in the manner of deployment

(PMI, 2018)

Crispim et al. (2019) conducted a quantitative cluster analysis and identified six

patterns in project risk management (PRM), risk identification, risk evaluation, planned

actions against risks, risk monitoring, communication, and managing support tasks. The

researchers found that the six patterns are helpful for organizations to determine the

project maturity model and its overall success effectively. Organizations that have

completed over 80% of their projects (within time and budget), and had met their

business intent (outcomes), are those that have benefited highly from realization maturity

(PMI, 2017a). The levels range from none or minimal best practice utilization to the

highest standard of best practices utilization with continuous improvement. The higher

the level of maturity, the more effective project management becomes. Despite the

benefits of maturity modeling, only 7% of the organizations surveyed in 2017 had such a

practice (PMI, 2017a).

Project Management Processes

The concept of project management success and project success is utterly

different in the relationship. Measuring the distinction between the two concepts explains

that project management success delivers the project’s scope and budget within the time

constraint (Joslin & Müller, 2016). In contrast, project success involves realizing the

project goals and objectives after project fulfillment (Hoxha, 2017). From the literature

research and practice, three prevailing streams for project success were evident. The first

was the dominant stream - a prescriptive list of critical success factors, failure factors, or

risk factors that should be considered to ensure a positive project outcome (Joslin &

Müller, 2016). While the risk assessment is subjected to (a) opportunism, (b) bounded

rationality, and (c) subjectivity, the project manager’s involvement in planning from the

onset has the best potential to improve risk assessment (Firmenich, 2017). The research

stream's value identifies essential preconditions and drivers of project success; however,

it offers no explicit definition.

The second stream identifies other contingency variables that might impact

project outcomes or require specific management intervention to mitigate potential

adverse effects. Firmenich (2017) found that each project is unique. Risk should be

estimated using individual assessments, including project size, project type, life cycle

stage, project management complexity, and strategic versus operational mindsets. The

three streams relationship explains how the first two streams achieve project success. The

third stream is concerned with the measures against which success can be judged. Joslin

and Müller (2016) opined that the established criterion from project practice provides an

immediate fulfillment of a project, measured against its design parameters. The

parameters include schedule (time), budget (cost), scope, and quality. The literature sees

this as a measurement for project management success. Gaddis (1959) determined a

project to be an organization unit devoted to attaining a goal-generally the successful

fulfillment of a product on time, within budget, and in conformity with deliberate review

blueprints.

The best-delivered projects are those with the best-applied methodology coupled

with experience and knowledgeable project managers. Managers use key performance

indicators and earned value management tools to monitor the project contingencies

during the project’s life cycle (Eshghi et al., 2019). Implementing the project

management process is an endeavor that requires commitment for strategy alignment

from the top of the organization. Project management has operational tools and

techniques that allow for planning and controlling project delivery. Joslin and Müller

(2015) found that 22.3% of project success results from applying the relevant PMM

elements throughout the project life cycle. Wali and Othman (2019) observed that project

management tools' relevance has increased in construction project management because

of the number of interacting elements in the environment. As management tools aid the

critical path method, it helps support project managers in planning, scheduling tasks, and

completing activities. Gantt charts are projections phased as activities in the project's

work breakdown structure. Wali and Othman (2019) considered the complex

environment and found that tools and their impact on managing public sector projects

provide a better assessment for project success. The tools also involve mathematical

modeling techniques to optimize projects' duration at the level of the project’s scope,

time, and cost factors (Joslin & Müller, 2016). Another seemingly popular method to

measure success is the balanced scorecard, a framework to measure performance from a

financial and non-financial standpoint and provides a balanced view of the internal

business processes, financial, learning, and customer satisfaction and growth (Singh &

Sethi, 2017). When an organization's project management method is misaligned, that

project has a high probability of poor quality from the inefficient operation.

Each project has five phases. Together, they represent the path a project takes

from beginning to the end, generally referred to as the project’s life cycle: initiating,

planning, executing, controlling, and closing. Each project phase uses procedures, tools,

and techniques for constant monitoring and reporting (Joslin & Müller, 2016). In the five

stages of the project management life cycle, each phase will create the work breakdown

structure of every activity and milestone. The KPI analysis procedure compares each sub-

activity or work breakdown structure (WBS) achievements with a projected outcome

(Wysocki, 2019). The use of unsuitable factors will lead organizations to mismanaged

projects. The distinction between methodology elements and success factors becomes

critical because the WBS methodology will identify a comprehensive and detailed WBS

as the success factor measured by five functional elements: processes, tools, techniques,

capability profiles, and knowledge areas (Joslin & Müller, 2015).

The traditional project management has a three-dimensional life cycle approach

that provides cost, quality, and design, optimized by the project manager. Large

infrastructure projects manifest high complexity, unlike contemporary project

management, such as task, structural and directional, technical, and organizational

complexity. Floricel et al. (2016) found a direct correlation between project complexity

and project completion time. From a canonical analysis, the researchers found that

complexity will reduce completion performance and increases innovation performance.

Although the issues of risk and time are impacted by complex projects characterized by

uncertainty, some large-scale and long-term projects experienced some delay in cost

overruns (Safaei, 2020). Qazi et al. (2016) found that project completion time and cost

can be affected by uncertainty issues, and the sophistication is a function of the project

size, creating cost overruns.

Researchers found six elements of uncertainty that may affect both new and

maintenance projects; the most common of the six are complexity, environment,

capability, and information (Saunder et al., 2016). Project managers must exercise

knowledge about the elements and how to manage project risks and uncertainties

effectively. A helpful way is for managers to plan ahead of time and ensure the projects

start early enough to identify and resolve all impediments as soon as possible (Qazi et

al., 2016). The project's units can make continuous adjustments to their plans to reduce

the problems (Khan, Waris, et al., 2019). Complexity affects the modeling, evaluation,

and control of projects and the objectives concerning time, cost, quality, and safety

(Floricel et al., 2016). They also identified specific knowledge management strategies

that project

planners can use to address any complexity-concerning uncertainties (Floricel et al.,

2016). For Arbabi et al. (2020), knowledge management (KM) is regarded as an

essential factor in project-based organizations (PBOs), leading to organizational learning

across projects. Most PBOs have recently inserted project management offices (PMOs)

into their hierarchical charts to manage their projects coherently.

Rivera and Kashiwagi (2016) observed that project management is the mechanism

for delivering professional services; managers are responsible for managing, directing,

and controlling those projects. No one design method cures all challenges, as

contingencies are inevitable. Managing risk in project portfolios requires adopting a

broader outlook than the unique/individual project risk. A strong relationship between

strict supervision of the dangers at each project level and the integration of risk statistics

at the portfolio level allows both to enjoy a positive correlation with the overall project

portfolio success (Teller et al., 2014). Risk management in projects requires

understanding risk evidence, which is critical during high turbulence and portfolio

dynamics. The significance is that the researchers provided functional clarifications for

project risk management to reduce the likelihood of project failure (Teller et al., 2014).

Government agencies that initiate project management methodology (PMM)

control budgets plan activities and ensure stringent quality. The contingency theory offers

project management insights into how best to adapt a project management approach

within a given environment and aids in fulfilling and satisfactory project management

practice (Joslin & Müller, 2015). Project culture and organizational leadership positively

affect project management performance and help establish a precise reference as a basis

for leadership qualities.

The maturity of corporate project management, culture, and organizational

leadership allow project organizations to determine a roadmap to a higher maturity level

(Khan, Waris, et al., 2019). Organizations that move up the project management maturity

levels may have better chances of concluding their project successfully than those that do

not move in the same direction (PMI, 2017a). Climbing the project management maturity

levels improves project success rates in complex environmental projects. The degree of

the projects' complexity determines the “ideal” level of maturity (Christoph & Spang,

2014). Climbing the project management maturity ladder may contribute to positive

social change by improving the projects' environment.

The project portfolio manager's role revolves around the two most fundamental

competencies (a) the portfolio strategy mapping – the management of portfolios through

portfolio value, customer, process excellence, and future orientation capabilities (Levin

& Wyzalek, 2015). The second competency involves working with different algorithms

and financial models. The analytical ability and numerical intelligence are the balanced

scorecard outcome, the tool to align projects to the organization’s strategic objectives

(Levin & Wyzalek, 2015). For example, some organizations struggle with finding the

right mix of products to shape the relative investment based on their preferred risk

profile. Tools help solve those problems by enabling the organization to derive the

desired allocation mix based on existing portfolio analysis.

Business Management Strategies in Project Management

Project management is different from the general management of business

because of its mission-oriented objective. There are terminated upon mission

accomplishment and described as the art of directing and coordinating human and

material resources throughout a project's life by using modern management techniques

to achieve predetermined objectives of scope, cost, time, quality, and participation

satisfaction (PMI, 2018). The general management of the business and organizations

assumes a broader outlook with more excellent continuity of operations. Given the

underlying similarities between project and business management, adapting modern

management techniques in either realm is now the challenge (Dyer et al., 2016).

Organizations today seek to “do more with less,” they now integrate IT systems to

eliminate redundancy while improving efficiency. Integration tools are different from

integration strategies because the foundation of an effective integration strategy is to

standardize operations. If not given the various divisional components, the organization

will find itself awash with duplicated functionality (Jacobs & Chase, 2017). Modern

management practices and unique knowledge domains have absorbed many techniques

and tools identified only for business management practice. For example, computer-based

information systems and decision support systems are now standard tools for general

management. Computer-based systems and subsystems are intended to help decision-

makers use communications technologies, data, documents, knowledge, and models to

complete decision-making tasks (Ölçer & Akyol, 2014).

The internet of things (IoT) is essentially a global network of devices that can

communicate with one another and end-users through the internet. The IoT intersects

with project management on team collaboration to data collection, presenting challenges

at several levels (Sanchez, 2018). PPM practitioners slowly implement emerging

technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) or virtual reality (VR). The lack of urgency is

directly associated with the lack of digital-friendly solutions offered by PPM technology

providers. Still, the expectation is that the newer generation of PPM end-users will begin

applying pressure based on today’s PPM tools' limitations. The following changes in the

external project environment, the power structures, capabilities, skills, and standard

practices may eventually cause many traditional project portfolio management practices

to become obsolete. Poorly implemented changes may result in strategy misalignment

within the project life cycle (Zolfaghari et al., 2017).

Project management specific to construction encompasses objectives by

implementing a series of operations subject to resource constraints. Many operations

research techniques, such as linear programming and network analysis, are now popularly

used in the general knowledge application domains. They help resolve challenges and

potential conflicts between the project's stated goals concerning scope, cost, time, quality,

the limitations imposed on human material, and financial resources (Lübbe, 2016).

Conflict resolution should be at the project's onset by making the necessary

tradeoffs or creating new alternatives (Wysocki, 2019). Business management

emphasizes management's systematic study by distinguishing management functions in

an organization, measuring each detail. A principal tenet in analyzing management along

functional lines explains how all new management activities are practiced. The manager's

role is to coordinate a process of interrelated functions, which are not arbitrary nor rigidly

calculated but becomes dynamic as the process unfolds. Understanding the changing

dynamics of organizational structure will create the directional path for construction

project management and better preparation (Uddin & Lynn, 2016).

Another tenet is that management principles are derived from an intellectual

analysis of management functions. Even leaders with higher emotional intelligence

quotients were more productive and experienced a higher project success rate (Maqbool

et al., 2017). Creating smaller operative components for managers' jobs allows for

organized management functions to improve operational efficiency. The primary

management functions are performed by all managers, regardless of enterprise, activity,

or hierarchical levels. The development of a management philosophy helps the manager

establish relationships between human and material resources. The outcome follows an

established philosophy of operation that helps managers win the subordinates' support in

achieving organizational objectives (Melé, 2016). Project managers should be aware of

their organization's strategic position and the other organizations involved in the project.

The project manager faces the difficult task of aligning various organizations' goals and

strategies to accomplish project goals.

Project Success Factors

The iron triangle’s cost, time, and scope concepts are still considered fundamental

objective measurement tools for project success. Despite not being the only contributory

factor, the triangle only accounts for 60% of project success, according to Serrador and

Turner (2015). Project success is a multidimensional construct that includes short-term

project management success (efficiency) and long-term goals (effectiveness). The

regarded distinction between the concept of project management success and project

success is distinctly significant. While project management success refers to delivering

the project's scope on time and within the budget, project success means accomplishing

the project’s objectives after the project conclusion (Hoxha, 2017). Project success is

understood as achieving targets and objectives as planned but measured when the project

is closed.

The project success literature centered around three fields, to identify project

objectives' attainment (Waheed, 2016); evaluation of projects in terms of cost, time, and

quality (Khan, Memon, & Ahmad, 2019); and strategic alignment projects to

organizational objectives (Joslin & Müller, 2016). While researchers often use project

success and project management success interchangeably, there are different, even

though there are found to be interconnected (Radujkovic & Sjekavica, 2017). A logical

deduction implies that project management generally involves controlling cost, time, and

progress to assess project success criteria.

A project might still be successful because, for stakeholders, the process of

finishing the project within time, scope, and budget, is critical, but other considerations

can also be helpful. The end-users experience might be most effective, especially with

infrastructure projects, as the benefit obtained can surpass the capital costs associated

with building the infrastructure (Lübbe, 2016). In contrast, a project can be defined as an

enterprise's activity to benefit the long-term (Radujkovic & Sjekavica, 2017).

Several factors can influence project success, many outside the project manager’s

control (Akade, (2017). As such, the sole responsibility for project success should not

necessarily rest ultimately on the project manager alone. Wysocki (2018) opined that

projects are subject to changing conditions, creating difficulties in scoping the project,

even from the onset. The mechanistic management system offers a better perception of

project requirements through the work breakdown structure (WBS), according to

Wysocki (2019). Waheed (2016) contended that the perspective for recognition in project

management practice comes from the regulatory body, the PMI, a guide to the project

management body of knowledge (PMBOK). The purpose is to help project managers

achieve project objectives and align projects with the organization’s strategic plan. The

PMBOK assumption is that project managers can identify patterns and generalizations

throughout the project (Wang et al., 2018).

Notwithstanding PMI's contributions and authoritative influence, project

sustainability is not well addressed in the popular texts containing the best practices for

project management. Such observation raises the need for a more holistic and coherent

view of projects in terms of the degree of fitness, given the operating environment of

those projects and the general society they operate (Armenia et al., 2019). The

researchers identified five dimensions as the principal research domains. They

considered critical factors for integrating a sustainable approach for project management

practices (Armenia et al., 2019). There are as follows, (a) corporate policies and

practices, (b) resource management, (c) life cycle orientation, (d) stakeholders’

engagement, and (e) organizational learning. The researchers found positive trends

towards integrated project

management processes using sustainable management in the project’s process life cycle.

Sustainability influenced all of the standard practices of project management knowledge

concerning time, cost, quality, and project risk (Armenia et al., 2019).

Joslin and Müller (2016) examined the link between project management

methodology (PMM), project success, and its impact on project governance

relationships. Joslin and Müller's (2016) sampling method provided a balance among the

continents, and they targeted professionals who work in professional organizations

worldwide. The sampled approach resulted in better responses because they were more

interested in their profession than their employers. This sampling approach also has its

limitation; PMI professionals' limited respondents' choice to only members of

professional project management bodies, creating a bias. Nevertheless, the researchers

found that PMM was initiated by government agencies, in an effort at controlling

budgets, for the planning of activities, and to ensure stringent quality. Joslin and Müller

(2016) found that methodologies should evolve to provide the best application within the

project environment, using new tools and planning techniques, including ICT.

Best Practices in Project Management

Patanakul et al. (2016) found six essential characteristics as critical success

factors for governmental projects to succeed. They achieve specific and attainable

outcomes, effective product design, stakeholder engagement, integrated project schedule,

legislative alignment, and project standards. Being excellent at managing projects is

usually a matter of grasping project management best practices. The “best practices” are

generally obtained from project management methodologies, international standards,

industry standards from conventions, and the organizations’ guidelines from past project

lessons learned. Research tells us that skilled, trained, and experienced project managers

increase the likelihood of project success, meeting original goals, and delivering on

business intent (PMI, 2018). Often, these “best practices” may vary from organization to

organization. Some, however, are applicable across organizations and can fundamentally

enhance project performance.

Researchers have adopted a practice-based approach to study project and project

portfolio management and encourage researchers to follow this call (Clegg et al., 2018).

Practice-based research has three views: Phenomenon, perspective, and philosophy. The

phenomenon view encompasses what happens as opposed to what to expect. The

perspective view includes a unique way of observing the participant. The philosophy

view provides for the misconception of social reality’s perception of observing the

participant (Clegg et al., 2018). The phenomenon practice is used by seasoned and skilled

project practitioners to combat project complexity challenges. They demonstrated the

alignment of project processes with a business management strategy using tools,

techniques, and procedures for successful alignment (Floricel et al., 2016).

A best practice is to maximize human resources to gain efficiency by creating a

“product team” - experts trained in specific repetitive tasks. Leaders need to select and

communicate the strategy to make the most efficient use of the resources (Samáková et

al., 2018). The product team should not be affiliated with any particular project or

organization. Instead, they would move from project to project, performing just the target

task for product management. In another project, best practice involves a risk

management response team. Four options are available, mitigation, acceptance, transfer,

or do nothing. The team should comprise experienced members with wide-ranging access

to plan, monitor, and control the project's risks by thinking of worst-case scenarios and

develop contingency plans (Crispim et al., 2019).

Leadership capabilities are significant when dealing with sophisticated resources -

as in an agency setting. While a schedule cannot continually develop creative work to

realize 100% perfection every time, leadership traits, motivation, and empathy can create

teams' talent for efficiency (Northouse, 2019). Portfolio management allows

organizations to make the most efficient use of resources to understand their investments'

benefits. It helps ensure credibility and increased accountability to stakeholders and

enhances the ability to make timely and strategic changes. Amongst the more popular

form of project management methodologies in practice is agile; however, the waterfall,

hybrid, critical path method, and critical chain project management are also considered.

The agile methodology is the most utilized in short development cycles focusing on

continuous improvement in developing a product or service (Loiro et al., 2019). The

benefit from constant improvement requires a narrow focus on one primary goal

achievement, and to stay on schedule while keeping costs low is now practice with the

use of technology (Berggren, 2019). The process of aligning project and program

activities with ICT strategy helps with being agile, whose application is primarily within

the software development industry (Loiro et al., 2019). Today, the process has become

useful across most industries; being agile is more comfortable to manage change when

obstacles arise.

A common factor in failed projects is a lack of collective understanding of

stakeholders' requirements. Both the project team and client have differing views of the

project's scope. The identified characteristics of stakeholder engagement and project

complexity are similar to the concept of governance of project portfolio management that

deals with multiple programs involving a multi-project environment (Levin, & Wyzalek,

2015). Stakeholders' involvement is critical; the project can easily slip into a pattern of

reduced communication when dealing with the client, especially when perceived as

"happy." However, unless the meetings are not regular, one cannot know the client’s

satisfaction. The dominant driver of projects meeting their original goals is an actively

engaged sponsor (PMI, 2018). From the project manager's perspective, frequent

stakeholder engagement gives the feeling of open communication and that their best

interests are served (Loiro et al., 2019). To process is formalized with regular client status

meetings - at least weekly, it will keep everyone engaged and on the same page. The

project momentum will stay steady, and success is more likely (PMI, 2018).

Organizations can focus heavily on their project managers' technical

competencies (e.g., relying on formal PM knowledge and certifications). Although

skilled, trained, and experienced project managers increase the likelihood of project

success, meet original goals, and deliver on business intent (PMI, 2018). In effect, the

"softer" side of project management - leadership, empathy, people skills will suffer.

Given how heavily project managers interface with clients and internal stakeholders, they

strain their leadership competencies beside their technical ones. The most successful

change management approaches reflect leaders' experiences who apply a deeper

understanding of people and systems supported with an organization’s culture,

comparable to the McKinsey 7-S Model (Morgan, 2015).

The project management office develops and implements a process that ensures

everything works as planned to succeed with project portfolio management. The

alignment needs to be within the formulated strategic implementation in large projects,

including the project managers and executive management (Erceg & Gukam, 2018).

Those large projects have project management offices or enterprise project management

offices which can (a) identify all existing and potential projects, (b) determine how each

project will impact organization-wide strategy, (c) prioritize each project, (d) allocate

resources, and (e) adjust project strategy as required. The realization of the

organization’s objectives allows for the programs and projects to be further arranged

under a portfolio strategy undertaken by the project management office (PMO). PMOs

are used to improve the communication and interactions between the organization and

customers (PMI, 2018). Besides, PMO may consolidate projects with similarities for

operational planning, allowing for alignment with business strategy (Dyer et al., 2016).

Portfolio management is a way to operationalize strategy by aligning project policies and

procedures with the organization's goals.

Alignment of Project Management with Organizational Strategies

According to Zolfaghari et al. (2017), alignment is an effort that supports

organizational success; it involves the collective alliance of strategies from three levels,

corporate, business, and functional, to maximize outcomes. In general, alignment is the

effort to agree on the main goal by directing all parts and functions of an organization

towards the same objectives. Understanding business strategy at all levels of an

organization becomes a significant task of an effective project management process in

alignment (Erceg & Gukam, 2018). When the alignment is substantial, both the

organization and project team's effectiveness will increase. Still, when the alignment is

weak, the challenge is misalignment when the teams cannot focus on the main goal and

objectives (PMI, 2016). The researcher found that organizational strategies represent

approximately 37% of the common factor associated with project failure (PMI, 2017a).

The contention is that successful organizations are those organizations that achieve

proper alignment between these elements. Their mission should translate into the

business and the strategic plan to include workers, departments, strategies, and business

processes.

The critical issue in the process-driven strategy alignment model is that the flow

from the inception point from the business process to the project management process is

linear. When the strategic objectives change due to changes in the project's internal and

external environment, misalignment from business to project strategy could occur.

Project effectiveness can be achieved by aligning project management priorities with

organizational strategy (Zolfaghari et al., 2017). The creation of alignment between

projects and organizational strategy starts from the project selection phase continuing

throughout the project lifecycle up to the project implementation. Zolfaghari et al. (2019)

categorized the efforts into three stages: allocation, cascading, and autonomy; the

researchers focused on the last stage. Zolfaghari et al. aligned the construct between

project strategy and business strategy had posed a limitation because they could only

assign three discrete states to the alignment (low, medium, and high). Zolfaghari et al.

suggested that further study can measure the alignment construct for more reliable

results. While Zolfaghari et al. (2019) established significant quantitative research

alignment, my qualitative approach differs. From the project selection phase and

throughout the project’s lifecycle, right through to the project completion stage.

The traditional literature on aligning project management with business strategy is

vague. Most studies linked the business strategy with project management through a

project selection process, seen as part of the alignment process (e.g., Baker, 1974). The

more common approach is project portfolio management (PPM), another concept

suggested in the literature to ensure project management and strategic alignment. Volden

and Samset (2017) presented their findings on public investment governance on

megaprojects and found a pathway to sustainable development for developing countries.

They found that most megaprojects were successful because project managers performed

quality assurance at the project's onset. Sustainability can manage the project life cycle to

positively impact cost, time, and project risk (Armenia et al., 2019).

Pinto and Winch (2016) discussed designing the projects' front-end to suit the

business environment. From the findings, the pointed conclusion is how dynamic project

portfolio management has grown. The progression has become a dynamic decision-

making process through which an organization can update and revise its active projects

list (Pinto & Winch, 2016). The organization’s choice of business strategy drives their

PPM’s method, the significant purposes of selecting and prioritizing projects. The study

by Berggren (2019) introduces another idea of innovation through the sequential learning

of project managers, who can deploy ambidextrous leadership skills in achieving project

innovation. The front-end project design was critical for managing the business

environment as an innovation measure in a challenging environment.

The organizational project management models discussed above are now well

mature in their applications. Nevertheless, the criticisms were ineffective as many firms

continued to face obstacles in improving their project management practices. An

alternative methodology was developed from the literature review, and the proposal's

arguments were analyzed. Mossalam and Arafa (2016) determined the awareness and

level of implementing project-level benefits management versus other organizational

governance practices across different organizations. Aubry et al. (2019) investigated

how benefits management evolved in organizations by considering project actors'

experience based on five large-scale organizations as they engage in the activity. Aubry

et al. (2019) provided valuable consideration for understanding the “good practice

approach” to benefit project management. They suggested a strong relationship between

projects and their benefits to be measured throughout the projects' execution.

Similarly, in a unique approach, researchers used a case study of an infrastructure

megaproject that concerns the construction management of a 50-year-old American

bridge. Eskerod et al. (2018) found that exploiting all project opportunities will increase

project benefits. Such a requirement involves all categories of stakeholders. While some

project-related opportunities may take a while before enjoying the related benefits,

celebrating the successes stimulates the project and creates opportunities to further

project benefits. Eskerod et al. (2018) contributed to the gap within the literature on the

phenomenon “project opportunity exploitation,” even though the case study was a “rare

species.”

The recognition of strategic importance in project management is rapidly

accelerating. A strong reason for the acceleration is that aligning project management

with business strategy can significantly enhance goal achievements (PMI, 2017). What is

now emerging is the project management office's role and the enterprise project

management office (EPMO), which offers a broader business-wide responsibility. The

EPMO and PMO benefits were highlighted in the survey, as 27% more projects were

completed successfully, and 42% fewer projects were without scope creep (PMI, 2017).

The strategic alignment concept stresses project management goals and implementation

plans with the business's goals and organizational strategic goals in a dynamic and

uncertain environment. Project managers with competencies in the knowledge and

process areas are critical to successfully managing a project (PMI, 2017).

The research field concerning the idea of strategic alignment in various fields of

management is growing. Zolfaghari et al. (2017) established alignment between the

project life cycle stages - allocation, cascading, and autonomy. Other researchers found a

correlative relationship between the organizational business and function (e.g., Erceg &

Gukam, 2018). Since project management is similar to these functional strategies, the

logical deduction is for project management alignment with the business strategy because

of the critical role in project success in organizations. Projects aligned to the

organization’s strategy are completed more often than the misaligned projects (PMI,

2016). Aggressive project sponsors also use their influence within an organization to

actively overcome challenges by communicating the project’s alignment to strategy,

removing the bottleneck, and driving organizational change. Project momentum will stay

steady with this consistent engagement and support, and success is more likely (PMI,

2018).

While many organizations, including governments, suffer from misaligned

projects, the lack of a systematic approach to align project management with the business

strategy is evident. The empirical literature that offers advice on how to achieve

alignment is scanty. The planning strategy points should represent the changes in an

organization’s long-term direction. Researchers found that less than 50% of the studied

organizations have enterprise project management offices (EPMO). However, only 44%

of those EPMOs have aligned organizational strategies (PMI, 2016). While projects are

viewed as building blocks for organizational strategy, they are not recognized

functionally. However, they are rather perceived as a business process, achieving a

project management /business strategy alignment even more complicated, according to

Wang et al. (2018).

Wang et al. (2018) stated that the PMBOK’s purpose is to help project managers

achieve their project objectives by aligning them with the organization’s strategic plans.

PMBOK assumes that project managers can identify patterns and generalizations that

occur throughout the project. The literature suggested that PMO professionals hold

significant knowledge to ensure alignment and focus on achieving their vision, similar to

the EPMO. While PMO’s original purpose was to manage programs and project

specified deliverables, they did not necessarily have a secure link with the high-level

business

objectives. Their effectiveness is increasingly measured by mapping a direct line back to

the overall business performance's success (PMI, 2018). A centralized function should be

operable at the strategic level with the executives.

Organizations are now using the project stage-gates approach to adapt and

maintain the alignment during the project's execution phase (Volden & Andersen, 2018).

The mediating process level provides strategic feedback resulting from environmental

changes, leading to an “emergent strategy” (Mintzberg, 1994). The strategy was never

envisaged in the plans but rather emerged from a stream of managerial decisions over

time. Volden and Andersen’s (2018) approach is the first step toward a better

understanding of public project governance as a hierarchical system and the relationship

between project owners on three levels, the cabinet, the sectoral ministry, and the

government agency- project execution unit (PEU). Considering the varying government

roles becomes quite helpful in understanding the stage-gate within a country’s public

sector project management. Volden and Andersen (2018) studied public project

governance in various ministries and agencies in Norway. Following the introduction of

a structure that seeks support at the highest government level, the cabinet approves the

most significant projects. The study methodology was designed to assess the project

governance frameworks and applied to state-funded investment projects in selected

sectors. The researchers found that all agencies introduced their project governance

frameworks, consistent with the project management literature recommendations and the

cabinet’s overall requirements. By contrast, only one ministry has taken a formalized role

as the project owner. After the cabinet's no-objections, governance tasks get delegated to

the subordinate agencies (Volden & Andersen, 2018).

Project, Programs, and Portfolio Management

Project portfolio management (PPM) illustrates how best to accomplish those

interrelations and dependencies that connect projects. PPM offers a pictorial view of all

grouped projects -past, present, and future, and provides an analysis that optimizes the

prioritization and sequencing of projects to maximize the organization’s return rate

(Armenia et al., 2019). Portfolios of programs, projects, and operations, when created,

are used to achieve strategic goals and objectives. Project portfolio managers require

different skills to project managers. According to Levin and Wyzalek (2015), project

portfolio practice revolves around two crucial competencies. They allow for strategy

mapping when managing portfolios through portfolio value, customer, process

excellence, and future orientation capabilities.

Projects and programs within a portfolio generate value in an organization's

production capability, and when completed, the projects become operational (Berzisa &

Rasnacis, 2017). An organization can then translate its vision and mission into a strategic

plan with strategic goals and objectives. The organizations’ departments also have their

strategic plan that supports the organization’s initiatives. These initiatives are grouped

into portfolios and create portfolios of programs, projects, and operations executed over a

pre-determined period (Zolfaghari et al., 2017). A portfolio will link projects and

programs to the organization’s strategic plan. Some organizations struggle with finding

the appropriate mix of products for their investment based on the risk profile. Moreover,

tools are available to help solve the problems and enable the organization to derive the

desired allocation mix based on existing portfolio analysis (Zolfaghari et al., 2017).

Berzisa and Rasnacis (2017) presented a new source that successfully

implemented a tailored agile PMM based on a project's specific elements and the

organization. The method included people, training, customers, team size, team

capability, team motivation, company culture, planning, and scheduling. The process

included the best practices from change management, methodology adaptation, and

execution while using sociometric and motivation research methods that analyzed the

project team's role in implementing the PMM. The researchers presented a case study

where the procedure was employed and analyzed in a real-world scenario. The

researchers found that the team experienced greater cohesion, improved risk

management, and increased communications due to the implemented agile PMM.

Within programs and portfolios, projects are a means of achieving organizational

strategy and objectives. In turn, projects will have deliverables with control accounts,

including work packages with work activities throughout the project (work breakdown

structure). Their assumed risk groups them; for example, at the level of the executive, the

risk responsibilities range from (a) the steering committee-level presentations, (b) the

portfolio management milestone plans, (c) resource allocation, and (d) accepting

responsibility for deliverables and timeline engagements. Levin and Wyzalek's (2015)

model helps organizations view strategy in an integrated and systematic way. Generally,

portfolio managers usually develop management standards to guide the portfolio and

keep a high-level overview of everything. The projects with their deliverables

(outcomes)

provide the day-to-day goals and execute the strategic objectives. Projects are undertaken

to accomplish an organization’s strategic plan's business objectives, albeit directly or

indirectly. The PMBOK guide also regards projects as an authorized activity derived

from multiple sets of strategic considerations (Project Management Institute, 2017b).

Ng (2018) reviewed several widely used project management frameworks and

selected three (PMBOK, PRINCE2, and ITIL). The objectives of the review were

twofold. First, it allows for a quick understanding of the widely used project management

frameworks. Second, it considered varying frameworks for complementary applications,

each at different phases of a project life cycle to address the specific needs. The

researcher provided an example of how the methodologies could be combined and further

tailored to determine similarities, differences, and gaps within each method. Using a real-

life case study of an organization with 2,000 employees, the researcher described

organizational PMM that comprises stages and varying management involvement levels.

Once the business case is justified, the project team then moves to the acquisition and

development phase of the PMM, leveraging PMI’s PMBOK processes and techniques.

As the project moves to operations and support, the PMM will include the ITIL

components to build a management plan. The components provide specific configuration

and asset management, incident management, and change management. Ng (2018)

concludes that one methodology rarely sufficed because of each project's uniqueness, the

comparative analysis, the real-life case study, and the feedback obtained from project

management practitioners. Instead, the researcher opined that tailoring and combining

relevant elements of the traditional PMMs be reworked to improve project success.

Besides, adding the most up-to-date tools, technologies, skills, and knowledge areas to

leverage in increasingly complex project environments.

Projects can enjoy successful completion in numerous ways. However, to think of

the most successful project management methodologies, methods, and frameworks

requires an open mind because there are always changes. A relationship between project

management methodology (PMM) results in project success and impacts project

governance relationships (Levin & Wyzalek, 2015). New concepts appear all the time,

and an entire sequence of methods, tools, and techniques lies behind each successful

project. Bakhshi et al. (2016) found that the project benefits can map to the strategic

objectives, especially for complex problems, as competencies in the knowledge facilitate

complex issue resolutions. Investigations have determined the awareness and level of

project-level benefits management versus other organizational governance practices

across different organizations (Mossalam & Arafa, 2016). The researchers proposed roles

for the project manager to realize benefits management. To add confidence, a real-life

scenario of implementation for challenges illustrated a successful implementation

benefited from the realization concept (Mossalam & Arafa, 2016). The benefits

realization management process is compatible with the process groups of PMBOK. They

enable the organization to cascade the responsibilities of delivering values at the project

manager level (Project Management Institute, 2017b).

As a practice tool for implementation, benefits measures play an active role in

monitoring the potential project benefits. Mossalam and Arafa (2016) showed a

superficial implementation level of benefits management practices at the project level

compared to benefits at higher levels (programs & portfolios) and among other

organizational practices and systems (quality management, excellence, risks,

performance, among others). In the current methods, 40% of surveyed organizations

possess benefits management practices versus 70% of the organization for project

management practices, which indicated the relatively low performance of benefits

management (PMI, 2017). The findings help enlarge the project manager's

responsibilities to realize benefits, suggesting a mechanism for managing these benefits

through benefits register, benefits realization plan, measures, KPIs, and closure.

Therefore, a portfolio manager needs to be less focused on individual projects and more

on the big picture approach: Identify opportunities for success by mitigating risks to

achieve the objectives.

Summary and Transition

Section 1 discussed the study's background, the problem statement, the purpose of

the study, the research question, and the study's conceptual framework. I also presented

the study's nature, defined terms, assumptions, limitations, delimitations, and the study's

significance. The literature review discussed the strategic management concepts

concerning public sector project managers and the factors that align project outcomes

with government strategies to maximize project success. Section 2 includes the purpose

statement, the researcher's role, participants, research method and design, population and

sampling, ethical research, data collection technique, data organization techniques, data

analysis, and reliability and validity. In section 3, I presented the findings, application to

professional practice, implications for social change, recommendations for action and

future research, reflections, and a conclusion.

Section 2: The Project

In this section, I reiterate the research's purpose statement, present the researcher's

role in the qualitative study, and identify the participants. Further, I explain the

methodology and the research design and define the population and the sampling size. In

addition to offering the highlights for ethical research consideration, I explain the data

collection method. Finally, I present the study's technique to ensure the research's

reliability and validity.

Purpose Statement

The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore effective

strategies that public sector project managers used to align the project outcomes with

government strategies that maximized project performance. The specific population

group comprised public sector investment project managers who successfully aligned the

project outcomes with government strategies and worked for four project-based units

within the geographic administrative region of Demerara/ Mahaica (Region 4), Guyana.

They participated in semistructured interviews that provided their perspectives and

experiences in project management, which formed the source of the data collection. A

project is determined aligned if 80% of its expected outcomes are aligned with the

organizational strategy (PMI, 2017). The examined project reports verified successful

alignment from three constructs; (a) identification of the set goals from the baseline

studies and how they were captured within the project goals on a percentage basis; (b)

exploration of each of the alignment factors of cost, time, and budget; and (c)

examination of the end user's satisfaction from stated goals of both the project and

organization, all from a compliance rate of at least 80%. The study may contribute to

positive social change if public sector project managers can use the study findings to

create a community of successful project practitioners to implement projects better.

Role of the Researcher

Unlike quantitative research, in which the participants function autonomously,

and the researcher’s role is distant from the studied population, qualitative research

necessitates that the researcher determines accuracy and trustworthiness while serving as

the primary data collection instrument (Alpi & Evans, 2019). The process entails a

researcher’s thorough understanding of the research phenomenon to aid a meaningful

research inquiry while making a conscious effort not to influence the participants

(Marshall & Rossman, 2014). The researcher’s role is to understand social

constructivism's principles. The intention was to create a collaborative nature of learning

by linking the literature with the interviewees' self-discovery from the collected data —a

belief that social processes are sustainable and that people construct knowledge in their

daily social interactions (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015).

Researchers should be objective in their approach because subjectivity negatively

affects the quality of the research. For example, Karagiozis (2018) stipulated that

researchers should avoid forced opinions or thrusting their views on the participants’

answers. Such meddling could invalidate the study. Researchers should actively listen to

the participants and build trust and rapport while demonstrating empathy (Kenno et al.,

2017). Researchers have a social responsibility to conduct the study ethically, preserve

the research, fully comply with the code of ethics and avert biases (Karagiozis, 2018).

As the researcher, I follow the protocols of the Belmont Report (National

Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral

Research, 1979). The report presented three fundamentally ethical principles, autonomy,

beneficence, and justice (Miracle, 2016). Autonomy explains “the respect of person” as

the first moral principle that speaks to an individual's fundamental right to choose

whether to participate (Yin, 2018). Autonomy allows for a detailed comprehension of the

requested engagement and reasonable judgments about making a noncoerced decision

(Roth et al., 2018). Regarding the individuals' natural ability to do what they choose—

the respect of person—Yin (2018) found in human research that not every individual can

intentionally apply independence and control. Diligence and due care must be practiced

to ensure no influence, coercion, or exogenous influences are placed on the participants

in their responses (Glenna et al., 2019).

Researchers should not find themselves in any conflicting situations; in fact, they

must show due diligence in mitigating personal bias in data collection and verification

(Karagiozis, 2018). A generalized idea in qualitative research is to ascertain a

relationship between (a) the research question, (b) the observed data, and (c) the

conclusions (Green & Salkind, 2017). Therefore, the researcher should try to mitigate

bias as much as possible. Such efforts will ensure that the study overcomes design

scrutiny with a repeatable method that produces the same results using different samples

(Walden University, 2019).

I used interview protocols, member checking and review, data saturation, and

triangulation, in addition to the carefully constructed interview questions. I ensured that

the analyzed data was primarily inductive, allotting meaning developed from the data

rather than the more hypothetical-deductive quantitative research approach. Researchers

create an interactive dialogue with the participants to enhance the perspective and derive

more into a social context (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015). Each participant’s uniqueness was

maintained to ensure each participant realized an independent and unique case study that

allowed for case comparison (see Yin, 2018). In qualitative research, researchers should

build sufficient trust with participants so that their data set can describe strictly authentic

and rich meanings, experiences, and perceptions (Anderson, 2017).

An interactive dialogue helps develop an intensive response and add a more

insightful approach to the social context (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015). Furthermore, given

the uniqueness of the participants, a sustainable method was required to ensure each

participant represented an independent and unique case that provided the opportunity for

case comparison, following Yin (2018). Finally, I conducted diligent and careful

verification of interview questions and data analysis methods to ensure comprehensive

data collection and analysis. The interview protocols, member checking and review, data

saturation, and triangulation ensured that the data analysis was primarily inductive,

allowing meaning to develop from the data.

Participants

Sanjari et al. (2014) opined that the participants must best fit the qualitative

researcher's criterion under investigation. The selected participants for this study were

project practitioners who experienced the phenomena and articulated their knowledge in

successful project outcomes alignment. My role was to select those appropriate

participants who had the expertise and competence to answer the interview questions and

ensure access to those participants (see Saunders et al., 2016). I interviewed the

participants with the requisite competence to answer the overreaching research question.

To gain admittance to participants, I first identified those organizations whose

affiliation to public sector investment projects were known to have a pool of experienced

project practitioners. According to Yin (2018), the participants can come from ministries,

agencies, and at the local government levels in such circumstances. Given the nature of

the study, I found the participating pool to be public officials. Participants with positions

of power in those organizations are often the gatekeepers of valuable information and a

potential source of rich data for researchers (Adhabi & Anozie, 2017). Therefore, I

contacted the agencies' principles to gain approval and an agreement for cooperation.

This process promised access to the project leaders in the agencies with the sought-after

information and permission to interview them. I had anticipated challenges with

accessing participants, and I sought a high level of engagement with the organization’s

leadership. In the process, I had expected some leaders to exercise elite behavior under

their positions of authority—politicians, heads of agencies, chief executives’ officers,

permanent secretaries, and senior civil servants—making this group challenging to

access.

Often elites are more inaccessible and surrounded by gatekeepers, and I managed

to gain access because I exercised much patience, planned carefully, and allotted plenty

of time for the process, as suggested by Mikecz (2012). The strategy for gaining access

to these government officials had involved developing a rapport for a working

relationship

with the participants (see Prior, 2019). I was thoroughly prepared to anticipate a

challenge on my research topic, its relevance, and other questions. Sometimes elites will

inadvertently or deliberately avoid answering a problem, especially if they are media

savvy. An excellent strategy I applied was the proper interview techniques that allowed

for elite personality control. It allowed for a better assessment with qualitative

interviews and greater credibility. It kept the respondent from telling partial or

imaginative narratives (Harvey, 2011).

An acceptable interviewee response is a sign of relaxation, indicating that the

respondent may open up networking opportunities. Prior (2018) concluded that

developing a good rapport provides networking opportunities before attempting

complicated or awkward questions. The rapport consists of a healthy process of giving

and receiving information between participant and researcher, noting that the researcher

can connect with participants to share their experiences. The aim is to demonstrate a

skilled researcher's attributes by asking the right questions while staying adaptive, being a

good listener, having a firm grasp on the issues under consideration, and conducting the

research ethically (Yin, 2018). I endeavored to such a practice.

Obtaining the appropriate participants for interview-based research is a critical

element of successful research (Kenno et al., 2017). To ensure my conduct was of the

highest ethical standard for the study, I provided the participant with a comprehensive

overview of the research. Each received an informed consent form that invited them to

confirm their participation. Whether or not a participant wishes to partake in the research,

informed consent is a process to communicate honestly and thoroughly about the

investigation (Simon et al., 2018). The consent form featured the following details: the

eligibility criteria, the purpose of the study, the data collection procedures, the voluntary

nature of the study, the risks and benefits of participating in the survey, compensation for

taking part in the study, measures to protect the privacy of the participants and the

confidentiality of the collected dataset, a declaration on conflicts of interest, and contact

details for further information. All help cultivate a rapport with participants in qualitative

interviews and enhance the researcher’s access to the interviewees’ stories, according to

Prior (2018).

The data was collected after receiving approval from Walden University’s

institutional review board (IRB; approval number 07-08-21-0984939). Gaining the IRB

approval expedited the primary data collection process because the IRB protects

participants' welfare and ensures the research's ethical conduct (Henry et al., 2016). In

addition, the IRB approval assures the prospective participants of the study's

appropriateness in its design. Participation in this study involved minimal personal risks

while offering benefits to stakeholders.

The purposive sampling method explained how the four eligible organizations'

participant was identified. Each was chosen from a different organization with success in

managing a public infrastructure/construction project. The purposive sampling technique

is appropriate for case studies. Purposive sampling follows a unique line of questioning;

for example, do participants share the researcher's phenomenon of interest? (Englander,

2016; Patton, 2015). Purposive sampling requires examining the population's specific

characteristics - an investigation of participants based on their judgment. Researchers

then handpick participants based on their knowledge and experience (Kandola et al.,

2014).

For my study, because my population comes from state agencies, I used two

approaches. First, peruse the project documents to identify which projects satisfy the

selection criterion, with an 80% compliance rate. The verification of successful alignment

met from three constructs, (a) identification of the set goals from the baseline studies and

how they were captured within the project goals on a percentage basis; (b) exploration of

each of the alignment factors of cost, time, and budget; and (c) examination of the end

user's satisfaction from stated goals of both the project and organization. Second, the first

criteria' fulfillment easily allowed for identifying successful managers. The request was

made to the agency's executive for a list of those practitioners to form the sample.

Researchers who use snowball sampling allow one or more participants to identify other

participants (Saunders et al., 2016).

Qualitative researchers select a sample of participants who generally provide rich

information about a phenomenon that positively affects others' lives (Rossetto, 2014).

The eligibility criteria for selection as a participant were projects managers who

successfully aligned project outcomes with government’s strategies and those who

satisfy the requirements of (a) serving as the project manager, (b) serving as the program

or portfolio manager, (c) serving as a functional manager, and (d) work in a public

infrastructure unit for a minimum of 5 years. In addition, I interviewed those who agreed

to participate voluntarily, from which I achieved data saturation.

Considering the COVID-19 circumstances, researchers may conduct electronic

interviews in real-time using computer-aided technologies via the internet (Saunders et

al., 2016). Skype and Zoom are easily accessible and are of free service. The researcher

interacted audiovisually and held live conversations via the internet, which provided

convenience across time and space in any physically remote location. Skype and Zoom

are convenient and safe alternatives because the interviewer and the respondent can

interact at their choice (Archibald et al., 2019). I conducted the interviews via Skype and

Zoom, convenient to the participants in line with the interview protocol.

Research Method and Design

Three methodologies are available in scholarly research. Researchers use them to

investigate problems and determine the method's appropriateness and design suitable for

any research, qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods (Queiros et al., 2017). This

section will include a discussion on the research method and research design.

Research Method

In qualitative research, the participants for consideration must best fit the

criterion under investigation (Sanjari et al., 2014). For example, selecting those

participants who have experienced the phenomena can articulate their experiences and

knowledge. The researcher’s role was to select those appropriate participants who have

the expertise and competence to answer the interview questions and ensure they gain

access to the substantive details (Saunders et al., 2016). The participants in the study

have the competence to provide answers to the overreaching research question.

The strategy used to gain admittance to participants requires identifying the

organizations affiliated with public sector investment projects and having a pool of

experienced and successful project practitioners. In such circumstances, the participants

can come from agencies and state and local levels of government, according to Yin

(2018). Given my study's nature, I interviewed public officials whose participants are of

power positions within the organizations. They are often the gatekeepers of valuable

information, a potential source of rich data for researchers (Adhabi & Anozie, 2017). I

anticipated challenges with accessing some participants; those in a privileged position-

usually professionals or elected politicians concerning a particular activity or area of

policies- often directly influence their domain. With such expectation, a certain level of

professionalism is anticipated in their work-related interactions, including the researcher.

The central argument for preparedness remains that no matter how sound is the

methodology concerning elite interviews, the success still depends on the researcher’s

ability to undertake them effectively.

The strategy for gaining access to government officials involves developing a

rapport for a working relationship with the participants, according to Prior (2018). Trust

is also crucial to the process, especially when some questions might be controversial or

ask participants to think critically about their organization or activity. Building trust and

rapport can take time; therefore, building a collegial position early in the interview is

necessary. I did not open up any controversial questions that might unsettle the

participants, resulting in the interview termination. Instead, I started by asking the

participants to outline their background and experience in government projects briefly. It

allowed the participants to speak broadly on “their terms” while getting used to the

interview situation and my presence. Then, I provided the participant with a

comprehensive overview of the study. I selected the qualitative method because of my

interest in business strategy alignment for project management fulfillment.

Qualitative research offers four robust methods, (a) ethnography, (b) focus

groups, (c) phenomenology, and (d) case study, explained in their best application.

Researchers use ethnography to observed phenomenon solely from the participant’s

perspective, through the submersion in the participant’s environment (Queiros et al.,

2017). Immersion was not my aim, and neither was understanding cultural phenomena

from the participant’s perspective. Therefore, ethnography did not meet the research

requirements. Focus groups can be a valuable source of knowledge but problematic for

novice researchers who can find the participating group challenging to motivate and

manage (Queiros et al., 2017). Given the complexities of group dynamics and being a

novice researcher, focus groups were not a suitable design option.

Phenomenological researchers are concerned with individual research

participants' lived experiences versus abstract knowledge or reflection (Berglund, 2015).

Researchers use the phenomenological perspective to study individuals’ perceptions and

give meaningful human experiences concerning the events (Neubauer et al., 2019). I did

not aim to explore what appears in consciousness or pursue ordinary insights into human

experiences; therefore, phenomenology did not meet the requirements. Researchers use

the case study to understand the intricate complexity and peculiarities of a distinct case

investigation of an organization considered worthy of analysis (Park & Park, 2016). A

case study helps understand a complex issue or object involving an up-close, in-depth,

and detailed investigation of a study subject and its contextual position. It can extend

experience or add strength to the existing knowledge through previous research. The case

study was my choice to explore in-depth activities of the phenomenon from a process that

project practitioners successfully used within a specific system or context for projects and

government strategy alignment.

Research Design

Case studies are ideal for understanding organizational and business processes.

Because the procedures vary across institutional contexts, such an inquiry would require

specific approaches. While the research design links the data to the research question,

qualitative research could improve value through rigorous from a well-structured

research design. The research context or boundary is well defined by the researcher,

according to Van den Berg Struwig (2017). Case study research approach could either be

a single case study or a multiple case study. Researchers have applied a single case study

to explore and understand a phenomenon using a unique or extreme interest case; the

research question should guide the design (Morse, 2015). The researcher's choice of

study involves using the multiple case study because of its appropriateness in exploring

the contemporary phenomenon in a real-life setting, as Yin (2018) stated. Further, Yin

observed the usefulness where the boundaries between the event and context setting are

not established and are unknown.

The multiple-case design is skewed to provide replication logic; each case could

produce similar or different data and perhaps predictable findings. Researchers use

multiple case studies to explore and understand the similarities or dissimilarities of the

phenomenon in various places (Gaikwad, 2017). The multiple case study is more robust

and helps better understand the phenomenon under investigation than a single case study

(VanWynsberghe & Khan, 2007). According to Yin (2018), the appropriateness of the

multiple case methodology captures the associated perspectives concerning business

strategy alignment for project management.

My interest in exploring government strategy alignment with project outcomes to

maximize public project success was best applied using multiple cases. Multiple cases

offer the best accessible potential for triangulation and a thorough understanding of the

complexities that may arise both in projects and government strategies. Besides, the

multiple case study design is appropriate to ascertain whether the first case findings

occurred in the other cases and, thus, the need to compare outcomes for all the situations.

For example, in research with similar characteristics, justification using multiple

qualitative case studies to explore factors that led to misalignment between project

management and the business strategy in the telecommunication industry in Saudi Arabia

(Alsudiri et al., 2013). Similarly, I explored those helpful strategies for project

management alignment of outcomes with government strategies for an improved public

investment project climate in Guyana, all within the contingency theory conceptual

frameworks.

Qualitative researchers are concerned with understanding an issue versus

representative numbers that indicate statistical significance. Queiros et al. (2017) found

that some questions are better answered with numbers, while others are easier with

words. In the considered case for my study, remarks and comments will help me

understand the study phenomenon. I relied on stories as against numbers to achieve the

study objective. Qualitative research includes qualitative data and inductive approaches

to answer the "why" questions. For example, researchers may want to understand the

"why" of a particular phenomenon or why strategies have varying effects. Researchers

use the qualitative methodology to explore the principal theories and reveal new ones

(Yin, 2018). They use the case study to embrace repetitious cases to ensure data

saturation (Bansal et al., 2017).

Data saturation comes when no more new information or themes emerge after

interviews and the reviewed case document. While it is nearly impossible to reach total

saturation, considering that there is always the potential to discover new things in data,

though not the objective of saturation (Saunders et al., 2017). Saturation is not just to

reach a particularly critical point, but rather where no more discoveries emerged to add

further insights. Such a point must represent a ‘diminishing returns’ position in

developing a sufficiently robust understanding of the phenomenon.

The saturation point is a function of the sample size, which should range between

5-50 participants in qualitative research, according to Martino et al. (2017). The

administration of nonprobability sampling through an in-depth semistructured interview

will require a sample size ranging between 5-25 participants (Saunders et al., 2015). An

appropriate sample size is fundamental for researchers to achieve data saturation (Sim et

al., 2018). Careful consideration is for the sample size not to be too small nor too large to

make data analysis difficult (Saunders & Townsend, 2016).

I interviewed five participants and reached data saturation, for which I stopped at

that point. Yin (2018) suggested a sample size of five as often sufficient for a case study

research. The sample size of five proved sufficient to reach data saturation. There was no

reason to extend the interview by adding additional participants for data saturation to

understand the participants’ perspectives. It is essential to recognize the data saturation

point, where continuous research does not yield new information (Fusch & Ness, 2015).

Population and Sampling

For my qualitative case study, the population comprised those project managers

who best aligned with the research question and those with hands-on participation as

practitioners concerning the investigated subject matter and proclaimed to be subject

matter experts. Researchers use a homogenous group of participants who meet the

selection criteria. The intended group has the opportunity to gain relevant information

while improving data quality and saturation (Tavor & Spiegel, 2016). Originated from the

identified and selected individuals or groups of exceptionally knowledgeable individuals

or experienced with the phenomenon of interest. I chose a specific population of those

public-sector project managers who align their project outcomes with government

strategies. Moreover, those who work for four PSIP project-based units within the

geographic administrative region of Demerara/ Mahaica (Region 4) Guyana.

Sampling in case study research involves decisions that the researchers make

concerning sampling strategies, influenced by the number of case studies and the

description of the unit of analysis. Central to case study theory-building and testing,

purposeful sampling is a more acceptable sampling procedure for qualitative research,

particularly when selecting participants for special situations (Marshall & Rossman,

2016). The technique is a ‘statistically non-representative stratified sampling,’ while

similar to its quantitative counterpart. Its difference is in the sampling strategy. Even

though case studies offer detailed and in-depth evidence about a particular phenomenon,

the information gained is challenging to generalize because of the single focus

phenomenon (Akers & Amos, 2017).

In identifying and justifying the sampling method, researchers find an acceptable

way that ensures the sample type provides information richness and quality data.

Purposeful sampling is widely used in qualitative research to identify and select

information-rich cases related to the phenomenon of interest (Guetterman, 2015). The

purposeful sampling method helps identify and select participants based on their

knowledge and experience of the business phenomenon (Awiagah et al., 2016). Besides,

researchers use the purposeful sampling technique to control the targeted population's

scope and narrow down the participants (Coleman, 2018).

Researchers used the purposive sampling technique to maximize the chances of

seeking information on a specific case concerning the phenomena under investigation

(Coleman, 2018). Purposive sampling provides an informed selection for optimizing the

chances of observing the phenomena associated with the research. Besides, researchers

use the purposeful sampling technique to control the targeted population's scope and

narrow down the participants (Coleman, 2018). I employed the purposeful sampling

strategy to select the study participants to provide information about the study

phenomenon. The interviews were free from distractions and held in the comfort of

tranquility, in a quiet location for quality audio recording, in keeping with Marshall and

Rossman's (2016) requirements.

Ethical Research

Considering a qualitative studies' nature, researchers' and participants' interaction

can be ethically challenging because of their involvement. Saunders et al. (2016)

described research ethics as the standards of behavior that guide the research conduct and

explain the participants' rights and those impacted by the study as critical for a research

project's success. Researchers face ethical challenges in all stages of the research, from

design to reporting. Moral flaws pose a severe danger to scholarly research (Honig et al.,

2017). The formulation of specific ethical guidelines is, therefore, essential. The

adherence to the Belmont Report of ethical principles is a helpful solution to combat

ethical issues. The Belmont Report identifies fundamental ethical principles for

conducting research that involves human subjects and sets forth guidelines to ensure the

regulations are throughout the research process. The ethical principles of autonomy,

beneficence, and justice guide researchers in balancing the research's needs and goals and

the participants' rights.

The term autonomy explains that a person is free to decide whether to participate;

researchers must respect that individual's rights. Steele et al. (2016) suggested that

researchers must get permission from the participants. These principles are

considered universal and do not have national, cultural, legal, or economic boundaries.

Respect for persons is one of the fundamental principles in research. It recognizes a

person as an autonomous, unique, and free individual. While Sanjari et al. (2014) noted

that ethical issues mainly occur during the interaction between the researcher and

participants, each person has the right to make their own decisions. It gives the

participant a dignified belief that they are valued.

The beneficence ethical principle appeals to the researcher’s responsibility to

maximize participants' and society's benefit while mitigating associated risk (Honig et al.,

2017). The policy of ethics assures both participants and the broader community of their

well-being concerning the study. It guides participants against physical and psychological

harm; thus, the researcher must also ensure that the research benefit exceeds the assumed

risk. Researchers must be fair to the participants, and the needs of research participants

should always come before the study's objectives (see Glenna et al., 2019).

The justice ethical principle necessitates an impartial selection of research

participants (Roth & von Unger, 2018). Ethical issues in qualitative research may arise

from the researcher's effect on the participants and maybe subtler than quantitative

analysis problems. Justice, at its core, seeks to avoid participants whose participation may

have been unduly coerced - justice requires that participants must equally want to benefit

from the research (Yin, 2018).

Qualitative research seeks to (a) uncover meanings, (b) understand the intent, (c)

explain behavior, and (d) increase awareness of decision-making factors; the concept

pertains to the notion of "doing good and avoiding harm." Universities typically develop

a code of ethics in promoting ethical research, listing the principles and standards

applicable to research (Frechtling & Boo, 2012). Considering the ethics for the research

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includes the informed consent process ensures each participant is fully aware of all the

proposals (Knepp, 2014).

Embedded in qualitative research are the notions of relations and power

connecting researchers and participants. Researchers have a social responsibility to

conduct their study ethically and preserve the research (Cumyn et al., 2018). To ensure

the study had the maximum ethical consideration, I exercised due diligence and

awareness, which was paramount for the participants. The participant's willingness to

participate in a study depends on their enthusiasm to participate in their experience. Each

participant was provided with the informed consent form for this study, which they

reviewed before the interview. The content of the way included details of the study,

including the objectives of the study. The interview process's procedure, risks and

benefits of being a participant, withdrawal information, incentives, the security of

participants and organizational identities, retention and protection of documents, and the

participants' confidentiality were all found to be effective approaches (Korstjens &

Moser, 2017).

All participants completed the informed consent form before their participation;

the consent form explained all their involvement to what end, how, how long, and for

whom. Besides, the participants' confidentiality was considered sacrosanct. Its

preservation resulted in those remaining nameless, referred to as “P” for practical

purposes of sequential numbering of the representative interview sample (e.g., P1, P2, P3,

P4 & P5, with their affiliated organization as A, B, C, and D). All collected information

would also be kept confidential; proper coding from the researcher must ensure accurate

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coding from the collected data. The final report will not disclose any names (personal or

organizational). The collected data will be stored for five years with encrypted password-

protected loaded to an external drive in a locked container to protect the participants'

rights. After the five years have elapsed, the researcher will destroy all the interview

notes by deleting all saved data.

Data Organization Technique

The data gathering process in academic research demands that the researcher

securely and adequately manages the data. The most common qualitative data sources

include interviews, observations, and documents, none of which can be “crunched” easily

by statistical software. For Alase (2017), the story of people’s lived experiences, events,

or situations may describe as “thick,” suggesting the attention to the rich detail,

meaningful social and historical contexts, and experiences. Besides, the emotional

content's significance is open to the spoken words, including whoever is under

consideration. While the research data is considered an asset, selecting the correct

research participants for the study was tedious and daunting and must be carefully

managed concerning its value. Qualitative interviewing ideally solicited the participant's

perspective while eschewing judgment; thus, researchers' efforts resulted in the selected

participants for the research. A careful selection provides the best chance of having rich

and accurate study data, according to Higman and Pinfield (2015). I directed my analytic

attention towards the participants’ attempts to make sense of their experiences in

gathering rich and thick data. A qualitative research interview is more like a 'conversation

with a purpose,’ which is implicitly informed by my research question.

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I used a notebook to collect the participants' data during the interview to form a

reflective journal - an account of the work in progress and a chance for reflection on the

learning experience. I recorded all of the interview conversations with an audio recorder

and simultaneously with my smartphone as a backup. All interview materials, including

the hard copies with the recorded notes and the transcribe documentation of interviews,

are kept in their original format. All data files will be safely secured in their original data

format for five years, in full adherence to the university's data retention policy (Briney et

al., 2015). Accordingly, after five years, the researcher can further use or otherwise

destroy the data if no longer needed (Marshall & Rossman, 2016; Patton, 2015).

Walshe et al. (2016) suggested five-year data retention at a minimum to ensure

data security. All hard copies will be saved in a physical folder under locked storage,

including electronic files. The audio production will be for safekeeping in my personal

computer, password-protected, and reinforced protection storage, with USB flash drive,

encrypted. I used a framework approach supported by a qualitative software analysis

tool. Framework analysis is an approach to qualitative data analysis that researchers use

to manage, analyze, and identify themes (Hackett & Strickland, 2019). I considered the

NVivo 12 from Windows for qualitative data analysis (QDA). NVivo, as a computer

software package, is used by qualitative researchers to organize, analyze, and find

insights in unstructured or qualitative data. According to Bonello and Meehan (2019), the

outcome is consistent with the recommendation to analyze data for quality assurance.

Nvivo works best with interviews where a deep level of data analysis is required. Bonello

and Meehan (2019) offered an excellent illustration of how NVivo was used to produce

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an audit trail. It tied in how the data findings, interpretations, and subsequent conclusions

were traced and grounded to the raw data.

I used the framework approach to collate and organize the data and then used

NVivo as the qualitative software analysis tool for coding and generate the themes.

Qualitative data analysis aims to uncover emerging themes, patterns, concepts, and

insights from the gathered information, coded through carefully double-checking the

audio interview recording. I used NVivo to record, manage, identify themes, collate, and

analyze data, thereby saving time. Increasing the efficiency of organizing the data will

enhance the study's findings (see Kim et al., 2018). The coding and organization of data

are critical components of the qualitative researcher. Yin (2018) discussed coding to

explain how one defines the data analyzed and what they represent. Coding is the process

of identifying a passage in the text or other data items, searching for, and identifying

concepts and relationships. Coding is not just labeling, but linking data to the research

idea and back to other data is considered most useful (Elliott, 2018). Concerning coding

and analyzing the participants' information, I used thematic analysis to code the data.

Saunders et al. (2015) opined that the thematic analysis helps identify themes or related

patterns for reviewing the related research question for further exploration.

Data Analysis

Data analysis is significant within qualitative research because its interpretation

may influence the investigation (see Mayer, 2015). Data analysis entails checking for the

similarities between participant descriptions and the conceptual framework used in the

study for meaningful analysis (Yin, 2018). Considering my research, which explores

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business strategy alignment within project management, the case study technique is best

for such an application. Researchers use the case study as the most accessible potential

for triangulation and to gain a thorough understanding of the complexity and uncertainty

in both projects and businesses (Mayer, 2015).

A significant antecedent for qualitative data analysis is for the researcher to

organize the data using a systematic and methodical approach (Yin, 2018). The first

approach requires the researcher to get acquainted with the data, requiring the researchers

to review the recordings, transcribe files multiple times, gain familiarity with the data,

and keep with the thematic analysis (Fugard & Potts, 2015). I reviewed the following: (a)

transcribed files from the interviews, (b) member-checked interview notes, and (c)

perusal of project documents provided. Further, the DBA doctoral study handbook makes

provision for at least two data collection methods. However, characteristically,

researchers use multiple methods to address their research question (Joslin & Müller,

2016; Walden University, n.d.-d).

Triangulation helps curb personal and methodological biases, and the effect is

that it helps to boost the research findings (Abdalla et al., 2018). Researchers and

participants alike have preferences and prejudices, which create influencing errors that

affect qualitative case studies' quality and reliability. For Yin (2018), errors of perception

hinder the credibility of the study design execution and the data analysis. Researchers

should use open-ended questions that stare the personal bias and assumptions (Saunders

et al., 2015). The ability to repeat the study to obtain the same results undermines

reliability. For my research, interviews and data triangulation were the two valuable

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means of developing the converging findings. Data triangulation explains the correlation

between participants' views, project time, and space across multiple data sources (Fusch

& Ness, 2015).

Besides the interview transcripts, there were also project documents from

participant observation during interviews. The two methodological triangulation

strategies are within or between methods (Hastings & Salkind 2013). I used within-

method triangulation from two data sources, the interviews and document review. Those

choices explain the rich and descriptive data sources from which I derived a meaningful

explanation of my qualitative research rigor. Lawlor et al. (2016) offered several criteria

that should be met for triangulation to be valid. Triangulation should result from at least

two different approaches, and that the principal sources of bias are explicitly

acknowledged.

Researchers found that making judgments from a personal lens is one of the most

challenging qualitative research features. They wrote that hearing and understanding

others' perspectives is a massive predicament that researchers today should seek to

combat (Fusch et al., 2017). During my research analysis phase, I practiced conscious

checking for personal bias and be open to new ideas. A meticulous approach to the

qualitative process helps a researcher minimize prejudice and adds to the data (Maher et

al., 2018).

Researchers may perform validity control measures such as triangulation,

consistency, and replication to overcome the probability of systematic bias and false

inferences (Zyphur & Pierides, 2017). Triangulation applies to multiple data sources or

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numerous data analysis approaches to enhance the credibility of a research study.

Triangulation of methods that include investigating potential divergences within the

outcome will tremendously increase confidence in a study. Hussein (2015) affirmed that

method-type triangulation implies multiple integral methods used in the data collection

and analysis. It offered the most appropriate data analysis process to complete my study.

The triangulation may result in new insight and a deeper comprehension of the

phenomenon under investigation (see Joslin & Müller, 2016).

I triangulate the data by synthesizing codes from the reviewed literature, the

project documents, and interviews to augment the overall themes. My data organization

technique resulted in numerous codes, as mappings can help identify themes, summarize

interview transcripts, and identify interconnectedness among the collective ideas

(Conceicao et al., 2017). I used physical concept mapping by sorting piles of related

codes. In triangulating the data, I sought connections in the data's coded categories and

explored the key categories. I deciphered the themes coming from the coded data

categories. I established correlated themes from mapping the collected data, with current

studies from the literature review relating them to the conceptual framework. Vaismoradi

et al. (2016) found that connecting themes to ascertained knowledge is indispensable in

the research process.

Reliability and Validity

Building a suitable and harmonious methodology based on the research purpose is

essential to ascertain a comprehensive research design, objectivity procedure, and

reliability (Korstjens & Moser, 2017). No one evaluation method can speak to quality in a

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qualitative research setting (Chowdhury, 2015). Reliability and validity refer to

replication and consistency and provides a guarantee on the following essentials (a) the

design, (b) rigor, and (c) data saturation (Saunders et al., 2016). In assessing the design,

the measurement of the phenomena (the construct) creates the cause and effect

connection (internal) and the means to apply the findings to other cases (external). All of

which explains the repeatability of the study (Yin, 2018).

The second issue of rigor relates to the data collection analysis and coding, which

account for the process credibility, the dependability of the method used, the ability to

validate the data, and being able to transfer the results to other populations (Houghton et

al., 2013). One method is to follow the TACT framework of (a) trustworthiness, (b)

auditability, (c) credibility, and (d) transferability (Daniel, 2019). Trustworthiness is

achieved through reflexivity, while suitability is through the full description of the data

collection and the research process. Credibility is through peer debriefing and data

triangulation. Transferability explains how the research findings can demonstrate their

applicability to another setting or group of people (Daniel, 2019).

The third consideration is data saturation, which involves gathering and analyzing

the data to determine where additional coding is impossible. Therefore, such explains that

incremental data is no longer possible, suggesting enough information to replicate the

study (Fusch, & Ness, 2015). Finally, the quality assurance for research is considered a

profoundly entrenched provision in research work's validity and reliability (Saunders et

al., 2015). I used dependability, credibility, confirmability, and transferability through the

measures that follow:

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Reliability

The researchers' findings' reliability provides credence to the overarching research

and equates the research's reliability with the necessity for accuracy and appropriateness

of the data collected (Morse, 2015). Qualitative researchers are obligated to present

adequate information on research design and evaluate quality in academic studies, often

evaluated from reviewing the survey against specific dependability criteria.

Reflexivity, triangulation, and detailed descriptions of the research process are all

strategies to ensure dependability, according to Hays et al. (2016). Dependability in

qualitative research refers to the consistency of findings across time. Dependability lends

credence to the study and equates the research's reliability with the need for accuracy

from appropriate data collected (Morse, 2015). Qualitative researchers are obligated to

present adequate information on research design for quality evaluation in academic

studies. Usually, a complete description of the research process, including reflexivity and

triangulation, determines dependability, according to Hays et al. (2016). My study

incorporated the three dependability strategies, in addition to member checking

interviews.

Reflexivity monitors the researcher's assumptions and relationships throughout

the research process (Hays et al., 2016). I remained conscious of my role as a data

collection instrument: As the study proceeded, I kept awareness of my assumptions and

the need to guard against bias. Through openness and collaboration with the participants

will help build trust. Therefore, building trust is necessary, especially for methodological

triangulation. It allows for the use of multiple data collection instruments that adds to

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conformity (see Heesen et al., 2016). I consolidated several data collection instruments,

including (a) interviews, (b) project reports, (c) baseline documents, and (d) reflective

journals for methodological triangulation.

I presented an accurate description of my doctoral study research process,

enhancing the findings' dependability. Besides demonstrating reliability, I used member

checking to review the final documents and seek alterations of any explicit descriptions

or themes. All were discussed with the participants to determine accuracy (see Birt et al.,

2016). The consideration of member checking a second interview with the participants

can also enhance the findings' credibility. In addition, member checking interviews serve

the purpose and process of obtaining consent to use specific components in the final

study report (Thomas, 2017).

Validity

In qualitative research, validity points to the accuracy of the findings (Darawsheh,

2014). The qualitative research results are credible when the findings represent an

accurate representation of the participants’ experiences. To ensure validity in a

qualitative study, a researcher must address credibility, transferability, and confirmability

(Yin, 2018). Credibility is a symbol of validity, and qualitative researchers aim to

demonstrate validity through triangulation (Yin, 2018). Because credibility is an

indicator of validity, I sought to incorporate methodological triangulation, which

explains the degree to which my research findings are accurate. Hays et al. (2016)

offered ways to increase credibility; there are not limited to triangulation but include

reflexivity, thick descriptions, and member checking interviews. All of which were

incorporated into my research.

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Another indicator that demonstrates validity is transferability. Noble and Smith

(2015) found transferability to involve the study’s findings in different contexts. The

transferability of the research results is a crucial element I considered during the study. I

provided a complete description of the study objective and the findings to enable

participants, researchers, and readers to implement any recommendations in their work.

Korstjens and Moser (2017) explained transferability as the potential for extrapolating

results transferable into other respondents' settings. The findings were documented so

that the participants, researchers, and readers might adopt the recommendations.

Researchers found that thick descriptions and triangulation lead to transferability (Hays et

al., 2016). While I cannot create transferability from the research, my findings must yield

applicability to others based on the recommendations— a pillar of transferability

(Marshall & Rossman, 2016).

The third validity indicator is confirmability, referring to the accuracy of the

participants’ perspectives from the findings versus the researcher’s viewpoint (Hays et

al., 2016). Connecting data, its analysis, triangulation, and member checking are all used

to establish confirmability (Hays et al., 2016). Upon gathering the data, I quickly

organized the analysis data, which incorporated triangulation, reflexivity, thick

descriptions, and member checking interviews to ensure confirmability.

Transition and Summary

In this section, I restated the purpose of the case study, enunciated my role as the

researcher, described the participants, and provided selection criteria for the study

participants. In Section 2, I examined how ethical considerations fit into the data

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collection process framework, the proposed data analysis technique, and the proposed

plan to ensure credibility, confirmability, dependability, and data saturation.

Section 3 described how my findings applied to professional practice and the

implications for change. Section 3 comprised a discussion on the overview of the study,

presentation of the findings, applications to professional practice, implications for social

change, recommendations for action, recommendations for further study, reflections, and

summary and study conclusions. I concluded the section with a final summary of key

study outcomes.

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Section 3: Application to Professional Practice and Implications for Change

Introduction

The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore effective

strategies that public sector project managers used to align the project outcomes with

government strategies to maximize project performance. This multiple case study

participants comprised five project managers who successfully aligned their projects with

government strategies and worked for four project-based units within the administrative

region of Demerara/Mahaica (Region 4), Guyana. The study data were primarily

collected using a semistructured interview technique and review of project close-out

reports. The interview process was complemented by reviewing documentation of

successful projects completed by those who volunteered to help realize the study's

intended outcome. The chosen projects were those with which the managers

demonstrated successful alignment from three constructs with at least 80 % compliance;

(a) identification of the set goals from the baseline studies and how they were captured

within the project goals on a percentage basis; (b) exploration of each of the alignment

factors of cost, time, and budget; and (c) examination of the end user's satisfaction from

stated goals of both the project and organization. Successful realization of aligned

projects occurred when at least 80% is achieved within the iron triangle of budget, time,

and scope, where the original goals and business intent were met through higher benefit

realization, according to PMI guidelines (2017).

I conducted semistructured interviews with five project practitioners who

provided their perspectives and experiences in project management. The participants

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answered nine open-ended interview questions and provided appropriate responses

concerning the research question. The interview questions inquired about public sector

managers' strategies to align project outcomes with government strategies to improve

project performance (see Appendix A: Interview Protocol). After reviewing and

transcribing participants' responses, I used NVivo 12 Plus from Windows to identify key

themes across the transcripts. NVivo's software application helps determine accuracy in

qualitative studies (Bonello & Meehan, 2019). This section discusses the applied design

process results, identifies the key themes and conclusions deduced from the analysis, and

offers recommendations for PSIP policymakers, project management practitioners, and

project management researchers.

Presentation of the Findings

The research objective was to find answers to the central research question, and

in answering the research question, I used a guided interview protocol for the interview

process. According to Castillo-Montoya (2016), the protocol enables researchers to

conduct the interview and ethically enhance the data collection process. The interview

protocol included introducing the study objective, reviewing the consent form, ensuring

the confidentiality of information provided, and obtaining approval for the interview

audio recordings. I also asked the nine prepared interview questions and follow-up

questions requested any necessary documents, and sought participation for member

checking. The interviews lasted an average of 45 minutes and occurred at convenient

locations chosen by the participant. I assured the participants of their privacy by

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identifying the study data participants with pseudonyms PT1, PT2, PT3, PT4, PT5, and

their respective organizations with pseudonyms A, B, C, and D.

I shared the interview summary with the participants upon the interviews'

completion to confirm my interpretation for accuracy concerning the answers provided.

Yin (2011) provided a five-step approach, which was the overarching technique used to

guide the qualitative data analysis process.: (a) compiling and organizing, (b)

disassembling, (c) reassembling, (d) interpreting, and (e) concluding phases. At the initial

stages, I examined the organizations' project documents to confirm compliance and verify

that the data collected from the semistructured interview method involved projects with

successful alignment. Finally, I constructed a list of the initial codes that emerged from

the analyzed data and grouped them accordingly, creating their respective anchor code.

Then I tallied each code's frequency of occurrence to generate codes' categories and

examined them to create themes. The themes below address the research question that

explored the public organizations' practitioners' strategies when aligning government

strategies to their project outcomes to maximize project performance.

The major themes derived from the analysis were (a) government/executive

commitment and support for the project teams, (b) efficient project management skills,

processes with ICT tools. The documentation provided and a detailed description of the

step-by-step process of the evolved findings created an accessible path for critical readers

to understand the process. I offered clarity on the points of interpretation from the themes'

extensiveness and assessed the validity of the data mining process results. In addition, I

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extracted raw data from the thematic analysis to augment the practitioners' stories with

direct quotes from the participants.

Theme 1: Government Executive Commitment for Project Team

The first theme from the analyzed data was the government's commitment to

maximizing project performance. According to PT2B, the government must assign

resources and enforce decisions regarding the project. According to PT1A, relationship

dynamics work best within a stakeholder engagement plan designed to outline

consultation and communication activities throughout the projects and present the

pathways to incorporate feedback into the project’s life cycle development. Similarly, for

PT2B, “it is their support that turns the project concepts into reality.” All participants

expressed the desire for project executives to involve project managers in the business

strategy development process. The five participants (PT1A, PT2B, PT3B, PT4C, and

PT5D) recognized the need for the government executives to clarify the strategies for

alignment as required by public investment projects that are purely out of the project

team's control but needed communication. According to PT1A, misalignment occurs

because project managers do not precisely get government strategies, reflecting poor

communication as opined in Erceg & Gulam (2018). For PT5D, the organization uses its

steering committee to understand the government’s thrust in fulfilling its election

manifesto promises. In further support, PT1A and PT2B observed that executives'

support strategically helps align the government's long-term vision for improved project

outcomes.

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While business executives and stakeholders generally drive projects, they are

treated as solution providers while not involved in the project fulfillment phase. PT5D

described the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board as having a

political role in the project execution process for information requirements. Its current

evaluators display no contract engineering or project management skills. According to

PT1A, they can delay the solution implementation efforts due to a lack of appreciation.

PT3B opined, “I believe this challenge can be addressed by giving technical experts a

seat at the table,” referring to the upfront inclusion of technical support at the stage of

project conceptualization and the initial planning. For PT3B, such practice would add

technical value that drives the business case against following instructions and delivering

what was requested. On the flip side, PT3B discussed how some technical experts also

lack business knowledge because they are driven by technology and not the business

case. PT4C offered a solution that encompasses finding a middle ground to bridge the

divide; a nexus between infrastructure and business needs worked best in [named]

organization. PT2B stated that,

infrastructure projects generally follow the governing administration’s priority,

and their election manifesto promises… everything comes from the top when

initiating a project, or the project will never take off.

Consequently, for PT1A, the government must sell its ideas through clear

communications, enabling the project team to understand the strategic direction. In

return, the project lead/manager must achieve government strategic alignment once it is

distinctly communicated. PT2B's concern was how management executives made

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decisions. "The challenges are with top management because they make decisions from

top to bottom," PT4C explained the value of top management commitment in aligning

project management outcomes with government strategies. PT5D and PT1A each

expressed the desire for executives to involve project managers in project governance

strategy development. PT5D posited that "alignment with projects to the government

strategic plan involves a collaborative strategic development of the project plan." PT2B

stated that after the top management's approval, the projects come to the executing unit

for rollout by the selected contractor, local or international. Outsourcing depends on the

environment and the project sponsor. International contractors with cross-country

experience are helpful for project leadership, according to PT2B and PT5D. Project

leadership skills are crucial in public sector investment because people in the

construction industry come from diverse backgrounds and professions. The collaboration

with the locals facilitates knowledge transfers, benefiting globalization. According to

Potter et al. (2018), cultures are intertwined to fulfill short-term project goals in a varied

and uncertain operating environment.

Participants PT4C and PT5D acknowledged the importance of executive

committees in overcoming project challenges, especially those involving financial,

environmental, political, and issues of project procurement. While the project executives

seek to address those challenges for the project teams, PT5D stated that "sometimes the

project budget is skewed for political expediency, and execution sometimes becomes

problematic. Still, with some tweaking to the objectives, the project gets implemented."

PT4C discussed adequate administrative support in providing training as a benefit of

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stakeholder collaboration. "Expatriates usually provide knowledge transfer and develop

the local project team's skills," according to PT4C, PT5D concurred. All participants

expressed the desire for executives to involve project managers in its business strategy

development process. PT5D said that in "developing projects to align with government

strategy planning, one must at least be involved in developing the strategic plan at a

minimum." PT2B similarly held that "if you decide to go ahead with the project, then the

executives must involve project managers in the government strategy development."

Correlation With Recent Studies

The role of executive management in project management has been discussed

repeatedly in the literature and received more attention in this research project. According

to PMI's (2017) Pulse of the Profession report, engaged executives drive projects in

meeting their original goals and business intent. PT1A, PT4C, and PT5D's assertions

supported Alsudiri et al. (2013), who identified the importance of the executive and the

project managers in the organization’s strategy development. Still, project managers

continue to examine ways to enhance executive support, the lack of which is the second

most significant factor contributing to poor project performance, according to

PricewaterhouseCoopers (2012).

In principle, PT1A explained how empowering [their] organization executive

extends the sphere of the respondent's influence. Therefore, stretching beyond the

project boundaries and up into the organization, such influence may help executives act

and implement speedy action (PMI, 2018). For example, PT5D explains that some

projects are taken to the tender board in the interest of time, even before the national

budgetary

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appropriation for the fiscal year. Similarly, when the project coordinating agency

involves the project managers, their involvement is to better understand the government's

business strategy processes, allowing project managers to implement. Similarly, by

adding practical inputs and feedback mechanisms to the strategy, the project manager in

the strategy development helps build an effective work environment, according to

Silvius et al. (2017).

Erceg and Gukam (2018) found that some public investment programs were beset

with poor communication and coordination among the critical stakeholders. Despite such,

PT2B, PT3B, and PT5D found the various government executive committees appreciate

effective communication, which realized the project management processes' alignment

with the implemented government strategies. However, executive support means that

executives must maintain a hands-off approach but must avail themselves when problems

arise (Khan, Waris, et al., 2019). A government's commitment through effective

communication better maximized project outcomes, according to Erceg and Gukam

(2018). PT2B remarked that the executives do involve some project managers in

government strategy development. The collaboration with government strategies

minimizes the scope of defining the problem, reduces design errors, and creates a

workable schedule for critical problems affecting project deliverables and milestones

(Badewi, 2016). The maximization of collaboration and coordination among stakeholders

drives positive results, according to PT1A. In contrast, the opposite is true - a traditional

contracting arrangement involving a lack of coordination among stakeholders, which

would yield a less desired outcome (Ling & Tan, 2015).

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Chiarini (2016) argued that the prudent executive action of showing commitment

had a positive long-term effect on achieving significant project outcomes. The

participants' responses were in line with Chiarini’s findings. PT5D suggested that

executive management commitment is essential in strategy alignment with projects to

maximize project outcomes. Similarly, communication engagement was seen as a critical

activity for strategic alignment, according to Chiarini (2016). PT3B describes the

communication process as “weekly and monthly progress reporting and meeting,”

resulting in “effective consultations or scoping meetings to guide the infrastructure

projects.” A reconciliation of the different project teams and designs enables

sustainability for a fulfilled project when the communication and strategy alignment is of

utmost importance to any project deliverable and milestones (Zolfaghari et al., 2017).

While project success often depends on how well the executives communicate,

building relationships with the project manager during project life cycles allows for better

outcomes. For PT5D, “stakeholders add value to the design process and provide the

business analyst with the necessary information for systems engineering.” In some

situations, according to PT1A, the strategy misalignment occurs because no one explains

the responsibilities concerning the project outcomes, which is consistent with the findings

of Erceg and Gukam (2018). Project executives often do not understand their roles and

responsibilities of providing support to lend direction for strategy adoption, cited by

PT1A. However, PT3B underscored the importance of project reporting responsibility

and opined,

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One must be clear: who their reporting officer is and what matter is being dealt

with by whom, which have always been a bottleneck to a project because persons

are unaware of who is dealing with what aspect of a contract and project.

Administrative support is needed to improve project success rates; environmental

issues can result in strategy changes or regulations that influence projects' progress and

outcomes. Empirical evidence described the relationship between executive support for

project success as commitments, beliefs, and rewards as the most significant variables

affecting project success (O’Brochta, 2018). PT1A found that stakeholder support is

enabled by embedding the requirements for an effective mechanism to address grievances

- a workable framework that projects could practice. In addition, they can provide

insights for senior managers regarding the executives’ roles in organizations to contribute

to project success.

Alignment of Findings to Contingency Theory

Applying Fiedler’s contingency theory, leadership preference plays a significant

role in project success in varying situations. The model establishes that leaders are either

task-focused or relationship-focused. Understanding one’s style of management is

required to facilitate the most effective match in a given situation. For example, those

leaders with a preference for the human orientation (High LPC) will do best within

favorable conditions. In contrast, task orientation leadership (Low LPC) will be most

effective in unfavorable situations (Fiedler, 1964). Besides leadership style, job design,

decision-making participation, and organizational structure are criteria for an excellent

overall managerial outcome. Davies et al. (2016) opined that the implications seek to

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balance the importance of an individual’s preference and situational factors. The

analyzed data was centered around the organizations’ size, uncertainty, and complexity,

which is best understood using the contingency approach. It is a mechanism for better

performance when linking the front-end with the relatively late project cycle phases.

According to Qazi et al. (2020), when uncertainty increases, the appropriate structure

must be less formalized and more decentralized, with systems coordinating between

functional departments such as project teams. In comparison, the appropriate structure

will significantly raise the degree of bureaucratic structure. The more autonomous project

teams realize organizational strategic objectives, according to PT4D.

Three of the five participants impliedly suggested front-end collaboration as

critical because it allows obtaining better information from a flexible project portfolio.

Similarly, researchers found that the contingency theory provides the best uses for

strategic flexibility by extending the framework to organizational choice utilizing the

goodness of fit (Starkey et al., 1991). For PT2B, the main aim of the front-end

management style is to get the strategy anticipation right –a critical element for prudent

decisions at the initial stage of the project rather than during execution. Pinto and Winch

(2016) discussed supporting a positive link that connects successful front-end and overall

project fulfillment. PT4C depicted front-end practices as the period between the

proverbial “blank sheet of paper” up to the project proposal stage.

In contrast, PT2B saw it as “the concept notes that invaded the project that gave

rise to the project charter.” Still, the actual benefits of front-end success depend on the

environment and the government mindset—those additional measures taken by the

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executives to support the exploitation of the promising project (Pinto & Winch, 2016).

PT5D describes the process as starting with a ‘Trip report’ containing all of the pre-

requirements. It later becomes a “memo,” containing all technical details, the soft skills,

socioeconomic issues of the community that will benefit from the project. Powerful

upfront collaboration connecting the project executive with the project design team and

the executing contractor effectively addresses risk and uncertainty by improving the

project participants' dynamic capabilities (Davies et al., 2016). Each of the four

organizations had different structural variability.

While both managerial and technical tasks have different degrees of complexity

depending on their purpose, the interdependencies required for completion allow for

contingency theory application. While complex projects need direction from the

executive, establishing executive directions requires effective communication of a

sharped aligned vision to benefit higher-performing project teams (PMI, 2018). A holistic

commitment by the executives to project management is vital in realizing more

sustainable project governance practices, according to Volden and Andersen (2018). The

commitment must allow for the empowerment of project managers to benefit from

aligned project outcomes. Executives who adopt sustainable principles in the decision-

making processes had better results than just relying on the constraint of time, cost, and

quality, according to Silvius et al. (2017). The use of objective information, track records,

communication between partners, and confidence in partners' competence constitutes the

commitment's trust.

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Theme 2: Efficient Project Management Skills

Implementing efficient project management skills is the second theme that

emerged from the analyzed data. The participants expressed that considerable project

management skills (hard and soft skills) are prerequisites for successful projects. The

participants demonstrated the importance of soft skills for infrastructure project teams. A

likely suggestion because most public project managers are foremost engineers and need

professional project management training. PT2B explains how embracing new project

management practices can be helpful, "I must remain flexible, given the complex

environment in which megaprojects operate." PT3B introduced a communication

perspective that strongly encourages project teams to provide feedback instead of being

static in the mundane and routine work roles. PT2B used the feedback to focus on

information specific to individuals in determining the skills set to understand their

assigned roles. Similarly, PT5D uses peer review, which allows the team to critique each

other to release and remove any gaps. The process supports the empowerment of the

project team in general, as Tabassi et al. (2016) found empowerment helpful in managing

public projects.

In addition to technical competence, exceptional soft skills attributes are

necessary for success when managing engineering projects. Alias et al. (2014) specified

infrastructure projects and the use of knowledge management (KM), both the traditional

and modern management practices, with a broad application for the project’s design that

includes the construction process. PT5D acknowledged some of the challenges with

project failure but suggested: “effective and workable KPIs to guide the construction

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implementation of these projects is what makes the difference.” Participants (PT4C &

PT3B) emphasized how knowledge management (KM) adds value to the project,

program, and portfolio success. They opined that public policymakers must have the

ability to review the arrangements of the project carefully. According to PT1A, one must

be able to “deduce the most realistic contract completion timeline.”

The project managers in organization ‘B’ had significant concerns about lacking

in-depth technical skills and experience to determine the project contract timeline

accuracy. Asked how effectively data is used in determining project timeline, PT2B noted

“the picture is mixed” but suggested that project software provided predictability. From

the pursued documents, it was observed that while some used the data effectively, there

are others where the potential for data use is encouraging but missing. PT2B offered this

example, “architects would generate the project designs, but may not have thought of

using the computed data to prepare the bill of quantity (BOQ).” The BOQ helps derive

the tender price, which becomes helpful in the administrative review in the approval

processes. Most of the used data revolved around solving critical problems that enhanced

the project management processes from the observed documents. PT1A said," the project

team analyzes the project’s scope, contract, and other information to define the

deliverables, after which the team will develop the milestone schedule."

Much of the data used historically lacked current performance indicators and

records from previous projects. Features of the reports included causes of delays, systems

planning, systems design, systems implementation, performance, and user involvement.

PT4C addressed how data use has evolved and drew reasoning from the benefits of

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Oracle and its Oracle Aconex. “The platform provides dashboards that facilitate

identifying issues such as pending change requests with revised approvals,” PT4C

opined. Although not always adequate, PT2B found collaboration and cooperation

essential among all stakeholders to coordinate with the executive on effective project

timelines. While utilizing the project management tool enables practitioners to document

effectively, the derivation of analytical information remains problematic. Still, PT2B

illustrated the tactic used to measure performance and to determine contract time. The

balanced scorecard provided a comprehensive framework that translates strategic

objectives into an identified set of performance measures integral to the project

management process.

Similarly, PT3B found the work breakdown structure (WBS) a valuable tool for

collaboration and reasonable expectations for milestones and deliverables considered

from the SMART goal perspective – a guiding criterion for setting objectives (specific,

measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) based on the government’s

expectations. For PT5D, after seeking buy-in from the project’s engineers and

technicians, the estimated timeline becomes an agreed schedule. PT1A opined that

prudent engineering and KM from experienced team members provided remarkable gains

during the planning and project implementation. PT4C similarly remarked that having

the needed project skill is essential when managing and evaluating complex engineering

designs. PT3B highlighted examples that determined the associated risks and showed

how the team developed workable timelines, assigned tasks, and set attainable

milestones. There were quite similar to that of the SMART approach adopted by PT5D.

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Engagement through effective communication and empowerment are practical

management skills that directly influence infrastructure projects. PT3B emphasized that

project managers should avoid portraying the attitude that suggests only one way of

performing the project. While experience matters, as discussed by PT5D, knowledge

transfer is a feature of project communication, described as a “toolbox” meeting with the

staff. PT3B stressed that project managers need to listen attentively,' allowing members

to participate freely. For PT4C, "I get a better understanding of the project's issues by

hosting regular meetings. The feedback provides a collaborative team approach

concerning the project deliverables and milestones are the benefits described by PT1A.

Correlation With Recent Studies

Many failed projects showed poor management skills concerning the hard and

soft skills of the project manager. These skills contribute to continuous learning,

according to Sabrokro et al. (2018). Public project managers must be trained with the

required skills to implement successful project alignment to maximize outcomes (Cole,

2017). Consequently, the respondents suggested that novice project team members need

education and training to quickly learn to adopt the new knowledge required for project

management amid changing environments. According to Pretorius et al. (2018), the

required knowledge includes standard scope, cost, quality, customer management, and

the ability to recognize and implement other appropriate project management

methodologies at each stage of the project lifecycle. Carvalho (2015) describes those

requirements as relevant for improved project management skills.

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Engagement through effective communication and empowering subordinates are

practical leadership skills that directly impact infrastructure projects, according to

Berggren (2019). Similarly, PT2B spoke of the benefits of effective communication by

encouraging project teams' feedback on issues that may change the mundane and

repetitive work roles in a dynamic environment. Communication may impact one way or

another on the project outcomes; as a result, PT5D opined that a cultural element of

empowerment supports open communication. According to Abou-Hafs et al. (2019),

applying broad-based blended skills approach greatly assisted project leaders. In contrast,

low participation in empowerment concerning planning and implementation at a housing

construction project led to the project's delivery (Lin, 2018). Still, communication

strategies may work best as critical success for project implementation when blended

appropriately with the relevant stakeholders (Zuofa & Ochieng, 2017). PT4C opined that

“there would undoubtedly be times when you have to collaborate with people in other

departments."

Researchers in behavioral competence learn how soft skills and technical

competence (hard skills) have impacted project outcomes (Abou-Hafs et al., 2019; Tian,

2020). While the participants exhibited hard skills from their engineering experience in

mapping project processes, three of the five participants emphasized soft skills to support

their project teams. Generally, studies concerning hard and soft skills have all come up

with similar conclusions concerning project practitioners, even though their methods

differ. In their designs, some were quantitative; others were through concepts and

available theories. Similarly, Balcar (2016) found that both hard and soft skills increased

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productivity. For example, PT5 discussed that a smooth blend of interpersonal and social

skills among teams is an excellent mix to improve work efficiency. For Rao, a “judicious

blend of hard and soft skills is essential for achieving professional and leadership

success” (2018, p.215).

Interestingly, soft skills effectiveness facilitates hard skills' success, requiring

prudent communication for project management coordination (Ofori-Kuragu et al.,

2016). Therefore, cross-functional support during the project implementation process

with clearly communicated goals leads to project fulfillment. While soft skills increase

the project's potential to be on time and within budget, researchers discovered that the

positive impact was more pervasive in the on-time delivery of infrastructure projects

(Musembi et al., 2018). In addition to non-cognitive (soft skills) activity demonstrated

through effective communication, performance behavior is essential for project

management communication with non-technical folks (Smith et al., 2018).

Alignment of Findings to Contingency Theory

The second theme concerns the effectiveness of project management skills which

correlates with the seminal works of Fiedler's contingency theory. Fiedler established a

contingent relationship between the project environment, leadership style, and

organizational effectiveness - an approach contingent on the prevailing circumstance. The

participants demonstrated varying degrees of hard and soft skills at different stages in the

projects’ processes. PT1A and PT4C implemented strong technical skills for their

projects; planning, analysis, tracking, and problem-solving at the initial stages of the

projects, blended with softer skills within the project life cycle processes. “ I ensure that

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all possible issues that can arise at the planning stages are dealt with upfront concerning

the processes in the project cycle,” PT4C opined. PT3B demonstrated more hard skills

throughout the project processes but showed empathy for collaborative influence in

leadership. Given the unique consideration required for each project lifecycle phase, a

flexible management solution was the participants' (PT3B and PT4C) answer. Their

effectiveness demonstrated softer skills application with benefits during project

fulfillment, mainly when applied to the project processes from the given task, as seen in

Cole (2017).

According to Mirza and Ehsan (2017), project managers must exercise two kinds

of hard skills. First, technical skills within the project’s domain include analysis,

planning, tracking, and problem-solving - usually numerical, logical, and data-oriented

skills. Second, to determine the behavioral approach towards incorporating decision

process support into project management, which has its roots in the Decision-based

system development paradigm. For example, PT2B and PT4C used the Gantt chart and

PERT to illustrate project progress and milestones with dependencies. Those tools

provide a quick project overview, enabling swift management decisions at a glance,

according to Mirza and Ehsan (2017). Approaches that incorporate decision process-

support into project management are rooted in project managers’ everyday work as the

primary source for understanding the competencies of relevance. While project

management methodologies often overlap with complex societal and political

dimensions, a design like the agile approach may provide a more inclusive management

approach. Policies of selective flexibility, learning, adequate authority, people first,

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collaboration, in consideration of unstable conditions, may prove a complimentary

replacement for traditional project management practice.

Vidal et al.'s (2017) contingency approach to leadership found that effective

project management requires considering two approaches. The first is the traditional

leadership approach based on technical skill and know-how, which requires managers to

complement people skills in implementing specific tasks. The second involves processes

in complex project environments. DuBois et al. (2015) found that maintaining leadership

qualities aligned to the organizations' environment facilitates smooth and efficient project

management. The right strategic approach must decide what organizational culture and

leadership are needed to execute the strategy successfully (Reeves et al., 2018). The

process requires a match between the environmental characteristics and those of the

organization to yield high performance. This match is called the 'fit'; the better the fit, the

higher the performance.

Theme 3: Aligning National Strategy with Project Processes

The third theme that emerged from analyzed data was customizing project

implementation processes and procedures to suit each organization's specific project

implementation requirements. For PT1A, to benefit from a workable national strategic

approach means integrating practice entirely into all aspects of the system. It is not an

additional task or an ad hoc activity but a routine and integral part of the system itself.

PT1A opined, “a key function of a dedicated implementation strategy and approach is to

ensure sufficient flexibility to adjust strategy, objectives, and priorities in response to

changes in the broader political and operating environment.”

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Government plays such a crucial role within the project concerning identification,

design, and decision-making process. Therefore, for PT1A, it is necessary to leverage

specific organizational characteristics during the project management process to ensure a

successful outcome. PT3B suggested that project appraisal embraces internal and external

variables using the public sector management approach. PT3B opined that the program

budgeting and value-for-money analysis help consider the risks to be borne by both the

public and private sector partners (project end-users). According to PT4C, “feasibility

studies determine whether the project is a feasible or viable investment; in its absence,

infrastructure projects will continue to fail.” In assessing viability, consideration must be

both internal and external. According to PT2B, internal, cost-benefit analysis, and

environmental impact assessment are the primary external considerations. Besides, the

analysis should also include private sector participation and projects' suitability to

develop the other sectors. According to PT3B, forward and backward linkages for

economic growth and development are encouraged.

According to PT5D, the methods and techniques specific to each project process

helped participants overcome past problematic issues, citing lessons learned from

monitoring and evaluation. Similarly, PT4C remarked that "with lessons from the past,

the project teams and contractors now have a clear understanding of the project manager's

expectations, especially those concerning the government's strategy.” Illustratively, PT3B

established a procedure that best helped track information that reduced the contractor and

project timeline. In contrast, PT4C observed a procedure involving a form template that

illustrates communication flow charts and verifications in a more precisely formulated

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way. PT1A and PT3B discussed similar experiences adopted in their organization's

project procedures.

Correspondingly, PT4C used a standardized step-by-step project tool called a

work breakdown structure that presented the management details for the various project

execution phases. In organization ’C,’ the project team followed the formalized process

by inspecting the tasks and identified timelines. Although an independent supervising

consultant firm maintains quality assurance, according to PT4C, using the management

checklists is another tool for determining project quality management. For example,

PT3B's quality management checklist offers a condensed and effective road map. The

lists showed by PT4C and PT3B was operational during the design stages, with data

obtained as the project develops. When asked about the list's effectiveness, PT4C

explained that while the road map cannot show every quality measure, it aids decision-

making.

In addition to the process of checks and balances, communication, documentation

of bills of quantities, standards of delivery, and acceptance reporting are measurements to

support the standardized procedure seen in the observed reports. The success of those

activities triggers the contract acceptance criteria for the achieved milestones consistent

with the guide in PMBOK. PT1A explained that a fundamental input collaboration for the

management review processes involved the project consultant in realizing the process for

the change management. To increase operations input into the project design according to

PT1A involved sending the engineering blueprint for operational review and feedback at

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the initial stage (foundation). After that, the change is agreed to and finalized, then

implemented and executed as an approved change plan, signed by the relevant parties.

PT1A's procedure worked well within the project management process in the

planning phase when supplemented by Agile-Scrum methodology. The hybrid

methodology allows for a flexible framework readily tailored to any project type or size,

associated with the work environment, and finalized within an agreed-on timeline,

according to PT1A. While Microsoft Project efficiently documented and monitored

projects (regardless of their size/scope), PT4C explained the need to break the project

into events and activities in a work breakdown structure. Described as a schedule that

monitors each activity's quality and effectiveness within a systematic procedure. PT4C

further illustrated,

We often get into problems with contractors when they turn up on schedule and

find they cannot work because of an earlier activity lagging in time. It is more of a

problem than the lagged task is their dependent activity.

The challenge suggests that timely communication and continuous collaboration

beyond the supply chain can make a big difference between success and failure in

infrastructure projects and improve productivity in delivery. PT2B observed that "while a

project is initiated and completed as a unit activity, it now involves the sum of the; supply

chain and general stakeholders’ support." PT3B found usefulness in project schedule

tracking by creating documents to track progress and monitoring risk. The use of Oracle

and its Oracle Aconex platform provides dashboards that facilitate identifying issues such

as pending change requests and review approvals. Similarly, PT1A prefers an integrated

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delivery team that aligns around end-to-end solutions, not technologies. According to

PT1A, to realize the best result, the “project information should be updated within the

MS Project planning space, allowing the project to constantly be updated and

streamlined with the technical team’s tasks.”

Concerning risk management, the participants found the risk register helpful in

handling the risk management, i.e., mitigate, accept, transfer, or ignore the risk depending

on the circumstances through collaborative efforts. The participants concurred that there

is a need for solid leader-member relations for project success. These must extend off the

enablement tools that empower individuals to be productive without the need for hands-

on leadership, a tenant of the studies of both Fielder (1964) and Maqbool et al. (2017).

Still, PT3B and PT4C noted that leaders must present tasks clearly and with outlined

goals and procedures. Similarly, PT1A advocated using project charters and the five

stages of the project management life cycle reworked into a WBS - breaks down the

project into individual activities and assigns each activity with responsibilities, labor

intensity, and time demands.

Correlation With Recent Studies

Governments implement infrastructure projects and strategies to deliver projects,

despite their challenges. To be efficient in selecting projects, allocating efficient

resources, effective communication, and prudent leadership practices would be valuable

for delivering the desired project outcomes (Hyväri, 2016). The strategy employed by the

participants reinforced McAdam et al. (2019) study of the contingency theory and its

applicability for leaders to analyze management effectiveness to gain competitive

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advantage. Communicating the objectives of the projects while maintaining controls for

the project requirements are roles of project managers (Dyer et al., 2016). Still,

infrastructure projects require organizational strategy, driven by the executives in a

centralized way through sustainability for competitive advantage (Hyväri, 2016). A

unified entity like the project management office (PMO) will drive resource allocation,

stakeholders, sustainable initiatives, and the realization of end users' satisfaction

completion - a unit responsible for the project portfolio management.

Regardless of the methodology, allocating the right amount of time for planning

increases project outcomes in the long run. A good project plan offers benefits as

reducing uncertainty, increasing understanding, and improving efficiency. While the

project practitioners view the end users' as the ultimate project stakeholders, they treat the

outcomes as the critical success factor. The plans executed through others provide a basis

for measuring work planned against work performed (Wysocki, 2019). Consolidating a

customized process with a standardized project methodology may allow a comprehensive

solution for project management success. Besides, techniques have enhanced projects'

effectiveness, which has achieved project success concerning end users’ satisfaction

based on the prevailing contingency of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity

(VUCA) (Pace, 2019).

Researchers found that the appropriate procedures and templates to selected

processes would enhance the process implementation to maximize the project's outcomes,

aligned with the organization's goals and objectives (Kononenko & Lutsenko, 2018). Not

all the participated organizations have standardized project management processes.

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However, the successful practitioners found means to adopt new standardized strategies

into their project management process to improve effectiveness based on their project

training and experience. Kononenko and Lutsenko (2018) offered the benefits of

professional institutions and developing project practitioners' management of the

projects’ processes and procedures within various industries and project management

needs.

Culture drives the organization's commitment by establishing the underlying

behaviors and attitudes that push the day-to-day pursuits within the organization

(Hopkinson, 2017). While Reeves et al. (2018) found traits in the culture correlate with

success in each strategic approach, careful project development is essential for efficient

public investment in infrastructure. While all five participants shared the essential role of

risk management, organizations should build a culture that supports project risk

reporting. PT1A explained that project managers and team members are responsible for

developing effective risk plans and communicating the nature of the risk status with the

stakeholders. PT2B was very forceful in suggesting an alignment between the

organization's risk culture and risk management strategies, facilitating all stakeholders. A

robust risk management culture development positively impacts risk management when

used appropriately with project tools and techniques (Hillson & Murray-Webster, 2017;

PMI, 2017).

While proper implementation of project management processes is a critical

success factor, arguably, projects may find difficulties in achieving targets without

applying the PM tools and techniques (Hoxha, 2017). Similarly, observed from PT2B,

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but better advocated by PT4C, "irrespective of how you start, each program should

inform the other.” Such practices allow the project team to track progress, minimize

project constraints, and deliver end user's satisfaction. For PT1A, a significant constraint

is the absence of a dedicated operational strategy and associated mechanisms to manage

and oversee projects.

Active management and investment ensure that they can serve as effective

frameworks to facilitate and channel coordinated and collective efforts against common

goals, according to PT1A. The implication from the analyzed data suggests the

applicability of the resource-based management (RBM) approach — a concept with its

origin in the 1950s, Peter Drucker's management by objectives (MBO). RBM focuses on

the outcome rather than the output, essential for project fulfillment. Like MBO, RBM

combines project goals with responsibilities to the organization's objectives, facilitating

strategic fit to maximize outcomes. Its adoption as a strategy allows for better results for

project governance, according to Otundo-Richard and Langat (2019). While public sector

project performance is successful with RBM in developed countries, it is comparatively a

novel concept (Olufemi, 2016). According to Otundo-Richard and Langat (2019), the

developed countries are better at public project service delivery; the reason identified was

the use of RBM. Still, PT2B opined that "project managers must focus on operational and

tactical issues within the project lifecycle stages.” In contrast, strategic planners,

including executives and project policymakers, must initiate forward-looking strategies.

Implicitly, it suggested that operational initiatives and goals are for project teams'

work plans. Similarly, Sharma (2016) found that the PBM approach to be a critical

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integrative strategy. PT4C advocated a well-structured and adopted RBM strategy across

the project cycle to measure efficiencies. Unhindered globalization and its influence on

crowdsourcing and outsourcing, project practitioners are now required to tailor their

project management methodologies (PMI, 2017). Therefore, applying the best-

standardized processes will guide the project implementation and address the project's

parameters problems depending on the project outcomes, according to Kononenko and

Lutsenko (2018).

Alignment of Findings to Contingency Theory

Several researchers conformed to the central tenant of Fiedler's contingency

theory. Their ideas that open systems with external interactions (like construction

projects) can reach the same goal but from different initial positions that follow different

paths to fruition. The variabilities are because no one-size-fits-all approach would

provide a workable solution for project management (Maqbool et al., 2017; Miterev et

al., 2016). While Fiedler introduced the theory as a leadership effectiveness model, the

theory predicts higher management tools in organizations with goal clarity. Clear goals

with measured management processes and outcomes make it easier to apply the

management tools (George et al., 2019). Setting clear goals and managing each objective

is how PT4C explains project resource usage in each project phase, a workable approach

for managing by objective. In practice, the respondents were all comfortable with their

organization's management practice that supported the best fit for the project execution.

The government and the project executing team's management philosophy considered

the

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challenges and risk perspectives. The contingency theory predicts higher management

tools in organizations with clear goals (George et al., 2019).

Maqbool et al., 2017 used the contingency theory to describe a class that indicates

outcomes contingent on factors' prevailing variabilities. A similar classification was also

affirmed from the analyzed data. While the participants explained the need for projects to

be adaptable based on the prevailing circumstances, contingency lends credence to their

project practices, the ‘best fit’ for leadership effectiveness. The observed flexibility by

the practitioners concerning their organization’s management practice is an essential

couture strategy aligned to incorporate with the contingency theory. The participants

shared stories of how open meetings received supportive feedback. For PT5D, the

flexible application works with a management practice that evaluates each situation as

unique to those conditions. Therefore, a leader's effectiveness may depend on the

prevailing circumstances resulting in two factors: leadership style and situational control,

as opined in Saunders et al. (2015). Leadership challenges remain those conditions that

require adjustments for external environmental factors. Again, PT5D opined, “I will

conduct regular meetings for feedback and reflect on working arrangements, the

performance of all implementors, and areas of improvement.” The contingency theory

advocates aligning external conditions to better assist leaders in increasing their overall

organizational performance (McAdam et al., 2019). The practitioners' PT4C and PT5D

justified project management experience, which adds value to a customized process with

better structure, flexibility, and a more inclusive approach for their projects' fulfillment.

The contingency theory provided alternatives that helped design the portfolio better and

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better plan the information decision systems, especially for mega projects with

uncertainty and complexity. While projects' dynamism and required flexibility are based

on internal controllable variables (time scope and cost), the contingency approach

provides uncontrollable external environment variables.

Project success from the proposed business value is derived from the end-users

and measured from the process that created the benefit realized (Wysocki, 2019). The

analyzed data explains how project leaders need to exercise flexibility regarding project

leadership styles in their project management approaches. According to PT5D, flexibility

infers that project leaders must adopt management practices to accommodate the various

circumstances. Joslin and Müller (2016) describe them as project characteristics

consistent with the prevailing circumstances. Therefore, the challenges concerning the

project management plans and the choice of appropriate project management

methodology must be relative to the varying factors and circumstances that illustrate the

contingency theory's applicability.

Acknowledging the appropriate tools for managing construction and infrastructure

projects in complex environments, researchers explained the usefulness and how better

they are in assessing project success (Wali & Othman, 2019). To this end, numerous tools

were evident as proof of their use were cited by PT1A, PT2B, and PT3C. They displayed

several project dashboards with varying sensitivity analyses from anticipated external

variables, along with the associated risk probabilities. Matching charts with resource

allocation for project support were also perused, from which project continuity was

evident. The illustrations focused on maximizing project outcomes using those project

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management tools. In practice, some questions are better answered pictorially; they

affirm how and why project practitioners used contingency planning to mitigate

challenges concerning uncertainties (Queiros et al., 2017). The contingency theory is

suitable for solving organizational choice differences, design megaproject management

strategies and processes regarding the differences in the project contexts, and changing

environmental conditions (Wysocki, 2019).

Theme 4: Managing Public Project Processes with Information Communication

Technology Tools

The use of ICT in project management allows for new management. Information

communication technology applications seek to replace the laborious and time-

consuming tasks associated with the traditional method. Information communication

technology offers substantial flexibility in organizing capital and resource facilitation to

rapidly transfer accurate information (Joslin & Müller, 2016). The flexibility allows for

faster decision-making for implementation, resulting in quality improvements and timely

project completion. One influential factor in achieving the project’s goals aligned with

project outcomes is technology. Balancing and integrating the relationships among these

elements can result in optimum project performance. Information communication

technology helps improve the ability to represent and analyze the increasing variety of

activities in projects. Everyday activities are increasingly carried out through digitally

mediated interactions of complex activities.

While ICT will work as an input factor, effective communication is a function of

the fed information (factor input); as such, there remains the potential for inaccurate

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decision-making. Accordingly, PT2B established a strong communication plan in

collaboration with the aligned business strategies. Still, organization ‘B’ uses IT tools for

decision-making. PT3B from that organization opined, "I support business strategies with

enterprise resource planning (ERP) and electronic data interchange (EDI)." As more and

more organizations use technology to augment human skills, IT can help organizations

prioritize complex problem-solving procedures for continuous improvement (PMI 2021).

Technology is helpful in organizations' daily functions, and PT1A identified Microsoft

Project as applicable. In contrast, PT3B found useful ERP software programs that allow

data to communicate between the governments' departments and the project's internal

functions.

Organizations require clear communication with internal and external

stakeholders, so goals and objectives are understood among the parties (George et al.,

2019). Governments are now aligning their projects’ management with business strategy.

They have seen significant benefits concerning organizational goals, procedures, and

performance. While the new public service management model allows for business

management strategy application, its application in project management is growing.

According to Ferlie (2017), the new public service management model allows for

empowerment and active performance measurement, enticed by the contingency theory.

Those considered flexible organizations empower their people to make changes by

enabling them to master different working methods, becoming well-rounded

professionals with elevated power skills (PMI, 2021)

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PT1A identified the stakeholders’ analysis and matrix as helpful tools in

designing and implementing solutions throughout the project management process

whenever conditions change. While plans may fail primarily because of inefficient stage

gate reviews, they lack the feedback necessary to detect significant threats. Accordingly,

P2B explained that public projects linked to business strategy might better accomplish

organizational goals. Shenhar's strategic project leadership (SPL) framework identifies

the project management elements that organizations should align with business strategy,

including (a) project strategy, (b) spirit, (c) organization, (d) project processes, and (e)

tools, all of which are synonymous with PT1A’s contention.

Contrastingly, PT3B advocated the balanced scorecard model, a performance

management system that balances the project's short and long-term business objectives. A

strategic management tool that evaluates financial and non-financial and internal and

external variables determine the organization's effectiveness and determine when

corrective actions are necessary. According to PT2B, the balanced scorecard was most

suitable because of its feedback mechanism concerning the internal business processes

and external outcomes and the continuous improvement of strategic performance and

results. ICT has provided projects with the tools and techniques to enhance mathematical

modeling for dashboard illustration of the Gantt chart, logic network, pert chart, product

breakdown structure (PBS). The critical path is an extension of the PRET approach of

algorithms for scheduling project activities. A project's required course represents the

most extended sequential project activities for completion. It determines the project's

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total duration, milestones, deadlines, and necessary actions for timely completion as

practiced by PT1, PT3B, and PT4C.

Correlation With Recent Studies

ICT adoption has been considered from many different theoretical perspectives to

understand “why and how” organizations and people adopt ICT tools. One of the most

significant challenges in the traditional public sector is the time lag between inception,

implementation, and the possible outcomes. In consideration of the unpredictable nature

of today's complex environment, the contingency theory is applicable. According to

Joslin and Müller (2015), the contingency approach as a theoretical perspective was used

as a model to introduce a new project management methodology in project organizations

using ICT software. They were specifically for those organizations faced with

environmental contingency factors impacting the outcomes. Some organizations have

transitioned project management practice from traditional to Agile governance. PT1A

offered a practical example of applying changes aligned to the specific environmental

context that factored each software project organization similar to Joslin and Müller

(2015). Projects of various sizes and types must tailor their procedures to satisfy the

varying project sizes and types.

Although agile allows for a breakdown of risk into manageable chunks for rapid

iterative implementation, employees have found IT processes easily adaptable because of

the changing dynamism in the external environment (Haddad & Taleb, 2016). The

transitional process itself is affected by external and internal contingency factors. Their

analysis offered a more precise picture of the effects of changing project methodology

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(Joslin & Müller 2015). Besides, a project's required course represents the most extended

sequential project activities for completion, determining the project's total duration,

milestones, deadlines, and necessary actions for timely completion. The critical path

analysis is an extension of the PERT approach of algorithms for scheduling project

activities.

Despite how the strategies are connected, the fundamental questions related to

“why and when” the strategies are needed. Besides, how to communicate through the IoT

technologies and “what” new values they can bring to enhance PM disciplines and

environments (Ghosh et al., 2018). The confluence of new technology such as the internet

of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and even disruptive technologies are tools for

adoption. Wu et al. (2018) considered the life cycle of mega infrastructure projects; they

emphasized the current developments and future directions of new models using

computational algorithms. While project challenges through globalization are akin to the

increasing role of complexity, AI and IoT advancement will provide new solutions, tools,

and support to project managers' implementation of PM disciplines within the changing

environments.

The re-engineering IT collaboration process aids in the transformation of project

outcomes (OECD, 2017b). Organizations must consider being flexible to empower their

people to make changes by enabling them to master different working methods and

become well-rounded professionals with elevated power skills (PMI, 2021). Chatman et

al. (2014) found that employees were generally willing to adapt to technological changes.

Similarly, PT4C opined that those specialized ICT tools had improved performance,

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especially in stable and structured workplace culture. Participants PT4 C & PT2B

explained their project's smooth working processes and shared documentation supporting

their success. Culture shapes organizations' decisions and guides action, which drives

individual behavior. A lack of cultural awareness may restrict project managers' actions

based on their members' experiences, creating a unique organization's culture (PMI,

2017). PT2B spoke of team members being younger engineers who were very computer

savvy, illustrating their willingness to work with the new and emerging ICT changes.

Whatever the model, the emphasized focus must be on business problems and their

impact on success. According to PT4C, a typical mistake is to focus on the IT concepts

such as machine learning or linear regressions. Applying linear regression may predict

how the business will perform; such practice tools are acceptable technologies. The

focus, therefore, must remain on the underlying business challenges that need solving.

Similarly, PT2B advocated, like Waheed (2016), that project management recognition

comes from the authorized body- PMI, hence the need for PMBOK and its subsequent

editions.

The most ordinarily selected tool for the Waterfall model is the Gantt chart that

visualizes subtasks, dependencies, and project stages as it progresses through the project

life cycle. The participants underscored the application in practice from the interview,

and PT2B explained how agile project management technologies, e.g., Scrum, allow for

scope expansion as the project progresses. PT3B describes the agile approach as tailored

for the IT project environment. PT2B found applicable IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) as

a practical framework for implementing project processes. For example, PT2B opined

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that service requests and incident management provided data-driven decision-making that

efficiently operated with technology. In comparison, researchers found that seasoned

practitioners were effective with tools, techniques, and processes to align projects

successfully (Floricel et al., 2016): Rendering a timely and efficient project completion.

Early IT adoption presents agility for up-to-date feedback of what does as against

what does not. Throughout project implementation, the IT adoption is so that government

officials can quickly build upon successes and learn from the little challenges. PT1A

contended that documentation support must be accompanied by technical resources or

agile project management techniques with less comprehensive reporting requirements for

adoption. Employees with high self-efficacy perform better and are more persistent in

task completion, developed through information technology, a suitable tool for

adaptation amid complexities (OECD, 2017b). PT5D contended that IT provides sound

reinforcement through training. The training skills obtained are shown in employees with

high self-efficacy who perform better, are more persistent, and exert better task

completion, according to PT1A.

Alignment of Findings to Contingency Theory

The contingency theory explains organizational behavior based on contingent

factors – with the best potential fit connecting the organization, its environment, and the

diverse sub-systems. According to Joslin and Müller (2016), the best use of the

contingency approach is to correct low success rates by optimizing project planning and

control. Interestingly, a dated but seminal study found that some performance tools were

no longer entirely relevant. For example, in 25% of the examined projects, Khazanchi

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(2005) found only three areas were held helpful throughout the project cycle:

communication, stakeholder management, and integration, all qualitative and behavioral.

Further, studies showed that organizations experience limitations in their PMMs,

whether in-house or off-the-shelf solutions. However, the organization’s business

strategy drives the PPM’s method, especially with innovation (Armenia et al., 2019;

Berggren, 2019). In applying the project management methodology (PPM), a partial

application can dictate the use of a subset of an already established PMM. While other

elements are not PPM-related, their application may suffice in achieving the desired

project outcomes amid uncertainty (Qazi et al., 2020). For PT1A, PRINCE2 and other

methodologies are regularly monitored by their respective governing mechanisms and

donor partners, supplemented by Agile-Scrum methodology when and where required.

According to PT1A, “The hybrid methodology allows for a flexible framework that can

readily be tailored to any project type or size, associated with the work environment, and

finalized within an agreed-on timeline.” Understanding the governance paradigm and

considering what may give rise to the evolution of the organization's PMM - may

provide insights to the program or project portfolio manager concerning the project

management skills, especially the experience required for a successful project outcome

(Joslin & Müller, 2016). Because projects are novel by definition, project managers must

tailor their project processes to accommodate the projects' outcomes for alignment with

organizational objectives.

The contingency approach advocates no single correct method of doing things;

instead, it decides the best solution, demanding a different approach for every exogenous

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situation: Volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) (Pace, 2019). Since

the best way to organize depends on the nature of the environment, the contingency

theory must demonstrate the management needs for project organizations. Standardized

and formalize management tools are considered more efficient, according to George et

al. (2019). Burns and Stalker (1961) brought attention to one crucial perspective of

standardization within organizations' need for clear goals. For PT3B, when goals are

clear in communication, they lead to calculable outcomes relative to those goals. In turn,

it presents easier use of the management tools geared toward goal formulation and

implementation. Accordingly, PT1A suggested developing a public website to map the

location and track the project progress, providing transparency and accountability in

promoting the results' visibility.

The contingency theory establishes an inherent linkage between projects (that are

unique and naturally unpredictable) and the contingency theory (advocates a unique

approach to conditions). While the participants' necessity of having a standardized

framework for projects arises, they agreed that the standard project structure requires the

deliverables to be well defined within the project cycle phase. For example, PT5 found

that having measurable outcomes in his project was related to a higher uptake of

performance measurement tools. According to Khazanchi (2005), the contingency

approach facilitates organizational performance through standardization and

formalization for efficiency and scale advantages using ICT tools. Besides, the chosen

framework should be flexible in sustaining the work with minimum bureaucracy. The

phrase “administrative delays” was used to illustrate the challenges of a bureaucratic

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framework. PT2B opined that the process requires a match between the environmental

characteristics and those of the organization for project success. This match in the

contingency approach is called the “fit”; the better the fit, the higher the performance.

Therefore, a perfect and workable match is in the use of the contingency theory.

Applications to Professional Practice

Despite the adoption and application of modern project management

methodologies, techniques, and tools by public project leaders and practitioners for

project implementation, infrastructure and construction projects are still failing at an

alarming rate (Aljohani et al., 2017). The findings and recommendations conferred in this

study, berthed on the vast body of project management knowledge from experienced

practitioners, may become the strategic impetus for PSIP management. Public sector

practitioners, project executives, and policymakers can strengthen their project

management practices and policies, ultimately maximizing their project management

performance. Improved project management performance can also enable a higher level

of benefits realization through end users' satisfaction, measured against the improved

citizens' living standards. According to Kiehne et al. (2017), improved project

performance creates a competitive advantage that drives organizational business success.

Besides, successful project fulfillment may also lead to higher returns on investment -

measured in the end users' satisfaction for governments. The return on investment must

improve Calderon et al.'s 10% investment findings, which only yield one percentage on

the returned investment.

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Trevor and Varcoe (2016) discussed a unique method for testing organizational

alignment. The researchers found two practical holistic perspectives - the strategic

support for the fulfillment of the organization's purpose, and the organization supports

the achievement of the business strategy. The plotted answers formed a matrix across the

four quadrants that posed a distinct leadership challenge—volatility, uncertainty,

complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA). In addition, the identified external variables have

been questionable in practice and rendered some of PMI's tools and techniques

problematic and, in some instances, inadequate, according to Cristóbal et al. (2018). The

focus is two-prong, managing the iron triangle deliverables and simultaneously aligning

the outcomes for societal benefits, representing a culture change for the government's

provision of public services. The strategy’s success may be achieved through effective

benefits identification, realization, and management by implementing or enhancing a

benefits realization program.

However, complementing the tools and techniques can blend the organization‘s

intent with the end users' maturing benefits realization (PMI, 2017). New technology and

advanced mathematical computation improved megaprojects construction, according to

Wu et al. (2018). As more devices, mathematical modeling, and information technology

become available, citizen satisfaction will improve from maturing benefit realization. In

addition, the appropriateness of the application will improve project fulfillment,

rendering a quick resolution to the anticipated problems concerning project alignment

with organizations' strategies (Joslin & Müller, 2016). While sufficient buy-in from

stakeholders, particularly the government, may maximize projects' outcomes. The buy-in

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allows for preventative actions where necessary or remedial measures require

government executives to intervene and correct projects that stray from their intended

baselines during execution (Khan, Memon, & Ahmad, 2019).

In practice, a seemingly popular mapping tool is the balanced scorecard: A robust

control framework that measures performance from both a financial and non-financial

standpoint presenting a balanced view of the internal business processes, along with

financial and learning, coupled with customer satisfaction growth (Singh & Sethi, 2017).

The fundamental questions in project execution concern the projects' milestones and

deliverables and the expectation of their realization. What is needed is a management

system that can look backward and forward (with leading and lagging indicators). The

existing measurement indications of performance are not sufficient. Still, they must

predict tomorrow's performance by demonstrating how spending on strategic projects

today will improve future impact (Singh & Sethi, 2017). The Balanced Scorecard is the

closest management tool to suffice for that "crystal ball" approach.

Implications for Social Change

Organizational leaders can create positive social change from the shared value

that derives socio-economic benefits. While citizens generally do not thoroughly examine

their governments' fiscal expenditures, the result is that government gets a free pass on

their capital expenditure. Therefore, project misalignment will affect those other

businesses with strategies linked to completing the public project. A project may create

value when its satisfaction is derived socially and environmentally, bringing positive

social change by achieving allocative efficiency in a welfare sense to society (Santhosh

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Baral, 2015). The community's influence will modify the project portfolio to enhance

living standards and cultural changes across those individuals' lives (Greenfield, 2018).

According to Stephan et al. (2016), positive social change is a transformational means of

developing society's well-being. The realization of its social impact is at the citizen user

experience of the public sector investment benefits. Information concerning the

government’s proposed investment with expected outcomes should be disclosed for

public scrutiny to improve transparency and accountability.

The positive social impact from effective strategy alignment can be attributed to

improved PSIP's organizational performance, hence, the communities' infrastructural

development and economic development. The enhanced project performance will

positively influence the growth in the country's GDP. The effect is that government

would see a reduction in wasteful expenditure of the taxpayers' money. In addition, the

success of public investments increases productivity in the other sectors with the

appropriate linked investments, supporting long-term economic growth with higher

benefit realization for citizens. The collective improvement in organizations contributes

to the national economy and enhances the country's GDP performance.

Given the unique challenges public investment faces, finding the balance for a

functional alignment relationship between government strategy and successful project

outcomes may provide new critical success factors for public sector investments. More

importantly, there are often competing interests with governments' strategy management

approach for resources at the national sectoral levels, hence the need to be prudent. The

social change may create a new project management model with implications through the

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project management office. Such an office supports a unified project portfolio

management practice; attaining higher project maturity levels improve project success

rates in complex environments. According to Christoph and Spang (2014), the projects'

complexity determines the "ideal" level of maturity modeling.

Recommendations for Action

The findings of this study may serve well for those government ministries and

agencies whose project policymakers and project executives are involved in PSIPs. In

addition, project executives and managers encountering poor project infrastructure

execution would find these findings helpful in understanding likely gaps or deficiencies

in the system. The strategies to remedy challenges in public infrastructure project lies in

the governance mechanisms to gain project fulfillment. It requires the development of a

new and different project management path for improved project performance. From the

findings and conclusions, I propose the following recommendations.

An organized and phased approach will support linkages in significant

infrastructure investment through the government's quest for economic growth and

development. A scattergun approach to investment may result in expensive infrastructure

with few benefits. Holistically, the government should create an overall framework for its

capital investments, perhaps a national infrastructure strategy. The project cycle

management unit at the Ministry of Finance may become more active in coordinating

public investment in line with a national strategy. Besides, a national infrastructure

development (NDP) strategy will be helpful, which identifies the next stage in

infrastructure investment. A multi-year investment plan can form the primary tool for

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determining the country's public investment. Monitoring the NDP's objectives will

require a dedicated information system that keeps track of the projects' lifecycle and

requires the use of performance-based budgeting (PBB). In comparison, PT3B suggested

the mechanism “aligning goals and subordinate objectives throughout the organization to

increase organizational performance.” Those initiatives will help the government’s

agencies identify and highlight policy changes required to encourage project fulfillment.

Projects’ success in the traditional sense is to achieve targets with planned

objectives, reviewed from the iron triangle (cost, time, and scope) and measured from the

project closeout report. However, those variables only account for 60% of a project's

success, according to Serrador and Turner (2015). The project's benefits are the

responsibility of the project managers. A recommendation is for managers to establish a

mechanism for managing these benefits through benefit registers, benefits realization

plans, KPIs, and lessons learned from the closeout reports. While PMI tools may pose

limitations, a helpful technique is to blend the tools with societal satisfaction, which helps

determine project maturity's benefits. In addition, practitioners must ensure adaptive

procedures for critical issues at the work breakdown structure level. The adaptive

procedures include reviewing the historical project data, lessons learned, and analysis of

the project environment using appropriate management analysis tools.

Public sector project managers should pay more attention to complexities,

especially those affecting megaprojects. As Böhle et al. found, a new way to deal with

uncertainty and complexity in projects. The researchers observed that it requires a

fundamental re-orientation of ICT tools in project management. A requirement that

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allows project practitioners to adopt software tools that positively impact project

completion. While some of the projects' consultants and contractors might lack the scale

to invest in artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning solutions, they can still sort

data by spreadsheets. The use of AI is an exciting prospect for megaprojects’

management, especially in the decision support management for "Big Data." Through

planning and delivery, project teams, quality, risk, and knowledge and resource

management, AI involvement in projects through planning and delivery may help predict

future outcomes (Ong & Uddin, 2020). As more devices and technologies become

available, the application's appropriateness will improve project fulfillment. Using project

management tools effectively offers ways to track progress and manage time for

successful projects. For example, project managers generally use a technique like the

PERT, whose method helps calculate the timeline throughout project scoping. The latest

tools and planning techniques, software, and risk management measures are excellent

recommendations.

The empirical literature on achieving alignment is developing; it can be described

in its current form as scanty (Zolfaghari et al., 2017). Therefore, organizations are

required to give more attention to strategically increasing these benefits from applying

ICT. While risk mitigation can significantly improve with ICT tools, technology-related

benefits have high driving power, with strategic benefits for the project team. According

to the respondents, the current approaches tend to be narrow. At the same time, the

general focus has been more technique as ICT has not always worked well in project

practice. The challenge suggests that the conventional system has done well for more

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senior and seasoned practitioners, averse to formal project management methodology.

My recommendation is for the necessary application of IT training for project

practitioners using ICT tools.

Considering complexity and uncertainty with PMBOK techniques tailored to

public sector employers is instructive. The benefits of ICT adoption for infrastructure

project management requires a developed model to form an essential component of the

benefits management plan, leading to the strategic adoption of ICT. Boonstra and

Reezigt (2019) illustrated a practical use that derived benefits from a front-end

application. Their model allowed for identifying an objective approach that measures the

degree of complexity and predictability by assessing its internal and external context at

the front- end of operations. This recommended model may help project practitioners

understand and evaluate project designs based on a thorough pre-studied appraisal. The

recommendation is a practice that is more likely to succeed against a less systematic

analysis of reality. The general idea behind megaprojects implementations is geared

strategically towards sustainability and development, linking other sectors for citizens'

satisfaction. They must be successful in operational terms, achieved mostly when the

projects underwent up-front/ frontend external quality assurance (Volden & Samset,

2017).

An excellent recommendation for action is closing the project management

capacity gap for megaprojects before making such investment decisions. The level of

experience will ensure that the project practitioners possess the attitude that warrants

megaproject success. Again, training is helpful and mandatory. The prevailing view of

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project management is morphing continually in response to the changing demands and

developing technology, which holds the future topography of project management.

Bridging the knowledge gap for the increasingly sophisticated applications of technology

will help to streamline current industry-standard procedures.

Business organizations tend to have more projects than program portfolios, and

projects are managed by an enterprise project management office (EPMO), according to

Hyväri (2016). In contrast, governments must recognize that they have a significant

number of programs. Therefore, like the business management model that uses EPMO,

governments can create program portfolios by establishing a program management office

(PMO). An organization's long-term directional changes should reflect the planning

strategy through a project planning office. Nevertheless, in a conducted PMI survey, less

than half of the organizations have EPMO's. Nevertheless, only 44% of those EPMOs

had aligned organizational strategies (PMI, 2016).

Even though projects are the basic building blocks of a country's infrastructural

development, they are often perceived as government processes and not functional. It

makes the project management/government strategy alignment even more difficult.

Effective strategic alignment provides checks and balances in each phase of the project

cycle. A recommendation is for the stage-gate approach similarly advocated by Volden

and Andersen (2018). A practical consideration is a hierarchical system that explains the

relationship between the PSIP using a three-stage model: The cabinet for policy direction,

the sectoral ministries to facilitate the policy, and the executing agency to deliver the

project, as per the findings of Volden and Andersen (2018).

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The findings of Wang et al. (2018) provided practical recommendations for

strategic alignment. PMBOK aims to support project managers in their project objectives

by aligning them with the organization's strategic plans. PMBOK assumes that project

managers may identify patterns and generalizations throughout their projects (PMI,

2017). The assumption is not a stand-alone approach but one accompanied by a project

management office (PMO), as against what currently obtains - project execution units

(PEU) for individual projects. The PMO holds significant knowledge management that

may help align and focus on achieving its citizen's government vision. The PMO’s in

their centralized function operates at the strategic level as the intermediary between the

executive and the project management. By carefully considering its portfolio, the

effectiveness is measured by mapping a direct line back to the overall government

performance's success. Projects managed from a portfolio basis had 27% more successful

projects, while 42% fewer projects were without scope creep (PMI, 2017). While

portfolio management focuses on achieving organizational strategy objectives, measured

by the investment realization that benefits the end-users. Each project (component) of a

Portfolio must be viable, with clearly stated measurable benefits; they must be

quantifiable and linked to the government's objectives. With taxpayers frequently

demanding a reduction in wasteful spending, public investments expenditure is under

growing immense public scrutiny (PricewaterhouseCooper, 2017). It would help identify

and gather the projects that will yield the most valuable benefits for achieving project

outcomes according to the political objectives. The recommendation is to create a project

management office (PMO), the agency responsible for all programs and norms to develop

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the project management principles for all public sector investments. The PMO will seek

to avoid an imbalance between all governmental programs, to establish a prioritization

system (strategic level) and the project management unit (strategic and tactical),

according to Hyväri (2016). Indeed, office development will help improve project

management maturity and project management culture in society.

In business practice, the consideration of international standardization is the ISO

standards, which support all businesses and their global coordination to avoid abuses.

Similarly, project management also has guidance in PMBOK 6th edition, among others,

for standardization in project management (Ferrell & Ferrell, 2016). The contingency

perspective helps achieve efficiency through formalization and standardization. It

efficiently maximizes projects ' outcomes when blended with the management tools

(George et al., 2019). While the more critical factor for the project's success is the

incompleteness of PMM concerning the project's efficiency and quality, project

managers would need to tailor project-specific methodologies (Joslin & Müller, 2015).

The strategic importance of resources and capacity for competitive advantages occurs

when the parties integrate into a structured approach. The recommendation, therefore, is

for the governments' project executing agencies to consider developing a full format or a

template for project scope development before project implementation. It starts with a

concept note that enables the creation of the project charter - a document that considers

the following details to include; (a) the justifications for the project, (b) the project

objectives, (c) time, cost, and schedule, (d) critical milestones with deliverables, (e)

acceptance criteria, (f) constraints, and assumptions, (g) potential issues or risks, and (h)

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organizational requirements and resources. Project managers must continue seeking

personal development to maximize their project management skills and adapt alignment

strategies from the study findings'.

Over the years, professional institutions developed several project management

processes and procedures for application in various industries and project management

needs (Kononenko & Lutsenko, 2018). The recommendation would involve integrating

the project management processes into every stage of the project's process life cycle to

yield sustainable management practice. Such effort will allow the project life cycle's

efficiency to influence all the standard project management procedures concerning time,

cost, quality, and project risk against the external environment. Armenia et al. (2019)

identified five critical factors that help in the practice of project management

sustainability; an approach I will also recommend for project practitioners (a) corporate

policies and procedures, (b) resource management, (c) life cycle orientation, (d)

stakeholders' engagement, and (e) organizational learning.

Besides bilateral and multilateral financing, governments’ fiscal policy (taxation)

is the primary source of public investment. Empirically, the influence of quality and

efficiency in public investment spending concerning productivity and economic growth

was considered by Calderon et al. (2015). While the new public management model

forces public administrators to accept the responsibility of serving citizens by acting as

stewards of public resources embracing effective decision-making through

accountabilities enhances project success (Joslin & Müller, 2016). As a recommendation,

the anticipated increase in government revenue from the exploits of oil and gas should be

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accompanied immediately by a comprehensive public investment plan aligned with the

other sectors' development. The uncertainty about COVID-19 has dampened private

investment; public investment can encourage investment plans that might otherwise be

postponed. Ascertaining linkages in the country’s development drive is the reason for the

recommendation.

Walden University's scholarly works will be the home for this study. It will

provide a mechanism that enables scholars and students interested in government

strategic alignment in project management practices to access the study findings.

Besides, I will share this study's results with the government (Ministries of Public Works

and Finance), the participants, project practitioners, and any other interested parties

through various means, including but not limited to publications, professional journals,

scholarly literature, seminars, conferences, and training programs.

Recommendations for Further Research

Advocates suggested reconsidering the research streams considering Morris'

management for project framework to adapt and maintain better alignment (Pinto &

Winch (2016). Researchers are now promoting the stage-gates approach to understand

better public project governance and strategy alignment (Volden & Andersen, 2018).

Further strides concerning alignment were evident in the autonomy phase of the project

lifecycle to the exclusion of the other two, cascading and autonomy (Zolfaghari et al.,

2019). Therefore, considering governments’ upfront roles in determining project

portfolios, the allocation phase is worthy of future research since it seeks to mitigate the

challenges of complexity and uncertainty. While my study provides a contemporary

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approach to the alignment of government strategy with project outcomes, the findings,

along with Volden and Andersen's stage-gate practice, can be integrated to determine

higher benefits realization maturity in future research.

According to Khan, Memon, and Ahmad (2019), organizations with greater

maturity modeling could provide a roadmap to a higher maturity level. While the study

only accounted for four organizations, the lack of random selection in the chosen

participants may potentially pose validity issues due to possible selection bias. Future

researchers must consider a more countrywide comprehensive array of successful

projects delivered by broader perspectives and experienced project managers coupled

with varying and incremental government strategies. They will better explain public

investment projects' outcome alignment with government strategies.

Reflections

Although dated, I found exciting the seminal works of Adeyemi and Idoko

(2008). The researchers offered a perspective that accurately explains the dilemma faced

by developing countries concerning public infrastructure projects. The challenges were

all rooted within the iron triangle concept of time, scope, and budgetary allocation. To

date, those challenges have not subsided but instead compounded with external variables

of complexity and uncertainty, which continues the misalignments in stakeholders'

expectations (Khan, Memon, & Ahmad, 2019). While my study offers a fresh and

contemporary perspective of how strategic alignment can maximize project outcomes.

The realization is that project practitioners find tools and techniques used in management

to maximize project success, especially in complexity and uncertainty. The external

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organizational environment has become more complex and needs other considerations

besides the "iron triangle" concept for project success. Those reflections are based on the

notion that governments generally take on multiple mega projects whenever they have

more fiscal space (GDP). The advent of Guyana's newfound oil and gas-energy sector has

created a more significant consideration for my curiosity, given its effect on an increasing

GDP.

While revenue growth positively correlates with citizens' pressure to improve

government services, those projects must also create linkages in the private sector. A

developed and supported private sector is quite impactful for a country's socio-economic

and environmental sustainability. I also realized that most project management

participants are foremost engineers, with some project management training (PMI

certified). The conducted study environment allowed the respondents to express

themselves freely, which enabled me to understand the strategies project managers use to

gain alignment. The study findings changed my personal biases and preconceived

thoughts and values of public project managers' approaches to aligning project outcomes

with governments' strategies to maximized project performance. I have gained knowledge

and understanding from the expert practitioners, and the interactions improved my

communication and interpersonal skills.

For those reasons, strategic alignment of projects and their evaluation and

selection process becomes more complicated, requiring more updated analytical and

managerial skills and models than those previously used. The findings provided an in-

depth understanding of the research question in developing multiple methods to align

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project outcomes with government strategies to maximize project performance. On

reflection, the experience provided me a better understanding and appreciation of the

research process, which positively changed my personal biases and preconceived

opinions.

Conducting the doctoral pursuit, particularly the literature review, has improved

my understanding and knowledge of academic research work, critical thinking, problem-

solving approaches. Initially, I learned that students tend to overthink the APA style of

writing, leading to mental blocks (Van Note Chism & Weerakoon, 2012). Instead of

focusing on the style that can create a phobia, I found that early adoption provided

success. Besides, the APA publication manual spells out the requirements, which I

habitually followed to instill guidelines for scholarly writing.

Conclusion

The qualitative multiple case study explored effective strategies that public sector

project managers used to align the project outcomes with government strategies to

maximized project performance. The research method employed was a semistructured

interview. The five participants came from a specified population group of public sector

project managers who successfully aligned their projects' outcomes with government

strategies and worked for four project-based units within the geographic administrative

region of Demerara/Mahaica (Region 4) Guyana. Member checking, a qualitative

researcher's technique, enhanced data collection evidence that determined the study's data

validity and saturation (Saunders et al., 2015; Yin, 2018). Research has established that

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an aligned project is one in which at least 80% of its expected outcomes were aligned

with the organization's strategy (PMI, 2017).

In addition to the contingency theory as the conceptual framework which helped

in understanding the context of the research and through the research question; four

themes emerged from the analyzed data on public project governance, concerning their

aligned outcomes with government strategies to maximized project performance: (a)

Government/ executive commitment and support for the project teams, (b) efficient

project management skills, (c) aligning national strategy with project processes, (d)

managing public project processes with ICT tools.

Additionally, using government strategies will incorporate feasibility analysis,

design, appraisal, approval, organization, operation, control, evaluation, and follow-up.

Throughout a project cycle, skilled managerial functions become the project managers'

thrust to realize the projects' outcomes align with government strategies to maximize

project success. Project managers may consider a register for risk lessons learned after

closing each risk management process phase. By doing so, future project managers would

gain more knowledge on what was successful or not.

The study's findings could conceivably add to public sector project practice and

may undoubtedly inspire social change. As government sectors compete for fiscal

expenditure, project management alignment can ensure purposefully measured public

spending- the gains from the investment return. Faced with continuous public scrutiny

enabled by digital technology- the government needs a clear mission to analyze their

portfolios to ensure aligned with their strategies. The PMOs pursue alignment and

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maximized project success performance, creating end users’ benefits while improving

other citizen's support services that may boost governance.

Managing Strategies for the Fulfillment of Public Investment Initiatives in Guyana

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